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Did FDR Know About Pearl Harbor?

14 Pages 3511 Words


indeed unite; yet the President still wondered if the public was ready for a declaration of war. In later years Donovan was supposed to have said.
“The President’s surprise was not as great as other men around him. Nor was the attack unwelcome. It had ended the past months of uncertainty caused by FDR’s decision that Japan must be seen to make the first overt move.”
This meeting with the President is only one of many mystery which all add up to whether or not FDR knew of the attack on Pearl Harbor before it happened. It is known that the naval intelligence broke the Japanese diplomatic code and provided valuable information on Japan’s foreign policies. The navy also had the radio frequency of the Japanese navy down to and knew were most of their ships were at or at least knew what they were up to. New information released shows that the navy had actually broke the Japanese Naval Code with all this information the navy knew what the Imperial Fleet was going to do, why would the Commander-In-Chief not know?
In 1853 Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Yedo Bay determined to open Japan to trade. This started Japan’s slow emergence from 250 years of isolation. By 1868 Japan’s had rid itself of the Shogunate and started the Meiji system. In 1898 the United States bought the Philippines from Spain after the Spanish-American war. The acquisition of the Philippines by America started a slow process, which would eventually lead to war between Japan and America. By 1914 the two countries already showed signs of becoming future enemies. The two committed themselves to naval construction in grand proportion trying to outdo the others navy.
The coming of the First World War showed the rivalry more clearly. America wanted a navy “second-to-none”, with the Japanese responding by having a capital ship construction program to try and ensure some national security against the American commitment. Around 1921 finances...

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