Roosevelt’s Knowledge About the Attack on Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor or Wai Nomi(Hawaiian), The start of WWII, awakening the sleeping giant, which ever way you say it, it all means the same thing. The day Japanese bombed the military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and killed over 2,000 innocent people. All of this rests on President
Franklin Roosevelt’s shoulders. Whether or not he knew about the attack, and if he could have prevented it. Although there were some ideas that FDR did know, and that he even provoked it, it is not evident that he knew about the attack at all. This paper is going to address three ways to back up my thesis; after almost 65 years, no document or credible witness has been discovered that prove FDR knew about the attack. In 1940, FDR moved the Pacific fleet to naval base at Pearl
Harbor as a show of American power. When Japan seized Indo­China in July of 1941, FDR responded by freezing Japanese assets in the U.S. and ending oil sales to Japan.
Almost as soon as the attacks occurred, conspiracy theories began claiming that President
Roosevelt had known of the assault on Pearl Harbor. Others have claimed that he tricked the
Japanese into starting a war with the United States as a “back door” way to go to war with Japan’s ally, Nazi Germany. However, after nearly 65 years, no document or credible witness has been discovered that prove FDR knew about the attack. It was simply a consequence of missed clues, intelligence errors, and overconfidence. Early in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the
Pacific Fleet to Hawaii from its previous base in San Diego and ordered a military buildup in the
Philippines in the hope of discouraging Japanese aggression in the Far East. Because the
Japanese high command was certain that any attack on Britain's colonies would bring the U.S. into war, a devastating preventive strike appeared to be the only way to avoid U.S. naval interference. In 1940, FDR moved the Pacific fleet to the naval base at Pearl Harbor as a show of
American power. FDR and his advisors knew that an attack on the U.S. fleet at the Philippines was possible, but few suspected the naval base at Pearl Harbor would be a target. Even though
Roosevelt didn’t expect an attack on Pearl Harbor, He brought the Pacific fleet up as reinforcements, because it was one of the most vulnerable bases. Japan chose to continue it’s diplomatic talks with the United States while at the same time secretly getting ready for a coordinated assault throughout the Pacific. Japan calls it a surprise attack. If they had consulted with FDR before hand, there would be no reason to keep it a secret from the rest of Japan. If
Roosevelt did want to start a war with Japan and Germany, why would he deliberately send more navy men to Pearl Harbor just for them to be killed? Good men and ships he could have used for the war he wanted to get himself into. Waste over 3,000 men and