Pearl Harbour - why do we keep living the dream?

I love the show "20th Century Battlefields". Great show, always informative and generally unbiased. That said, they went over the line tonight.

The same old story we have heard a million times.

America was surprised by the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbour.

Are they alone in what they stated tonight? Absolutely not. We all learned the story this way, we all accept that this is the way it happened, but isn't it time that we gave up the bullshit and accepted that America knew damned well that the Japanese were coming, and they let them come so they could get that all important "EXCUSE" to enter the Second World War.

How to even approach what should be completely obvious is a difficult thing. Connecting the dots people don't want connected is a difficult approach. The facts are so simple, the story is right there, but telling it so idiots understand is a completely different thing.

American history, at least televised versions of it, is still weighed down by being completely focused on the actual event and what came after, it rarely speaks about the before and why something happened.

Let me start with Japan in 1941 and the idea of the “unprovoked” attack.

First, Japan in the 1930’s and 40’s was a country that was completely reliant on trade for the ingredients of war. Oil, steel, coal, metals, chemicals etc.

Second, Japan had been at war since the early 1930's in Asia. America had repeatedly warned, condemned and placed sanctions against the Japanese because of this on going conflict. Why? America, at least in outward policy, during this period was a big political ally China. I won’t argue that, but what is more important to remember is that in supporting China, America could keep Japan’s growth and expansion in check.

So in 1941 Japan was a resource starved country that had been at war for almost ten years.

With those two facts in mind, what do you think Japan's stance towards the US would be given that America was supporting China and its sanctions would completely halt Japan's ability to conduct a war in China? Could or would these American actions be viewed as a provocation or a reason/excuse to attack America?

Coupled with sanctions and political support it is important to consider that the US was maintaining a small but effective airforce (pilots, planes, munitions) in China that was battling Japan's efforts directly, prior to December 1941. Now would a sane person believe that America could expect no response to these actions.

Okay so the first lie is that Japan attacked America unprovoked.

What would you call direct efforts on the behalf of China to halt Japan's progress in a five year war? I think sanctions that robbed Japan of steel, oil and coal, and military support that saw US citizen's flying US planes, firing US weapons, shooting down Japanese planes at the very least a form of provocation. America took sides here by denying one, supporting the other and providing military support to one against the other. You take sides, you are provoking a response.

America stuck their nose in and by doing so provoked a response.

Now that is settled we get to the biggest lie of the Second World War. Japan conducted a sneak attack on Pearl Harbour. America did not know that Japan was going to attack. Fine, believe it if you will, but let's consider a few things.

A - America had, by their own admission, been deciphering most Japanese naval codes for quite some time before Pearl Harbour. The story goes that a key code had yet to be deciphered (the Green code I believe, but I could be wrong with the colour) and that is why they were caught off guard. So despite all of their knowledge of Japanese military code, the failure to read one code allowed a sneak attack by Japan.

Unfortunately that just is not true. We know that this lynch pin code had been deciphered and was being tracked by the British long before Pearl harbour and we also know that Winston Churchill knew the "exact" attack was coming days before it happened. We also know that Churchill was meeting with Roosevelt when he found out about the attack. What people who know this fact are told is that Churchill kept this information to himself. Bullshit, trying to make the UK a scapegoat just to get the US into the war is a barbaric accusation, and one that won't hold water.

America has never admitted to knowing that one particular code, but given the cooperative efforts on code breaking between the US and Britain and even the solo efforts of the US to break codes with their success to date it is impossible to accept that they did not know an attack was coming. Even if it was as simple as being on alert and moving a few ships out of port to prepare, they had to have known... WAIT A MINUTE, THEY DID MOVE SHIPS OUT OGF PORT!

B – America, by their own admission, had been tracking the massive Japanese fleet since it left port. America has said that it lost "contact" with the fleet in the days before Pearl Harbour. Even if that is true, which it is not, at the very least America knew that the Japanese navy was in the neighbourhood. Where is the surprise when you track a massive foreign fleet charging towards your key naval base?

