The Truth About Pearl Harbor

The following is reprinted from Uncle John's Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader.

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor was one of the most dramatic incidents in U.S. history - and the source of persistent questions. Did President Roosevelt know the attack was coming? If so, why didn't he defend against it? Here's some insight from It's a Conspiracy!

USS Shaw exploded during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (Image Credit of this and the images below: Dept. of the Navy - Naval Historical Center)

USS Arizona burning at Pearl Harbor.

Rescuing survivor near USS West Virginia during the Pearl Harbor attack.

USS Maryland and the capsized USS Oklahoma.

Burning PBY patrol bomber at Naval Air Station Kaneohe.

View of Pearl Harbor from a nearby hill - the dots in the sky were anti-aircraft shells bursting.

Burning planes and hangars at the Wheeler Field. Shortly after dawn on Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes launched an all-out attack on Pearl Harbor [wiki], the major U.S. military base in Hawaii. Within two hours, they had damaged or destroyed 18 warships and more than 200 aircraft, killing 2,403 American soldiers, sailors, and marines, and wounding 1,178. Americans were stunned and outraged. The next day, FDR delivered a stirring speech to Congress in which he referred to the day of the attack as "a date which will lie in infamy." In response, Congress declared war, and the country closed ranks behind the president. Despite America's commitment to the war, however, questions arose about Pearl Harbor that were not easily dismissed: How were we caught so completely by surprise? Why were losses so high? Who was to blame? Did the president know an attack was coming? Did he purposely do nothing so America would be drawn into the war? Although there were seven full inquiries before the war ended, the questions persist to this day.

UNANSWERED QUESTION #1 Did the United States intercept Japanese messages long before an attack, but failed to warn the Hawaiian base?

Suspicious Facts

• By the summer of 1940, the United States had cracked Japan's top-secret diplomatic code, nicknamed "Purple [wiki]." This enabled U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor messages to and from Tokyo.

• Although several U.S. command posts received machines for decoding "Purple," Pearl Harbor was never given one.

• Messages intercepted in the autumn of 1941 suggested what the Japanese were planning:

› On October 9, 1941, Tokyo told its consul in Honolulu to "divide the water around Pearl Harbor into five sub-areas and report on the types and numbers of American war craft." › The Japanese foreign minister urged negotiators to resolve issues with the U.S. by November 29, after which "things are automatically going to happen." › On December 1, after negotiations had failed, the navy intercepted a request that the Japanese ambassador in Berlin informed Hitler of an extreme danger of war ... coming "quicker than anyone dreams."

On the Other Hand

• Although the United States had cracked top-secret Japanese codes several years earlier, "the fact is that code-breaking intelligence did not prevent and could not have prevented Pearl Harbor, because Japan never sent any messages to anybody saying anything like 'We shall attack Pearl Harbor,'" writes military historian David Kahn in the autumn 1991 issue of Military History Quarterly.

• "The [Japanese] Ambassador in Washington was never told of the plan," Kahn says, "Nor were other Japanese diplomats or consular officials. The ship of the strike force were never radioed any message mentioning Pearl Harbor. It was therefore impossible for cryptoanalysts to have discovered the plan. Despite the American code breakers, Japan kept her secret."

• Actually, Washington had issued a warning to commanders at Pearl Harbor a few weeks earlier. On November 27, 1941, General George Marshall sent the following message: "Hostile action possible at any moment. If hostilities cannot, repeat CANNOT, be avoided, the United States desires that Japan commit the first over act. This policy should not, repeat NOT, be construed as restricting you to a course of action that might jeopardize your defense."

• But the commanders at Pearl Harbor were apparently negligent. The base should have at least been on alert, but the antiaircraft guns were unmanned and most people on the base were asleep when the attack came.

UNANSWERED QUESTION #2 Did a sailor pick up signals from the approaching Japanese fleet and pass the information on to the White House - which ignored it?

Suspicious Facts

• This theory is promoted in John Toland's bestselling book, Infamy. He asserts that in early December, an electronics expert in the 12th Naval District in San Francisco (whom Toland refers as "Seaman Z") identified "queer signals" in the Pacific. Using cross-bearings, he identified them as originating from a "missing" Japanese carrier fleet which had not been heard from in months. He determined that the fleet was heading directly for Hawaii.

• Toland says that although Seaman Z and his superior officer allegedly reported their findings to the Office of Naval Intelligence, whose chief was a close friend of the president, Pearl Harbor never got the warning.

On the Other Hand

• Gordon Prange, author of Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History, refutes many of Toland's assertions. Although he concedes that there may have been unusual Japanese signals that night, Prange says that they were almost certainly signals to the carriers from Tokyo - and thus would have been useless in locating the carriers.

• To prove his point, Prange quotes reports written by Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the air attack on Pearl Harbor: "The Force maintained the strictest silence throughout the cruise ... [Admiral] Genda stressed that radio silence was so important that the pilots agreed not to go on the air even if their lives depended upon it." The chief of staff for Fleet Admiral Nagumo adds, "All transmitters were sealed, and all hands were ordered to be kept away from any key of the machine."

