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How Did President Roosevelt Know About The Attack On Pearl Harbor

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“Yesterday, December 7, 1941¬¬¬¬ --a date which will live in infamy…” was how President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the nation the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was a devastating blow to American’s concept of safety and drew the United States into war against Germany and Japan. However, many historians question the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Gordon Prange, Thomas Bailey and Paul Rayan and Richard Thornton all give different perspectives on the events of Pearl Harbor answering the questions: Did President Roosevelt know about the attack? Was President Roosevelt ready for war? Was there information suggesting that Pearl Harbor might be attacked?
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Thornton states that President Roosevelt knew that the war was inevitable but that he wanted Japan to fire the first shot. He knew that if he brought the country into the war, he would not have the support of the American people. He used Pearl Harbor as a reason for our country to go to war. Baily and Ryan believe that President Roosevelt did not want to go to war with the Japanese because it would hamper the lend-lease program which was aiding in the fight against Germany. They argue that President Roosevelt did not want to go to war before he had managed to build up long-range bombers. They believed that he need more time to build a better navy to support going to war. However Prange believes that the US was not ready for war. On October 28, 1941, after Stimson replied no to a telagraph asking if he would like to officially declare war on Japan. He believed it was an opportunity to strengthen US presences in the Philippines and would prevent the Japanese from taking Singapore. When the Japanese proposed their Novemeber 20th agreement agreeing only to take troops out of Southern Indochina, Hull did not quickly refuse this proposal even though he found it ridicules. He knew the US needed more time to prepare the defensives before war and was hoping to prolong going to

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This led to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and forced Franklin D Roosevelt to go to war with japan. FDR wanted to keep peace with Japan

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The Japanese were irrational minions to their follower. If you can’t make a deal with this country which the United States tried to do you're just going have to put your foot down and stop them. Additionally the bombing of pearl harbor before the attack the United States was a neutral country in the war. Seen in the history book Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed the neutrality act and this new law made it illegal to sell arms or trade with a country at war.

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made an “embargo of aircrafts and aircraft parts against Japan.” In addition, the U.S. “freezes all Japanese assets and bank accounts” and placed another “embargo on oil shipments to Japan” right after they move their US Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor, which they had planned to increase by three time within the next 3 years. Considering all the losses, and the poor treatment Japan faced by the U.S., Pearl Harbor seemed to be an important investment to America, as well as a perfect target for the Japanese to attack and show off their power through revenge. In Document E, Prime and War Minister of Japan, Hideki Tojo states that the U.S. never had a real reason to treat Japan in such a manner and “make[s] strong demands.” Part of the reason Japan attacked Pearl Harbor was because it was strategically necessary for

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588 Words | 3 Pages

This important conference helped keep peace between the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and France over the Pacific Ocean. Once this pact was dissolved, it was pretty easy for the US to become a target. Another reason historians think FDR knew about Japan’s plans is because it was clear that something big was about to happen right before the attack. Tensions were high between Japan and the US, which should have put the US on high alert and ready for an attack. (A 297).

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This relates to the real world because The bombing on pearl harbor was real but also FDR did not just declare war he gave a speech about what happened on that day but in the story he also mentioned that their was already a battle to come and that was that Japan wanted war with us before we could declare war on

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So we thought. The speech did not show much grief. Toward the end of the short speech, the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy declared war against Japan. Franklin D. Roosevelt started the speech by welcoming the other political powers. He quickly delivers the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

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We as a country could not afford a war because of the great depression, “ the State Department's attitude was influenced by the economic hardships of the Depression”("The United States and the Holocaust"). It wasn’t until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor that we entered the war. FDR was negotiating with Japan and when negotiations got us nowhere we ceased the flow of supplies to them by mid summer of 1941. Japan was furious with us and therefore decided it was time to take us out. They made the mistake of bombing us which made us hungry for revenge.

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Roosevelt impassions support for the war effort through his use of emotional diction through his declaration of war. He uses certain phrases to alienate the Japanese from the American people and show them as an enemy of the American people. Throughout his speech he uses phrases like “this form of

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Identification and evaluation of sources: Between 1930 and 1941, Japan sought to increase their power through imperialism; it caused threat to the United States when Japan started expanding to Manchuria and French Indochina. The United States tried to stop Japan, fearing from the threat that might happen, when America's president Franklin Roosevelt banned Japan from getting natural materials and supplies like Oil, rubber and rice. This action led to Japan to prepare for war. In July 1941, Japanese admiral Yamamoto suggested an attack on Pearl Harbor. The reason they selected Pearl Harbor because of their vision, they saw Pearl Harbor as an easy target like Manchuria, also the United States naval fleet was in Pearl Harbor,

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(Doc. C) With this being said japan was furious in the action the U.S took because they need money for the war which would then meet their goal of controlling Asia. As stated in document E, Japan needed the money that the United States has frozen to pull their troops out of China. Japan needed much of its money to a great amount of things, Japan had already lost a lot of money for the war, freezing the money would cause greater impact for them. Moreover Japan is also increasing tension to the U.S and start seeing the U.S as an enemy, Japan and the U.S have very distant point of views and causes them to not agree on any decision they make therefore, it causes arguments through both countries.

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Most Americans had thought that one day entering the war was inevitable, to some it was desirable. Those people thought that being apart of the war would benefit America. While the attack of Pearl Harbor occurred, Hitler's armies were in Russia working their way toward Moscow. They had already taken out France and drove Britain troops out of their lands so fast they left their equipment behind. Germany's biggest ally, Japan, had plans of world domination.

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But how could this be? If due to the weakening of the Great Depression and a loss of troops during WW1, the US chose not to join the WW2, then why did the attack on Pearl Harbor change their mind? FDR was the 32nd president of the United States and was elected to office four times, which is the

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1746 Words | 7 Pages

Isolationists saw it as an entry into the war; Roosevelt argued that the security of the United States depended on a strong British Navy.” this quote shows how people are divided and how people are afraid of the war. And also, how people have majorly different ideas on how to confront the war raging around. , consequently, though people want to stay out of the war, they know that they are bound to end up in it, “Although President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had pledged that he would keep American “boys” from the fray in Europe, he realized that the outbreak of war there, and American involvement in it, was virtually inevitable... In addressing Congress on September 21, 1939, Roosevelt advised that”I regret equally that I signed that act.”

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798 Words | 4 Pages

President Truman trying to avoid such a catastrophic event, decided that using the atom bomb would lead to the end of the war. Believing that the overwhelming power would lead japan do be discourage to continue the war and place the United States in a position to decide the fate of the world after the war

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“If properly appreciated, this intelligence should have suggested a dispatch to all pacific out post commanders suppling this information” states the Joint Congressional Committee. They issued a report that puts blame on the secretary of was at the time Henry Stimson commander on scene. They also believe Washington officials failed to give notice to interacted massages from Tokyo they intercepted that could have prevented the attack, the message was sent On November 19, 1941, the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo sent out a 'Purple ' message to their consulates all around the world. It stated that they should listen to Japanese news bulletins. If they ended with a weather report saying 'east wind rain ' the attack would be on the US.

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