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70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor
Wed, 2011-12-07 14:22
#1
70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor
Wed, 2011-12-07 14:23
#2
This is a 2007 article, but I found it of interest:
[url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/40.4/murnane.html]Japan's Monroe Doctrine?: Re-Framing the Story of Pearl Harbor[/url]
Wed, 2011-12-07 14:39
#3
Boom Boom
The first casaulty of war is the truth.
Wed, 2011-12-07 21:14
#4
From the linked article
John R Murnane of the Worcester Academy: " When in the 1850s Admiral Perry and the United States took the lead in an effort to similarly open Japan and was backed up by European states, turmoil ensued in Japan. However, whereas China failed to establish strong central government leadership and failed to adopt aspects of Western policies to strengthen the state, in Japan events took a different course. The restoration of the Emperor to power in 1865 was accompanied by the growth of a strong central government pledged to modernization following many Western models (the Meiji period that extended to 1912)."
And, of course, they managed to sink the Russian fleet in 1905. Hey, we can do it!!!
I'm quite sure that Admiral Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay in 1848 and demanded that Japan become open to trade. Talk about revisionism and mealy-mouthed renditions, at that. "...Admiral Perry and the United States (yes, they would have acted in concert :)) took the lead in an effort to similarly open Japan...turmoil ensued in Japan." (no doubt Perry's battleship caused Japan to rethink isolation and think shipbuilding. Incredible.
And 93 years later the chickens came home to roost.
Mon, 2011-12-12 20:36
#5
Despite differences among various historians, many of them agree on these damning points: (1) Franklin Roosevelt and his closest aides had secret Japanese messages that should have indicated to them (if they did not indeed do so) that Pearl Harbor would be attacked at dawn on December 7. (2) The commanders at Pearl Harbor, who were later made scapegoats, were inexcusably denied critical intelligence that would have likely caused them to take precautions that would have spoiled the Japanese surprise and probably prevented the attack. The United States kept abreast of Japan's thinking by decoding Japanese diplomatic and military messages. The key messages included the dividing of Pearl Harbor into a grid, apparently for plotting an attack (the "bomb plot" message read on October 9); notice of an impending Japanese attack on the U.S. (the "winds execute" message of December 4); a scheme for signaling the movement and position of U.S. ships at Pearl Harbor (December 6); and the text and time of Japan's rejection of the U.S. ultimatum (December 6 and 7). (On reading this rejection on the evening of December 6. Roosevelt said to his chief advisor, Harry Hopkins, "This means war.')None of these messages were relayed to the Pearl Harbor commanders - except for the last one. And it was not sent by Marshall until the last minute, and then by Western Union, rather than by faster means. By the time the telegram was received in Hawaii, the attack was underway.
Sheldon Richman on the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor. They will tend to choose war and warfiteering at the drop of a hat.