• Prange notes, "It would be interesting to know how the 12th Naval District in San Francisco could pick up information that the 14th Naval District, much nearer the action in Honolulu, missed."

• Finally, Prange reports that years after the war, "Seaman Z" was identified as Robert D. Ogg, a retired California businessman. Ogg flatly denied that he had said the unusual signals were "the missing carrier force," nor was he even sure that the transmission were in Japanese - "I never questioned them at the time."

UNANSWERED QUESTION #3 Even if FDR didn't specifically know about an impending attack on Pearl Harbor, did he try to provoke the Japanese into attacking the U.S. to gain the support of the American public for his war plans?

Suspicious Facts

• FDR told close aides that if the Allies were to be victorious, the U.S. had to enter the war before Japan overran the Pacific and Germany destroyed England.

• FDR told a British emissary that the United States "would declare war on Japan in the latter attacked American possessions ... [but] public opinion would be unlikely to approve of a declaration of war if the Japanese attack were directed only against British or Dutch territories."

• Earlier that year, on July 25, 1941, Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the United States.

• In 1937, Japan sank a U.S. warship in China's Yangtze River, and relations between America and Japan began deteriorating. Both countries made a public effort to negotiate, but FDR presented a series of impossible ultimatums to the Japanese negotiators and openly loaned money to the Nationalist Chinese, whom the Japanese were fighting at the time.

Curtiss Tomahawk fighter plane of the Flying Tigers, painted with the 12-point sun symbol of the Chinese Air Force (Image Credit: Wikipedia)

Crews of the Flying Tiger (Image Credit: Wikipedia)

• According to columnist Pat Buchanan, Roosevelt also committed an act of war against Japan in August 1941, when he secretly approved sending a crack U.S. Air Force squadron, the "Flying Tigers [wiki]," to fight alongside the Chinese Nationalists. Although these fliers were officially "volunteers," Buchanan claimed that they were "recruited at U.S. bases, offered five times normal pay [and] sent off to fight Japan months before Pearl Harbor, in a covert operation run out of FDR's White House ... Though their planes carried the insignia of the Chinese army, [they] were on active duty for the United States."

On the Other Hand

• No evidence proving a conspiracy to goad the Japanese into attacking has come to light in the 50-plus years since Pearl Harbor. If there had been one, it would have surfaced by now .. wouldn't it have? We'll probably never know.

The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader. This special edition book covers the three "lost" Bathroom Readers - Uncle John's 5th, 6th and 7th book all in one. The huge (and hugely entertaining) volume covers neat stories like the Strange Fate of the Dodo Bird, the Secrets of Mona Lisa, and more ...

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute


The fact alone that Rosevelt placed all his battleships in the same spot on the map proves that he was awating such a thing to happen. You dont really need to be a pro at the game battleship to learn this.

Why does one build a sky scraper if not to make more people fall from higher.
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My brother met an old vet who had survived the attack at Pearl Harbor. The vet told him everyone was wondering why the Navy began pulling out the newer ships and bringing into port the older, more obsolete ones--soon before the attack.
I thought that was interesting, though it's second hand hearsay!
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I understand Dylan Avery is about to release Loose Change: Pearl Harbor, and reveal shocking evidence that it was US pilots disguised as Japanese pilots in Japanese planes that attacked Pearl Harbor.
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The truth is just one: Americans likes to fight a war, lamentable that they not know do it.
A Brazilian proverb: "the one who have tiling of glass, does not play stone in the neighbor"
:^)
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I'm not an expert on WWII, but what I've read casts a lot of doubt on the idea of a Pearl Harbor conspiracy. The main point against it, IMO, has to do with why the US was blindsided by Pearl Harbor. It wasn't because they weren't expecting war with Japan, it's because they expected Japan's initial strike to be on the Philippines. If you look at a map, you can get an idea why. (this is a decent starting point, though it is Wikipedia.)

The attack on Pearl Harbor was quite audacious, radio silence was not just some advantage, it was a necessity. It was a bold move on their part.

I also think the Unanswered Question #3 section about FDR provoking the Japanese is lacking. Most of the material is unsourced, and in particular it leaves out at least one important detail. The Japanese had started an imperialistic war to seize natural resources. They were the aggressors. When FDR put on the embargo, they had two options: end their war to get the sanctions lifted, or invade even more territories to grab the natural resources they wanted. The Japanese chose the latter.
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This is absurd and totally inappropriate for Memorial Day. Remember, if it weren’t for those that served the US many of the freedoms that we take for granted would not be enjoyed today.
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Hm - that's a good point, Tyler. These posts are scheduled way in advance and I just didn't notice that it hit on Memorial Day.

No slight was intended, and I do appreciate the sacrifice the soldiers and personnel of the US military throughout the years.
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What a load of crap.
The government doesn't mind crackpot conspiracy theories, because:

1. Nobody in their right minds really believes them.
2. It makes people feel less vulnerable, and preserves the fantasy that the government is omnipotent.
3. It keep people distracted from the secret moon base built in cooperation with aliens, who are growing an army of human-alien hybrids to fight an intergalactic war with the insectoid scourge.
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All you conspiracy theory believeing bastards are stupid. Every attack on America just has to be a conspiracy dosent it? What about every other attack on every other country, is that a conspiracy? Either every event that started a war involving america is a conspiracy or you guys are dumb. The answer is that you guys are dumb. go to hell.
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Okay fellas, say what you will but let us not forget the immortal words of Marine General Smedly Darlington Butler, twice awarded the Medal of Honor: "All U.S. wars are rackets. I was nothing but a hit man for Wall Street."