Remember here that it would take days for a fleet that size to reach Pearl Harbour. When you lose a fleet you have days to find them. If you cannot find them you go on alert until you do. If they are important enough to track, they are important enough to be afraid of.

C - America was planning for a war with Japan, and both sides knew it. Consider the shift of naval vessels from the East coast to the West coast prior to the attack. Whatever the reason, a future war or for their own future offensive attack, America was readying for war in the Pacific. Japan was well aware of the increase in the Pacific fleet and this factored into the timing of their attack. America had to know that the move to increase its fleet would PROVOKE the Japanese into some type of action. Whatever that action was, America knew there would be a response.

This is VERY IMPORTANT, I will talk at length about the Japanese response to America's prewar activities. Keep in mind that this will come up again. What did the Japanese actually do to AMERICA, by bombing Pearl harbour?

D - The easiest piece of evidence to PROVE that America KNEW WITHOUT A DOUBT that the Japanese were coming for Pearl Harbour.

The American navy moved all of its aircraft carriers out of Pearl harbour just prior to the attack on Pearl harbour.

So after you get the first two lies on every TV show you get the following lie: "America was fortunate that BY CHANCE its aircraft carriers were not at port".

Here is the truth, America knew exactly what was coming and they sacrificed an a non sovereign outpost filled with outdated weapons to get them into a war. The sacrifice would get America into the war, but that sacrifice could not include losing its only aircraft carriers.

If you think about nothing else, ever, ever, ever when considering the attack on Pearl harbour, know that America was not surprised by a Japanese attack and we know this because the aircraft carrier group was out to sea, safe from harm.

America was clearly preparing for the possibility of war. Accept that regardless of the year, even when no war is imminent, military strategists plan for a war. That is what they do. In this battlefield, the Pacific Ocean, everyone knew how important aircraft carriers would be. Technology in 1941 did not allow for transcontinental flights or oceanic flights. To fight this war, you needed mobile airpower. The corner stone of the ``prewar`` navy, the Battleship, was obsolete, still useful, but by no means a replacement for air superiority. Even TV shows that give you the smokescreen of "surprise" and "unprovoked" call battleships "White Elephants". You could lose a battleship, but if you only had four aircraft carriers (which they did) you could not afford to lose one. Prewar, US industry had no been geared up to produce a carrier quickly, so to start a war, you had to fight with what you had. You could rebuild battleships, but carriers were absolutely essential...

Why? Well, what is very rarely considered? What do we never talk about? What did Japan want? Why in God's name would Japan attack the US? What did they need?

Resources

Even before the US sanctions, Japan needed more steel, oil and coal. So where do they get their own? Well for oil, which we will call need number one, everyone knew, absolutely everyone knew that Japan would go after the oil fields in what is now Indonesia. Empire was not as important as inputs.

Japan's attack on the US was not a hate filled desire to conquer the US, it was a gamble. Knock out the American Pacific fleet and Japan would have bought itself some time to take the oil fields in the Dutch East Indies and solidify their position in the region before America would be able to mount any type of resistance, and hopefully after two to three years 9the time needed to build 4 carriers, battleships, planes, etc., they would not be in the mood to fight. By attacking the US, Japan had hoped to buy itself time to fight "unapposed" in the region.

So why is the attack on Pearl harbour a huge failure?

The years before the attack had shown America what would be important in a coming war and had allowed the Americans to prepare a game plan, with a firm understanding of the importance of aircraft carriers.

Failure one: The secret attack. America had already deciphered Japanese codes, knew what was coming and was prepared.
Failure two: When Japan failed to sink those carriers, they knew, their gamble had failed.

Remember I said that it was important to consider what Japan actually did to the US by attacking Pearl harbour. Why is the attack on Pearl harbour, as an attack on America, a huge lie (other that the sneak attack thing).

Hawaii was not part of the US in 1941.

Japan in their horrific "sneak attack", attacked a military installation. That is it. You want to hurt America? If you are kind of in the area anyway bomb L.A. Did they do that? Nope. Japan attacked a military target in the middle of the ocean and left.

