U.S. marks 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor

I often reflect on how incredibly LUCKY Japan was to have bombed a (once) civilized country. Imagine how it would have turned out if they bombed a Republican ruled modern day America.

The US had the most advanced technology of weapons and the best intelligence service of all. I wonder very year why the US could not stop the attack of Japanese navy although the US already knew the approach of the J navy to Hawaii. If something had been done on alert , so many young soldiers would have not died at that time.

Rest in peace.

kwatt. Nonsense! America's military in 1941 was a 1920's level military with a lot of left over from the first world war. Why don't these conspiracy believers learn to study history a little better?

Both the major allied players were weak in military power in 1940-41. Russia and the US both had outdated equipment across the board. Something that didn't change until fairly well into the war. Just look at Japanese vs American airpower in 1941. Or Soviet vs German air power in 1940.

I don't know where you guys get your information, but you really do need to dig a little deeper and pay more attention to the details.

Same goes for Darren. Why would they do that?

Sure they must have believed an attack somewhere was possible. But it is simply consipiracy theorist nonsense that they knew the attack was Pearl Harbor and let it happen anyway. You give far too much "dark side" credit to people who clearly were not minions of pure evil.

Study history and learn more about what REALLy happened. And stop listening to silly and unfounded speculation.

Probably in another 20 years they will be saying that Roosevelt sent a coded message to Hirohito begging to be attacked. Conspiracy theory is always trying to top itself.

@thoind2

The US was only country that could make the most powerful atomic bombs in 1940s. I think the US had the most advanced technology of all weapons and radars did work well at that time, so there is no doubt that the US knew everything about imminent attack of Japan.

No conspiracy, but why was our entire carrier fleet (7) positioned in a very odd location, leaving only circa WWI rust buckets at Pearl?

@tanaka

US highest ranking officers got an information that J navy fleets were approaching to Hawaii. US Admiral decided the carrier fleet to move out of the Bay in case of Japanese attacks. His decision was right.

Sooo... US has lied, manipulated and orchestrated their entry into wars in recent decades... seems to me an indicator of previous behaviour. Those in the govt of the times have mates from school and what not - just like the rest of us. We try to favours for our mates when we can (sometimes even illegal things if we can get away with it) so what makes some ppl think 'the powers that be' don't do the same. The difference is here is that the mates for this story are CEOs of arms manufactureres - they love war - makes em super rich. There memos all over the place mentioning US's eagerness to get into the war and how it could be accomplished and how they could provoke Japan into attacking first. The US planned for it, knew it was happening, let it happen and were happy it happened.

Tatanka - No conspiracy, but why was our entire carrier fleet (7) positioned in a very odd location, leaving only circa WWI rust buckets at Pearl?

On Dec 7, 1941, the Pacific Fleet carriers were being used to transport aircraft (besides their own) in preparation against a possible attack somewhere in the Pacific. The USS Lexington CV-2 was on it's way to deliver additional aircraft to Midway Island for it's possible defense, the recently refitted USS Saratoga CV-3 was entering San Diego to load her own air group plus a Marine air squadron and miscellaneous other aircraft for delivery to Pearl, and the USS Enterprise CV-6 was returning to Pearl after delivering additional aircraft to Wake Island.

The other U.S. carriers were in the Atlantic. The USS Langley CV-1 was anchored off the Philippine Islands, the USS Ranger CV-4 was somewhere between Trinidad and Norfolk, the USS Yorktown CV-5 was in the Atlantic, the USS Wasp CV-7 was in Bermuda, and the USS Hornet CV-8 was at Norfolk but hadn't completed her shakedown cruise.

Tatanka and kwatt:

Please do refer to this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Harbor_attack#Ship_losses

If the US knew the attack was coming and put "rust buckets" as decoys, why did they also put in 2000 people to die, and even repaired and returned to service several of the ships? Also, there's more than 7 ships that were involved.

Please stop spreading your conspiracy theories, specially when there's easy access to information regading the facts.

kwatt - US highest ranking officers got an information that J navy fleets were approaching to Hawaii. US Admiral decided the carrier fleet to move out of the Bay in case of Japanese attacks.

Not true.

Where did you find this fiction?