He wrote a wonderful little book with the same title: All wars are Rackets. Check it out on Amazon, etc.

And getting back to the time preceding WWII, don't forget that FDR, after eight miserable years of his depression and 25% unemployment, had to do something desperate to get the boys employed. And what better way than to generate a war to make the world safe for democracy and to get the wheels of commerce spinning once again, etc.

Sorry to say it, but even the first war of the new republic was a war, not for independence for the common folks, but for real estate speculators who wanted to go beyond the Appalacians to scoop up cheap land for like a few cents an acre. However, King George--not the present one but the first one--decreed that that was his domain and his alone. Cui bono?
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FDR let Pearl Harbor happen because he knew something like that would dramatically raise support for a war. Same thing with 9/11 and the sinking of the USS Maine.
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The secret base is located in Southern Ca. Those who come out of it have fanned out to clog the freeways, and infiltrate neighborhoods disquised as gardeners, news paper tossers, and nannys.
They pretend not to understand english, and are slowly taking over with the help of quisling organizations.
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This was a speech made by Gen. Bill Mitchell

July, 1924

"Japan knows full well that the United States will probably enter the next war with the methods and weapons of the former war...It also knows full well that the defense of the Hawaiian group is based on the island of Oahu and not on the defense of the whole group."

"The Japanese bombardment, (would be) 100 (air) ships organized into four squadrons of 25 (air) ships each. The objectives for attack are:

1.Ford Island, airdrome, hangers, storehouses and ammunition dumps;


2.Navy fuel oil tanks;


3.Water supply of Honolulu;


4.Water supply of Schofield;


5.Schofield Barracks airdrome and troop establishments;


6.Naval submarine station;


7. City and wharves of Honolulu."



"Attack will be launched as follows: bombardment, attack to be made on Ford Island at 7:30 a.m.

"Attack to be made on Clark Field (Philippine Islands) at 10:40 a.m."

"Japanese pursuit aviation will meet bombardment over Clark Field, proceeding by squadrons, one at 3000 feet to Clark Field from the southeast and with the sun at their back, one at 5000 feet from the north and one at 10,000 feet from the west. Should U.S. pursuit e destroyed or fail to appear, airdrome would be attacked with machineguns."

"The (Japanese) air force would then carry out a systematic siege against Corregidor."

"The United States must not render herself completely defenseless on the one hand thinking that a war with Japan is an impossibility, and on the other by sticking to methods and means of making war as obsolete as the bow and arrow is for the military rifle."
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i think that pearl harbor was a conspiracy. i also saw some actual documents stating that FDR did know about the attack ahead of the time. the URL is http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/pearl.html
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Blessed are the PEACEmakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9

Whoever lives by the sword, DIES by the sword. Matt 26:52

For though we walk in the flesh, we DO NOT WAR ACCORDING TO THE FLESH. 2 Cor 10:3

Whoever says the "military fights for our freedom and is the reason we have freedom today" goes against the laws of God Almighty! All wars are funded and started by the Illuminati (high level Freemasons). Soldiers, according to Henry Kissinger, are just "dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy." The fact that Americans, who claim to believe in "God" join the military, shows that they do not know Him. He said you "cannot serve two masters." So if you are obeying your commanding officer's orders to "blow em to the moon" or "drop Napalm" on innocent civilians, etc. you are going AGAINST Jesus command to "love your ENEMIES and do good to those who HATE YOU." By going against God's spiritual laws, you leave AMERICA with LESS and LESS of HIS DIVINE protection thereby causing us to LOSE FREEDOMS incrementally, over time. THAT IS WHAT WAR IS ABOUT MORONS! The Illuminati gains control over the nations of the world THROUGH WAR. It ain't about "fighting for freedom"!! That's a big fat lie!! If we would refuse to join the military and refuse to fight our NEIGHBORS, GOD ALMIGHTY would DESTROY THE NWO/Illuminati satanist/bankers!! BUT, instead we stupidly and blindly go along with their schemes which are set up to DESTROY US. WAKE UP.
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okay.."war is antichrist"..what kind of world are you freaking living in? Get your head out of your ass and realize that they are bigger and more definite things in life than "God". Don't get me wrong, I believe and everything but how dare you say anything about our troops?! The military does fight for our freedom so people like you can sit there and have your mind in the clouds!!
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You might be interested in my account of Pearl Harbor day as I saw it at the age of seven. Go to:

http://pianofritz2.blogspot.com/2009/12/pearl-harbor-december-7-1941.html

Fritz Owens
Professional pianist, composer, photographer, teacher and keyboard recording artist for over 40 years in New Orleans - until Katrina.

347 Royalwood Dr.
Zirconia, NC 28790
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