Declassified Memo Hinted of 1941 Hawaii Attack

the us had already been secretly bombing japanese forces using flying tigers and this brought retaliation. it was not just a plan. it was reality.

steve of IN 10:34PM January 10, 2012

Sorry, I posted it twice, but anyhow, let's see how you rebutt this one, and you ignored it when I posted it before....

Twenty years ago this month, ABC's 20/20 TV news magazine revealed for the first time, the existence of a top secret plan dubbed Joint Board 355, which was hatched by FDR and involved bombing Japanese cities using U.S bombers and pilots disguised as the Chinese Air Force. Months before the Pearl Harbor, a spy leaked the plan to the Japanese, and the U.S. learned that the Japanese knew about it too, according to author Alan Armstrong who wrote about it in book entitled "Preemptive Strike." The bombings were suppose to be carried out by Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers, who were already operating in China even before the Pearl Harbor attack. So unknown to the American public and in violation of anti-neutrality laws, the U.S. was already waging a secret war against the Japanese in China....And FDR didn't think the Japanese would not eventually strike back? lol

Westside Reader of NY 2:06AM December 08, 2011

SeeDee said: “ The main Pac Battle fleet to Pearl, was made some ten months BEFORE Pearl Harbor; and the main reason for the move was the Japanese aggression in SE Asia following the collapse of France in the summer of 1940 in Europe and their loss of power in what was then French Indo-China.”

My response: And as I may have mentioned before, what kind of message does that send to the Japanese militarists? Are you not able to look at things from another perspective? Lol Given rising tensions between the two countries, I think any reasonable person would see such an act as an “aggressive” move on the part of the U.S. To disagree would show a great deal of ignorance regarding strategic policy. Take the Cuban Crisis for example. Legally, the Cubans had every right to host Soviet nuclear, ballistic missiles, but the U.S. rightfully considered a legitimate threat. I am not interested in your convenient explanation that this was meant to counter Japanese military movements in SE Asia. In recorded testimony before Congress (it’s on YouTube; look for it), Admiral James Richardson recounted his conversation with FDR in October 1940 in which the president said emphatically, that no, the U.S. would not go to war against the Japanese even if the Philippines were attacked but the they “might make a mistake” and that would be cause for war. How “prophetic” of FDR...lol Even you acknowledge that FDR was already exploring the possibility of war and given the Axis Alliance between Japan, Germany, and Italy. So in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor bombing, FDR and Churchill announce their “beat Germany first” strategy, after Hitler foolishly declared war on the United States. But the entire U.S. was clamoring to fight Japan because of that “unprovoked” attack!

Westside Reader of NY 1:52AM December 08, 2011

'then what do you expect the Japanese to do?' per WR of NY

The more you bloviate on your fantasies of events preceding Pearl Harbor, the more un-informed you appear on that era of American history..(late 19th century - 1945)

Oh, the 1938 exercise led by Adm. Ernst King which found Pearl Harbour 'highly vulnerable' to air attack? Oh, and the one in 1932 under Adm. Yarnall which, essentially, proved the same....?'

So, 'you're 'cracking-up' already...lol'. followed by 'then what I find even more hilarious....' only illustrates the probability that you can't distinguish between 'hilarity' and hysteria.

Please be advised, the exercise of 1938 was conducted to convince the isolationist GOP Congressional members to vote to continue to allow funding of FDR's planjs for a 'TWO-OCEAN NAVY'. FDR foresaw the possibility of a war involving America in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the GOP whose post WW ONE policies of unilateral dis-armament had gutted Ajmerica's defense forces, was objecting to the necessary spending to remedy the situation.

The Yarnall exercise of 1932, like the Billy Mitchell demonstrations of 1924-1925, had NOTHINHG WHATSOEVER to do with the attack on Dec., 7, 1941. Both were staged by proponents of air-power, and, unfortunately, did not affect the conservative (tactically speaking) convictions of the uber admirals who controlled the U.S. Navy. They, along with every other navy 'expert' the world over continued to regard the number and the size of BATTLESHIPS as the most effective gauge of naval superiorty.

Your quasi-apologies for the Japanese attack on Pearl with the 'then what do you expect the Japanese to do..etc.' implies that they were somehow justified in their dastardly attack. Well, get this straight, WR of NY: One cou8ld have expected them to re-nounce the 50-years long policy of imperialistic aggression, get the 'ell out of China and return Manchuria and Taiwan (Formosa), restoren independence to Korea and abandon their idiotic idea of an 'East-Asi C0-Prosperity Sphere' under Jap hegemony in the Orient....and act like the civilized nation they pretended to be.

You seem oblivious to the fact that the U.S., as an aftermath of our own brief period of imperialism in the late 19th century, had an army in the Philippines (which had been there since 1900) and we had the duty, also, of defending other Pacific possessions...and NO OTHER NATION should have felt un-duly threatened by such deployment.

The remainder of your assertions to try put FDR in a bad light, and, in some way, complicit in the attack are so much re-hashed hog-wash.

Since this is nthe actual 70th anniversary of the Jap 'SNEAK' attack on Hawaii, I wanted to send a few words of rebuttal to your fantasies, WR of NY. Believe me, I'm not 'cracking up' over those fantasies....I'm appalled at the level of ignorance among those born after 1950 RE that era (1890 -1945) in U.S. and world history.

SeeDee

SeeDee of OK 8:23PM December 07, 2011