@arrestpaul

I saw some websites in internet years ago. I dont think this is fiction. US Admiral did not want entire carrier fleet at the small Bay. so he dispersed the fleet with different missions all over before in case of the sudden attack.

kwatt - The US was only country that could make the most powerful atomic bombs in 1940s. I think the US had the most advanced technology of all weapons and radars did work well at that time, so there is no doubt that the US knew everything about imminent attack of Japan.

I think you're wrong. The US demobilized most of it's army and navy after WWI while the rest of the major powers were busy building larger, faster, and better equipped forces. The U.S. Congress simply wouldn't spend the money for ships, planes, tanks and personel to fight "another" world war. They didn't believe that any nation would be foolish enought to start a 2nd world war after witnessing the effects of the 1st one.

The U.S. atomic bomb program began with aid from Britian's atomic bomb program. Nazi bombing made it unsafe to continue to try to build an atomic bomb in England.

The most successful U.S. fighter aircraft engine, the Packard V-1650, were made in the U.S. under license from England's Rolls Royce.

At the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1939, Congress authorized that the U.S. army be expanded from 135,000 to 227,000 men and the National Guard units from 180,000 to 235,000. To put that into perspective, there were 338,226 Allied troops, mostly British, evacuated from Dunkirk during June of 1940.

READ THIS!!! TRUE Story. While you are remembering the past, this is what is happening now.

This happened just 30 minutes ago. Japanese are also remembering Pearl Harbor. Black vans, a convoy (like those Ferraris) with huge speakers on top. Dominating the road. Sun Flags and Japan's Wartime banner. I'm assuming those are the Ultra-Nationalists.

I was kind enough to pass on a message from Old Uncle Sam. They couldn't hear me so I used Sign Language.

Fact: They still celebrate Pearl Harbor. Fact: We do not celebrate Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I got this stuff on video. Haven't uploaded it yet but I will.

@arrestpaul

Good history class! Whatever you try to explain, the US knew Japanese attack coming in Hawaii, the president just ignored it intentionally. That's why all soldiers were sleeping all Sunday morning. No alert.

These conspiracy theorists pop up pretty much everywhere now. They remind me of that church that protests funerals; the one that believes misery is punishment for our acceptance of homosexuals. Their job is to hijack emotional situations so their message will be greeted with the most anger and therefore the most eposure.

Unfortunately, they are probably here to stay and with the internet it will probably only get worse. In the future, all major days of rememberence will be hijacked by these parasites. it's an unfortunate side effect of technology.

I don't know if the conspiracy is true or not, but ElvinSilvan when have militairy leaders cared about the soldiers they sent to dead?

Anyway Japan Losing the war gave rise to export giant it is (or was?)

I saw some websites in internet years ago

That certainly does sound reliable.

Every 10 years came a loudsy and disguising ' political little show ' from Pearl harbour! Ten years ago there was such a movie 'romanticrized' the Pearl harbour raid from hollywood movie maker! Why that incident was special? Because there is a thing known as'political correctness' that has to lecture the world: Those unaccountable huge casualties in China, Soviet Union, Europe,south east asia,North Africa...these WW2 firece fighting battlefields were no where to match the 2400 causlties in Pearl harbour. Because American lives were extremely 'valuable'! Their message is that simple!

There is only one thing worse than conspiracy theorists, and that is people who ignore the fact that the government whose story they support still keep loads of related documents top secret or releases them heavily edited.

I can endure dozens of conspiracy theorists much easier than I can one bold faced liar hiding the truth, or even one man firmly endorsing said liar.

America's military in 1941 was a 1920's level military with a lot of left over from the first world war.

Leftover hardware, yes. 1920's level, no. Aircraft carriers are not 1920s level. Even our outdated dive bombers were not that low level, though outmatched by Japanese planes. Further, Roosevent had been expanding the Navy greatly since 1939. America was behind in the arms race, but not that far behind. We never could have caught up so fast if so.

Roosevelt was definately happy to know 'japan' ate the bait.Pearl harbour! After the war, admiral nimitz admitted, the US navy knows everything about imperial Japanese navy except one thing:the Kamikaze pilots!

Early 1940s American military wasn't all that good - America didn't become a superpower till after WW2.

