Buchanan article: Did FDR Provoke Pearl Harbor?

[emazur]

http://original.antiwar.com/buchanan/2011/12/06/did-fdr-provoke-pearl-harbor/
http://www.vdare.com/articles/did-fdr-provoke-pearl-harbor

But to friends, “the Chief” sent another message: “You and I know that this continuous putting pins in rattlesnakes finally got this country bitten.”


The U.S. response: On July 25, we froze all Japanese assets in the United States, ending all exports and imports, and denying Japan the oil upon which the nation and empire depended.

Stunned, Konoye still pursued his peace policy by winning secret support from the navy and army to meet FDR on the U.S. side of the Pacific to hear and respond to U.S. demands.

U.S. Ambassador Joseph Grew implored Washington not to ignore Konoye’s offer, that the prince had convinced him an agreement could be reached on Japanese withdrawal from Indochina and South and Central China. Out of fear of Mao’s armies and Stalin’s Russia, Tokyo wanted to hold a buffer in North China.


On Sept. 6, Konoye met again at a three-hour dinner with Grew to tell him Japan now agreed with the four principles the Americans were demanding as the basis for peace. No response.


At a Nov. 25 meeting of FDR’s war council, Secretary of War Henry Stimson’s notes speak of the prevailing consensus: “The question was how we should maneuver them (the Japanese) into ... firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.”

“We can wipe the Japanese off the map in three months,” wrote Navy Secretary Frank Knox.

[vita3]

Japan also had a very strong pro-war faction that would not let peace reign.

[Aratus]

MORE TO THE POINT, DID THE GREAT DEPRESSION CREATE THE CONDITIONs
WHEREBY THE METAPHORIC DRAGONs TEETH WOULD BE ONCE AGAIN SEWN?

[jdmyprez_deo_vindice]

We had been provoking Pearl Harbor since the Washington Naval Conference after WW1 ended.

[klamath]

We had been provoking Pearl Harbor since the Washington Naval Conference after WW1 ended.
maybe even a bit before...

First visit, 1852-1853
Odaiba battery at the entrance of Tokyo, built in 1853-54 to prevent an American intrusion
One of the cannons of Odaiba, now at the Yasukuni Shrine. 80-pound bronze, bore: 250mm, length: 3830mm.In 1852, Perry embarked from Norfolk, Virginia for Japan, in command of the East India Squadron in search of a Japanese trade treaty. Aboard a black-hulled steam frigate, he ported Mississippi, Plymouth, Saratoga, and Susquehanna at Uraga Harbor near Edo (modern Tokyo) on July 8, 1853. His actions at this crucial juncture were informed by a careful study of Japan's previous contacts with Western ships and what could be known about the Japanese hierarchical culture. He was met by representatives of the Tokugawa Shogunate who told him to proceed to Nagasaki, where there was limited trade with the Netherlands and which was the only Japanese port open to foreigners at that time (see Sakoku).

[edit] Threat of force and negotiation
Japanese coastal wooden cannon built by the Daimyos at the Bakufu's order for Commodore Perry's arrival. 1853-54.As he arrived, Perry ordered his ships to steam past Japanese lines towards the capital of Edo, and position their guns towards the town of Uraga.[10] Perry refused to abide to demands to leave.[10] He then demanded permission to present a letter from President Millard Fillmore, and threatened to use force if the Japanese boats around the American squadron did not disperse.[10]

Perry attempted to intimidate the Japanese by presenting them a white flag and a letter which told them that in case they chose to combat, the Americans would necessarily vanquish them.[11][12] Perry's ships were equipped with new Paixhans shell guns, capable of wreaking great destruction with every shell.[13][14] The term "Black Ships", in Japan, would later come to symbolize a threat imposed by Western technology.[15]

After the Japanese agreed to receive the letter from the American President, Perry landed at Kurihama (in modern-day Yokosuka) on July 14, 1853[16] presented the letter to delegates present, and left for the Chinese coast, promising to return for a reply.[17]

Fortifications were built in Tokyo Bay at Odaiba in order to protect Edo from possible American naval incursion.

