When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they attacked the territorial outpost of a colonial rival. (In 1941 Hawaii was not yet a State of the Union.) It gave the U.S. the long-sought pretext to enter World War II. But did the attack on Pearl Harbor come as a surprise, or did the Roosevelt administration have ample pre-warning, which it deliberately ignored in order to maximize the ensuing casualties and, thus, also the public’s outrage and support for entering the war? Revisionists claim precisely this: Admiral Husband Kimmel, commander of the Navy units in Hawaii, was deliberately kept in the dark about intelligence gathered by the Roosevelt administration which showed that the Japanese, driven into a corner by various boycotts and blockades, were about to strike…
By John Mueller ∙ December 6, 1991
John Mueller is a professor of political science at the University of Rochester, and the author of Retreat From Doomsday (Basic Books, 1989). This essay, reprinted from the Los Angeles Times, Dec. 6, 1991, is adapted from an article in International Security journal. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor half a century ago is usually…
By Mark Weber ∙ May 1, 1997
On January 20, 1997, Bill Clinton began his second term as President with a swearing-in ceremony at the White House followed by an inaugural address. During the first few minutes of this speech, Clinton briefly surveyed the history of the past ten decades: What a century it has been. America became the world’s mightiest industrial…
By Joseph Bishop ∙ March 1, 1996
A Time For War: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Path to Pearl Harbor, by Robert Smith Thompson. New York: Pren- tice Hall, 1991. xiii+449 pages. Hardcover. Photos. Source notes. Bibliography. Index. Joseph Bishop studied history at a South African university. He now resides in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and three children. In the…
By David L. Hoggan ∙ March 1, 1995
David Hoggan received his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University in 1948. His academic career included teaching posts at the University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State College, and the Amerika Institut of the University of Munich. Hoggan was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1923, and died in Menlo Park, California, in 1988. He…
By James Joseph Martin ∙ January 1, 1995
Pearl Harbor: Final Judgement, by Henry C. Clausen and Bruce Lee. New York: Crown, 1992. Hardcover. 485 (+ x) pages. Photos. Notes. Appendices. Index. ISBN: 0 517 58644 4. James J. Martin graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1942 and received his M.A. (1945) and Ph.D. (1949) degrees in History from the University…
By William Henry Chamberlin ∙ November 1, 1994
Excerpted from the concluding chapter of America's Second Crusade, pp. 337-353. According to his own official statements, repeated on many occasions, and with special emphasis when the presidential election of 1940 was at stake, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policy after the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1939 was dominated by one overriding thought: how…
By Charles E. Weber ∙ July 1, 1994
Charles E. Weber earned his Ph.D. in German literature at the University of Cincinnati (1954), and has taught at the University of Cincinnati, the University of Missouri, Louisiana State University, and the University of Tulsa (Oklahoma). He has served as Head of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Tulsa. Dr. Weber (no…
By Charles A. Lindbergh ∙ April 1, 1992
In May 1927, a shy, handsome young man from Michigan named Charles Lindbergh suddenly became the idol of millions when he landed his small airplane in Paris after a grueling 33-hour flight from New York – the first person to fly alone,nonstop, across the Atlantic ocean. Twelve years leater, this politically astute son of a…
By Hideki Tojo ∙ April 1, 1992
Published here for the first time in English is the postwar prison “diary” of Japanese General and Premier Hideki Tojo. After an outstanding army career and service as War Minister, Tojo served as Prime Minister from October 1941 to July 1944 – perhaps the most critical period in his country's history. A few weeks after…
By Roger A. Stolley ∙ April 1, 1992
Historians are still arguing over whether President Franklin Roosevelt knew in advance that Japanese forces were about to launch a devastating attack against the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Mr. Roger A. Stolley, a resident of Salem, Oregon, has something important to add to this discussion. In the following…
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