And early 1940s, a navy's main weapon is the battleship, not the carrier which was just used to support the battleship. It was because Japan bombed the battleships in Pearl Harbor that America learned to use carriers as the main weapon.

Wars are evil!! Better to learn from history!

What a big mistake from Japan by attacking the U.S.! I guess the thought the US will have a mild response to the attack, instead of the big reaction they had. The US lost 2400 men, but I wonder how many lives were lost in Japan on those 2 atomic attacks? The US has always played 'victim' in the world, but never recognized the many, many lives it has taken, sometimes with a good reason and sometimes driven by interest (Iraq for example). I'm no saying that US hasn't had important losses, but what I'm saying is they play innocent for everything.

Isn't what Albert Wedemeyer and Hamilton Fish (Tragic Deception) and Herbert Hoover (a new book on him Freedom Betrayed published recently) claimed in their lifetime as real witnesses worth listening to at least with an open mind?

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v11/v11p495_Manion.html http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Betrayed-Herbert-Aftermath-PUBLICATION/dp/0817912347

just-a-guy - Roosevelt was definately happy to know 'japan' ate the bait.Pearl harbour! After the war, admiral nimitz admitted, the US navy knows everything about imperial Japanese navy except one thing:the Kamikaze pilots!

"AFTER" the war doesn't count. Of course Nimitz was aware of how Imperial forces operated "after" the war, he had just spend years facing them in combat.

kwatt - Good history class! Whatever you try to explain, the US knew Japanese attack coming in Hawaii, the president just ignored it intentionally. That's why all soldiers were sleeping all Sunday morning. No alert.

The U.S. was aware that an attack MIGHT occur but there was no evidence that any particular base or post would be attacked. Would it be Midway Island, Wake Island, Pearl Harbor, the Philippenes, San Diego, the Panama canal????

ALIBER - What a big mistake from Japan by attacking the U.S.! I guess the thought the US will have a mild response to the attack, instead of the big reaction they had. The US lost 2400 men, but I wonder how many lives were lost in Japan on those 2 atomic attacks? The US has always played 'victim' in the world, but never recognized the many, many lives it has taken, sometimes with a good reason and sometimes driven by interest (Iraq for example). I'm no saying that US hasn't had important losses, but what I'm saying is they play innocent for everything.

The Imperial military had convinced itself that swift, wide ranging attacks against U.S. outposts would prevent the U.S. from hindering their further expansion in Asia. Japan also attacked British outposts and vessels on Dec 8th under the assumption that the British were too involved with their war with the Nazi to put up an effective defense. Parliment/England/Churchill were the first to declare war against Japan closely followed by Congress/USA/FDR.

The U.S. was not the first country to attempt to build an atomic bomb but they were the first to build a working model. And they wouldn't have made that attempt if Germany, England, and Japan hadn't been attempting to build one also. (FYI - Japan was attempting to import Nazi fissionable material when the war ended.)

kwatt is a perfect example of someone believing what they want to believe regardless of the facts presented. (Must be a Republican)

Fiction: "the US already knew the approach of the J navy to Hawaii."

Fact: The U.S. knew Japanese Carrier Force One had sailed, but its location was unknown after it left port and its destination wasn't known until the planes descended on Pearl. The Carrier Force's route intentionally took it out of the commonly used commercial routes in order to avoid detection.

Fiction: "US highest ranking officers got an information that J navy fleets were approaching to Hawaii. US Admiral decided the carrier fleet to move out of the Bay in case of Japanese attacks."

Fact: Both the Army and Navy Commandants on Oahu received a message from Washingtion stating "War Warning: Take appropriate action" The first question they asked themselves was, "What the heck is a 'War Warning" and what would be an appropriate action?" The Army General incorrectly guessed that sabotage was the highest threat and lined all his aircraft up out by the runway - away from buildings and fences that saboteurs could use as cover. This, unfortunately, made them ridiculously easy to destroy in a few strafing runs by fighter aircraft. If they knew the carriers were coming, why make it easier for Japanese A6M Zeros to destroy our defenses? As for the U.S. carriers, you have to know that in 1941 carriers were NOT the primary naval vessel in the fleet. That role was still retained by the battlewagons. It wasn't until the middle of WWII that tactical doctrine shifted from the battleship being the highest value ship of a fleet to the carriers being the highest-value ships. So if the navy really DID know the attack was forthcoming, then the BATTLESHIPS would have been at sea ahead of any carrier sorties.