[Kelly.]

i cant get to the link to read the full article. it keep redirecting me to http://www.vdare.com/splash where im asked to donate.

anyone else seeing this?

[fatjohn]

Will Buchanan or Forbes or Perot endorse anyone this time around? And what is the chance that it would be paul?

[Harald]

I think this was inevitable. Germany was fighting in Europe. Japan was ally of Germany.
Japan needed to secure raw materials for its conquests. It could have done it by:

1) Attacking Russia (but Japan land forces were still hurting from Russo-Japanese war of 1939)
2) Securing oil and other materials from British assets. US was in position to deny those to Japan
3) Being friends with US and getting raw materials from US

3 - was highly unlikely
1 - they chose not to
2 - was putting them into a conflict with US

I really don't see how apart from supplying Japan with raw materials US could have avoided the war with Japan

[dillo]

didn't we fight the japanese in alaska a few months before pearl harbor?

[klamath]

didn't we fight the japanese in alaska a few months before pearl harbor?
No. My dad fought in those battles after pearl Harbor.

[klamath]

I think this was inevitable. Germany was fighting in Europe. Japan was ally of Germany.
Japan needed to secure raw materials for its conquests. It could have done it by:

1) Attacking Russia (but Japan land forces were still hurting from Russo-Japanese war of 1939)
2) Securing oil and other materials from British assets. US was in position to deny those to Japan
3) Being friends with US and getting raw materials from US

3 - was highly unlikely
1 - they chose not to
2 - was putting them into a conflict with US

I really don't see how apart from supplying Japan with raw materials US could have avoided the war with Japan
I agree however WWII was really only an extension of WWI. All the nations involved bear their own guilt but the big one is on the US's side was getting involved in WWI. After getting involved in WWI and aftermath, WWII pretty much couldn't be avoided.

[emazur]

i cant get to the link to read the full article. it keep redirecting me to http://www.vdare.com/splash where im asked to donate.

anyone else seeing this?

I've added a new link to antiwar.com

[Brian4Liberty]

Today on the news, an anchor woman cheerily said "today is the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which opened the door for the US to join the war". Seemed like strange wording... Preparing us for an open door for war on Iran perhaps?

[Brian4Liberty]

Other provocative actions by FDR:


The AVG was largely the creation of Claire L. Chennault, a retired U.S. Army Air Corps officer who had worked in China since August 1937, first as military aviation advisor to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in the early months of the Sino-Japanese War, then as director of a Chinese Air Force flight school centered in Kunming. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union supplied fighter and bomber squadrons to China, but these units were mostly withdrawn by the summer of 1940. Chiang then asked for American combat aircraft and pilots, sending Chennault to Washington as advisor to China's ambassador and Chiang's brother-in-law, T. V. Soong.

Since the U.S. was not at war, the "Special Air Unit" could not be organized overtly, but the request was approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself. The resulting clandestine operation was organized in large part by Lauchlin Currie, a young economist in the White House, and by Roosevelt intimate Thomas G. Corcoran. (Currie's assistant was John King Fairbank, who later became America's preeminent Asian scholar.) Financing was handled by China Defense Supplies – primarily Tommy Corcoran's creation – with money loaned by the U.S. government. Purchases were then made by the Chinese under the "Cash and Carry" provision of the Neutrality Act of 1939.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Tigers

[acptulsa]

I've heard a rumor today that a never-released book by Herbert Hoover on this subject will be coming out soon...

[emazur]

I've heard a rumor today that a never-released book by Herbert Hoover on this subject will be coming out soon...

Buchanan mentions this book in the article: Freedom Betrayed
http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Betrayed-Herbert-Aftermath-PUBLICATION/dp/0817912347/antiwarbookstore

[acptulsa]

Buchanan mentions this book in the article: Freedom Betrayed
http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Betrayed-Herbert-Aftermath-PUBLICATION/dp/0817912347/antiwarbookstore

That must be the one.

[ZanZibar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6tzy-_2c-A&feature=player_embedded