LF: The Government Allowed the Bombing of Pearl Harbor

Theory: There a many people that believe that the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was allowed to happen by the U.S. government, and specifically, President Franklin Roosevelt. But why what the United States government do such a thing? Conspiracy theorists believe that it was just the motive the USA needed to declare war on Japan and enter World War II, which Congress had previously been against. Theorists believe that the US was warned by the governments of Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, Korea and the Soviet Union that Japan was planning an attack on US soil.

Facts: On the evening of December 6, 1941 United States military officials intercepted a message from the Japanese that said “higashi no kaze ame” which means “east wind, rain”. The military had already cracked the code of the Japanese and knew that this term referred to war with the United States. What’s unclear about the message is if it was ever properly relayed through the appropriate channels up to the President. Conspiracy theorists believe that President Roosevelt did receive this message, knew that it meant impending war with the United States, and that he then did nothing. He had previously campaigned for entry into World War II and both Congress and the public were against it; but if there was an attack on American soil, the opinion of the public and Congress would quickly change.

Within a week of the December 7^th attack on Pearl Harbor, a committee was formed to investigate the event. The committee followed the intercepted message through many channels but then it dead ends. It’s unknown whether the message reached the President and he in fact did nothing on purpose, or if the message was overlooked or disregarded before it had time to reach the president. Marshall and Stark, supreme commanders in the U.S. Army, testified that the message was disregarded because so many messages came through about the Japanese that another one would only confuse them. Two commanding officers were even forced to retire and subject to public ridicule for overlooking the message that forwarded of the attack. Many commanding officers who recall seeing the message on that night in 1941 have since recanted their testimony to the commission saying that their memories of the message and its ultimate destination are hazy.

Unanswered Questions: Three days before the attack on Pearl Harbor Australian Intelligence purportedly spotted the Japanese fleet of aircraft carriers headed for Hawaii and warned Washington. Whether the aircraft were actually seen by Australian Intelligence, whether the information was relayed, and whether or not it reached the president is not known. A British double agent also supposedly learned of the intentions of the Japanese and warned Washington, to no avail. Because so many intelligence documents are classified top secret, the exact details of the events leading up to Pearl Harbor is not known.

Ideas: It was widely believed that President Roosevelt wanted to enter World War II and send soldiers to Europe. So why would an attack by the Japanese give Roosevelt the opportunity to go to war with Germany? At that time Germany, Italy and Japan were involved in the Tripartite Pact, in which one of these countries was to aid another in defense. Therefore, war with Japan also meant war with Germany, and so America enters into World War II.

Conspire.com Judgment: Undetermined. Whether FDR had advance knowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor cannot be determined at this time. Too many documents have been destroyed and damaged since the original attack, and some are still unreleased. For the sake of the more than 2,300 servicemen who lost their lives in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, we hope there wasn’t advance knowledge that could have saved their lives. That being said, American entrance into World War II came not a moment too soon as Germany had already had control of nearly all of Western Europe since 1939. If America hadn’t fought with the Allies in the war, it would only have been a matter of time before Hitler set his target for North America, bringing the war and devastation with him.