I went to the USS Arizona memorial and had one of the most memorable conversations of my life with a Pearl Harbor survivor. He didn't consider himself a hero. I saluted him as one nevertheless.

@ Aliber

Don't start a fight unless you can finish it. The object of a war is to win it by any means possible. That's why it is so horrible and not to be entered lightly. As far as America playing the victim I totally disagree. If anyone has played victim in WWII it is the Japanese in regards to the two atomic bombings. A fanatical Japanese military government had instilled through propaganda a sheer terror in it's civilian population about American conquest and occupation and they were expected to fight to the bitter end. The American government estimated that they would suffer 1 million American casualties (and god knows how many Japanese casualties) in a planned invasion and the war would last into 1947. The American populace was already sick and tired of war after 4 years. Truman in a later interview said he would have never been able to justify not using the bombs as horrible as that sounds if they would immediately put an end to the war, which it did. Truman said that if American mothers and wives found out that he had the capability to end the war and did not use it and suffered 1 million additional casualties he would have been burned at the stake and justly so. The Japanese were given ample time to surrender and vacillated. They were also given ample warning to evacuate both cities and chose not to.

War is not a game by any means.

For me, I see war itself like fire, constantly feeding, looking for more energy. It will go anywhere the wind blows. It recognizes no one.

Japan should have never attacked. It was very clear to Japanese that the Americans were a creative lot. We would find the way to defeat Japan. Of course, at the time we were on the best of terms. Not sure what the Emperor at the time hoped to achieve. Did they ever consider taking over the mainland? If not, they simply provoked their enemy.

It was almost suicidal I think. Attacking giants like China and The U.S. Perhaps Japanese lost their mind at that time. Believing they are the divine race on this planet. Who knows for sure. I felt sorry for the people on the ground level who were against their government but couldn't speak out.

Perhaps if Japan had decided to challenge their own government they could have stopped the gears of war.. When guided missiles are used by misguided men, that's when you know you have a war on your hands.

Seiharinokaze,

Isn't ... worth listening to at least with an open mind?

A pretty good sign you are on the wrong track historically is when you need to depend on nutty conspiracy sites. One of the sites you linked is one such example. People with such obvious and racist agendas are hardly the ones to be listened to about this.

ETA,

I was not saying you are racist or that you have an agenda, just that the site you linked quite clearly does.

I sometimes think about the men and women at Pearl Harbor, they did not want to go to war. The politicians were what started the war. Think about the dead and wounded and the fact they did not get a chance to live their lives. The stuff about the twin nukes is not relevant to this discussion. I do not think that most of the people killed would of asked for innocent people to die to "avenge" them. Lets think about the men and women who gave their last measure defending their country.

Ok who put the minus on my last remark? Let me be more clear the government in Tokyo was responsible for war. While the Americans might have provoked them there were other paths to follow. Tojo and his minions use it as an excuse and to tighten their grip on power.

Every 10 years came a loudsy and disguising ' political little show ' from Pearl harbour! Ten years ago there was such a movie 'romanticrized' the Pearl harbour raid from hollywood movie maker! Why that incident was special? Because there is a thing known as'political correctness' that has to lecture the world: Those unaccountable huge casualties in China, Soviet Union, Europe,south east asia,North Africa...these WW2 firece fighting battlefields were no where to match the 2400 causlties in Pearl harbour. Because American lives were extremely 'valuable'! Their message is that simple!

agree. 2,400 is not much in the overall scheme of thing.

maglev101, unless you are one of the 2400 or their families. Every person is important and not a number.

YuriOtani - unless you are one of the 2400 or their families. Every person is important and not a number.

72 million people died during WWII. Every one was important to someone. Pearl Harbor is important to the U.S. because it was the military action that drew Americans into the ongoing conflict. Prepared or not, the U.S. was going to war.

YuriOtani

Why Japan had not occupation of Pearl Harbor after attack?