'This means war' -- New book draws on Pearl Harbor reports

Yes, in hindsight, a lot of mistakes were made. But, the biggest was the attack itself.

I am currently reading/listening to the audiobook of "Killing the Rising Sun". I would recommend it. Of course this is written from an USA perspective but I think it is quite honest showing the good and the bad on both sides in WWII between Japan and the USA.

sensei258: "But, the biggest was the attack itself."

A growing number of Japanese honestly believe they are the victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor -- that it was "self defense" and they "had no choice".

smithinjapan - this is what happens after decades of revisionist history taught in their very own school textbooks. The Japanese government has been very successful in re-writing this chapter.

The more one studies the events leading to the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor, the more one realizes that our people who died there, were sacrificial lambs to bait Japan, after we prodded and poked and strangled Japan.

We had physically attacked Japanese for years -- years -- and probably 99.999% of Americans do not realize we were already killing Japanese before they struck back. Things they do not teach us in school.

Check out the first paragraph in the Secret orders below: "It is desired that Japan commit the first overt act if hostilities cannot be avoided."

The US was making no moves whatsoever to avoid hostilities. We were practically demanding that Japan attack us. Sacrifical lambs. A day that will live in ironic infamy.

Check out the first paragraph in the Secret orders below: "It is desired that Japan commit the first overt act if hostilities cannot be avoided."

Thats amazing. Right after that first paragraph below, check out the next paragraph; "Lets see how many people will make outrageous comments on internet boards citing non-existent paragraphs from non-existent reports right around 2016"....

Pearl Harbor: 75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor attack is upon us

It is truly sad that our civilian and military leadership let down our courageous fighting forces at Pearl Harbor. People around the world realized that an attack was imminent. Newspapers were publishing that an attack was coming.

Many Americans who realize this was not a sneak attack will fall back to other positions, such as that we did not KNOW that Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor. Strange. The Secret orders attached below make clear that we prepared for an attack on California, just one week before the actual attack.

Checking the globe, I do not know the wise naval routes to travel from Japan to attack Pearl Harbor or San Francisco, but direct sailing is about 3,800 miles to PH, and about 5,000 miles to SF. So we literally prepared for an attack on California, and left Hawaii (and Philippines) flatfooted.

Next fallback is that Japan was slightly late on the Declaration of War. Who cares? We KNEW an attack was imminent. Period. There is no way around this fact.

Thats amazing. Right after that first paragraph below, check out the next paragraph; "Lets see how many people will make outrageous comments on internet boards citing non-existent paragraphs from non-existent reports right around 2016"....

What's amazing is so many ignorants just making outrageous comments are still around 2016. You just simply type as "The United States desired that Japan commit the first overt" or "It is desired that Japan commit the first overt act" and google search.

https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=zA50CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT391&lpg=PT391&dq=It+is+desired+that+Japan+commit+the+first+overt+act+if+hostilities+cannot+be+avoided&source=bl&ots=V1vQz11EQW&sig=Xi7GvT5rmlE04W9yfB88Q5FVHFg&hl=ja&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiaw_Dolt3QAhUDObwKHQ2eBAgQ6AEIKTAC#v=onepage&q=It%20is%20desired%20that%20Japan%20commit%20the%20first%20overt%20act%20if%20hostilities%20cannot%20be%20avoided&f=false

Ohhhhhh my. A quote completely taken out of context from an underling at the war department who was discussing what everyone knew; the US and Japan were headed towards an inevitable war based on Japan's bellicose behaviour. It was not a question of if, but when Japan would attack.

And your smoking gun is a random, meaningless quote from a book in which the author lays the blame on the US forces unpreparedness on Edwin Layton, a US intelligence chief.

Yes. That's Michael Yon. Any problem?

If you didn't like the book, this would be better.

http://riversidearchives.tumblr.com/post/20161760897

There is also something like this.

Stimson entered in his diary the following statement: [Roosevelt] brought up the event that we are likely to be attacked perhaps next Monday, for the Japanese are notorious for making an attack without warning, and the question was what we should do. The question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1897543?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_L._Stimson#cite_note-12

yet another quote taken out of context which doesn't prove your completely false narrative.

So sad that 75 years later, japanophiles are still trying to change unpleasant history...

yet another quote taken out of context which doesn't prove your completely false narrative.

If I could perfectly prove my narrative, I wouldn't be posting here but earing my life as a professional historian. So far, you have only just damned my posts just like everybody else here, so I don't mind hearing your own completely perfect narrative to assert that conspiracy theory is completely false.

So please be my guest.

By the way, What is my narrative? Don't make me wait too long.

By the way, What is my narrative? Don't make me wait too long.

Your narrative? Haha, there is none. A mish-mash of unconnected quotes from various history books is not a narrative. Its desperate grabbing of straws.

Japan started a horrible war and lost horribly. Get over it.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-almost-everyone-failed-prepare-pearl-harbor-1-180961144/

How (Almost) Everyone Failed to Prepare for Pearl Harbor - Dec. 2016

The high-stakes gamble and false assumptions that detonated Pearl Harbor 75 years ago

Basically, among other things, a general alert went out commanders in the Pacific that negotiations had failed and to prepare for war, and it was up to local commanders to decide how to prepare.

This was in the days before general use of radar. The Japanese aircraft carrier fleet on the way to Pearl Harbor did not have radar themselves, and did not use their recon planes to avoid being spotted, so their scouts consisted entirely of three submarines.

The USA had some PBY flying boats patrolling nearer Japan, but they only covered one narrow arc per patrol.

American installations a few hundred miles from the Japanese expected to be hit first and prepared accordingly. Pearl Harbor, 3800 miles from Tokyo and with a large complement of ships, did not prepare much. They didn't net the ships in harbor to protect them from torpedoes. They didn't have their new radars on 24/7, but only for a few hours around dawn. And they had a couple of junior men manning the north radar and didn't pay attention when those men saw the Japanese aircraft arriving.

There's more in the Smithsonian article, if you want more. My own picture of it is that the Japanese flanked the USA to the north, like the Germans did with the Maginot Line.

Japan started a horrible war and lost horribly. Get over it.

Right Japan started the war provoked/conored/trapped by US.