Considering what America would do to Japan (the country and its population) over the next three years, can their attack of a military installation and occupation of some unihabited islands be considered equal? What is worse?

Sure the Japanese were horrible fucks, the lowest form of life in the Second World War on a man by man basis, but temper that with the knowledge that America as a whole knowingly conducted a war to obliterate the infrastructure of a rising power and kill as many of its citizens as humanly possible. How many US citizens, actual non-combatants did Japan kill? This is really the lie of this war. America knew that most Japanese cities, civilian neighbourhoods, were made of wood. All wood, wood homes, markets etc. Not concrete, mortar, clay etc. America, forgetting the Atomic bomb, fire bombed the cities of Japan, including the capital, with the express purpose of killing a lot of civilians. They succeeded in spades.

So with that in mind, what was the real cost to America in that attack on a military installation?

Hundreds of obsolete aircraft.

In 1941, America knew that their fighter aircraft were crap compared to the Zero's. One of the reasons they basically gave them to China for free. Also a reason they were already planning and testing the planes that would win them the war. Losing 100 planes at Pearl harbour was no loss. In the early days of the Second World War, those old planes proved essentially useless against the Japanese planes, only luck and chance would give those planes any successes.

21 ships.

21 ships they didn't need and wouldn't use. 21 ships that would be rebuilt ten fold in the three years after the attack. The Battleship was dead, and particularly useless in the upcoming island hoping and open sea war. Despite the lack of land, air superiority was going to win the day. Remember that Japan attacked Pearl Harbour (an Island) with planes. Their attack was no an old school sea bombardment. That is a key fact.

2,000 men.

That seems like a lot today, but given the impression the attack left and what the world knew about war from WW1, 2,000 is insignificant. Sadly it must be mentioned that in reality the men that died were attached to components of the US military that was obsolete. This further limits their loss from a strategic perspective. It is sad and tragic, but those 2,000 men were the most useful soldiers of the War against Japan because they got America into the war.

Considering the useful press and propoganda their loss provided, those 100 planes, 21 ships and 2,000 men were a price worth paying.

So we have seen the "cost" of the attack, what was the "gain" of the Attack? That is easy.

After that attack, the US government got "carte blanch" to conduct a war. To fight Japan, and to help the more important allies in Europe.

Think about what Japan attacking Hawaii has to do with War in Europe...Oh yeah right, the "Axis". The Axis was an Axis in name only. Were the Germans really saved having to mount an attack on European colonies in Asia by being a member of this Axis? Was Japan saved a war in Europe because of it's partnership with Germany? Germany and Italy make sense, but Japan was nothing but a surprisingly helpful "preoccupation" for the European powers. They tied up troops and ships for the fight in Europe, that's it. Attacking Germany based on Japan's attack is full of shit.

After the attack on Pearl harbour America's government got complete control of its massive industry and was able to build a fighting force with a speed nobody in the world could match.

By loosing 2,000 men in a "sneak attack" America's apathetic population was so charged that inscription exceeded expectations. "We're mad at those Japs too, so we're sending you to England to fight Hitler". Understand that the government was financially motivated to get into the war against Hitler, but there was no way in hell the population and its elected representatives of the day would agree to fighting another European war. If you are attacked for no reason, you can go to the population and tell them about the world that is coming with this Axis if "America doesn't rise up to stop it!"

This could go on all day.

But remember - The attack on Pearl Harbour was a military gamble that failed because the carriers were not in port. America knew the attack was coming and sacrifice obsolete infrastructure to get into the war in Europe.

So next time you see a War in the Pacific documentary you need to understand that while sailors, crewmen, ships captains and probably some admirals did not know an attack was coming, there was a war room in Washington that knew where and when it would come and they were already planning to “Storm the Beaches of Normandy” because of it.

Why not admitt to that 65 years later. Those vets, their wives and their kids are still alive and a government telling its army that they have and will use thier armed forces as political capital is no good for the economy.