Did Franklin Roosevelt Know Pearl Harbor Was Going To Be Attacked? Essay, Research Paper

Did President Franklin Roosevelt know Pearl Harbor was going

to be attacked? On December 7, 1941 the United States of America

was attacked at the naval base in Pearl Harbor by the Empire of

Japan. It was a day considered by President Roosevelt to live in

infamy. Pearl Harbor was the home to a large part of the United

States aircraft carrier fleet. It was definitely an intriguing

attack site for Japan to hit. The attack was an obvious surprise

to everyone living in the area of Pearl Harbor and the United

States. Journalist Clarke Beach of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin

said this 3 months before the attack, “A Japanese attack on

Hawaii is regarded as the most unlikely thing in the world, with

one chance in a million of being successful” (Lord 33) Beach and

everyone else in the country would have no idea that they would

lose thousands of lives in what was an incident that was thought

to never happen. The United States was now united in a obvious

decision to enter World War II. The question about this day that

still remains is did our own President have information that this

attack was going to happen. Did he let the attack happen because

he believed from the start of World War II that the United States

should have entered it then? This paper will explore the

possibilities that President Franklin Roosevelt had knowledge

before hand that Japan was planning an attack on Pearl Harbor or

that he had no involvement what so ever in the sneak attack.

When considering whether or not President Roosevelt knew

that Japan was going to attack Pearl Harbor, you have to consider

his viewpoint on entering World War II. Many people that

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criticized Roosevelt believed that there was a large burden put

on the should of the President of whether or not to enter the

war. People believe that he knew far more about Japanese

intentions then he let on. The main reason for the speculation of

Franklin Roosevelt knowing about the attack was that this would

create such crisis that the United States would have no choice

but to enter the war.

The people that have the strongest belief of conspiracy by

President Roosevelt are the people that are considered

isolationists. Isolationists are people that don’t believe in

going into war unless absolutely necessary. People like this

including two isolationist senators, like Homer Ferguson and Owen

Brewster believed that Roosevelt knew about the attack. One of

their main points for believing so was that Roosevelt ordered

part of the fleet from Pearl Harbor to the Atlantic right before

the attack (Bachrach 34). They said that Japan had now the chance

to look at Pearl Harbor as a very weak naval base that could be

easily attacked. Roosevelt should have expected the attack

because he had just broken off peace talks with Japan and should

have realized they might try something.

Another man that agreed with the isolationist senators was

writer John T. Flynn. He wrote a pamphlet called “The Truth About

Pearl Harbor,” that charged President Roosevelt with holding back

evidence and being ignorant (Flynn 71) He believed that Roosevelt

knew well before hand that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked

and that he misjudged just how bad the American ability to fight

back that day would be. Flynn claimed to have secret information

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that would implicate President Roosevelt in the attack on Pearl

Harbor. The information was never allowed by the government to be

publicly released. Instead the U.S Government critiqued and .

changed around the information to their advantage and was finally

released. President Roosevelt was never once incriminated by

these reports in a so-called coverup.

Possibly the man that gave Roosevelt the hardest criticism

was historian Harry Elmer Barnes. He believed that President

Roosevelt was reading secret messages sent by the Japanese and

that he had an idea the United States might be attacked at

anytime at Pearl Harbor. Barnes believes he withheld the

information so that the attack would shut the isolationists up

and also give the U.S. a reason for entering World War II. Barnes

remembers when Roosevelt once said, “I fell like I am almost

literally walking on eggs” (Barnes 81). Secretary of State

Cordell Hull said in reply to this statement, “the question was

how we should maneuver the Japanese into firing the first shot

without allowing too much damage to ourselves” (Barnes 82). This

posses the question was President Roosevelt making a plan that

would somehow include Pearl Harbor as a means of getting the U.S.

into the war.

One of the most highly believed reasons for the questions of

President Roosevelt knew about the attack was his whether

relationship with British prime minister, Winston Churchill. The

two leaders shared similar beliefs in the issues of the war,

making them perfect allies. Churchill nearly begged Roosevelt for

his intervention into World War II on the side of the British.

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The theory made by most skeptics of Roosevelt is that he and

Churchill made a separate agreement at one point in time. The

agreement was that the United States would enter the war on the

side of the British if the Japanese attacked the United States.

Roosevelt once made this comment to Churchill, “I may never

declare war; I may make war. If I went to Congress to declare

war, they might argue about it for three months” (Bachrach 34).

The brought up the question did Roosevelt make the war by letting

an attack on Pearl Harbor happen so that the U.S. might enter the

war.

There are obviously many ways for people to point a finger

at the President of the United States for the reason that Pearl

Harbor was allowed to be taken so easily by surprise. Yet the

question still remains; How could any man that ran his own

country let such a slaughter be done to the people that helped

defend him and the country he believed in?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was considered one of the greatest

Presidents in the history of the United States. At points he was

on top of the world and at others he was the most hated man ever

to walk the earth. Many people believe that a man such as this

could have absolutely no involvement what so ever in a cover-up

that would cripple his own country like Pearl Harbor did. He

loved his country and the people that lived in it too much to

ever let their lives be endangered for any reason.

A historian by the name of Roberta Wohlstetter believed that

the President was totally truthful in his acts involving Pearl

Harbor. She believes that Roosevelt was to concerned with things

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happening in Europe and that he left Far Eastern matters in the

hands of his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull (Wohlstetter 21).

She felt that Roosevelt was telling the truth when he said that

he and the rest of his staff had no idea what had happened to a

certain Japanese fleet which had been picked up by U.S.

intelligence and then was later a part of the attack on Pearl

Harbor.

Journalist Clare Boot Luce also went against the notion that

President Roosevelt was involved in a conspiracy to enter the

war. She believes that Roosevelt was an honest politician that

would never knowingly go against the opinion of most Americans

that we should stay out of World War II unless absolutely

. Luce writes, “Certainly he would never withhold necessary

information that could lead to war when so many in America were

dead set against it” (Melosi 136).

A third person by the name of Gordon Prange believed that

the president was not guilty of treason. Prange writes,

“Roosevelt loved the navy; even his enemies conceded that he

loved the sea service and felt a personal affinity with it”

(Bachrach 37). Prange felt that Roosevelt was also too good of a

man to ever keep such vital information from the United States

and the people that were defending it. He thinks that Roosevelt

had too much to lose with being a part of a conspiracy and would

never make the decision to join in one. There were also talks

that during the months before the attack there were several

military meetings in Washington concerning a possible agreement

that the United States would go to war against Japan or Germany.

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Prange says that the President made an obvious attempt to keep

himself away from commitment of war because no officer higher

than a captain attended the military meetings. Prange thinks that

Roosevelt knew exactly what he was doing and knew that the

President had boundaries that he would not cross for any reason.

Another reason that it looked President Roosevelt had no

involvement with a conspiracy to get the United States into t