Important Battles of World War II: Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor was not so much a battle as a one-sided attack which came with such shock and surprise that those being attacked were scarcely able to defend themselves. The historic controversies surrounding in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has centered on the issue of who knew what and when.

University of Maryland historian Gordon W. Prange, working with associates Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, has covered the first six months of America's involvement in World War II in considerable detail in four books:

At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor

  • The New York Times called Prange’s At Dawn We Slept “impossible to forget.” Prange’s tireless research into the entire saga of Pearl Harbor leaves little doubt as to the validity of his conclusions. Includes photographs.

Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History

  • In this sequel to At Dawn We Slept Prange goes into considerable detail to examine how the attack came about and whether there really was some sort of conspiracy involving President to conceal knowledge of the attack in order to thwart the “America First” movement, whose members opposed American entry into the war.

December 7, 1941: The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor. By Donald M. Goldstein, based on the work of Gordon Prange.

In this book Prange gets into the chronological details of the “date which will live in infamy.”  

Miracle at Midway

Prange’s history of the battle of Midway details the battle that marked the turning point of World War II against Japan.  Prange examined both Japanese and American sources, eyewitness accounts, and so on.

What can we conclude about President Franklin Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor?  We can certainly say that President Roosevelt knew that Japan was up to no good and that its war against China, which had been going on since 1937, was likely to expand into other parts of East and Southeast Asia. One glance at a map will show that whereas Japan had designs on Indonesia, Indochina and the surrounding regions, the United States Philippine Islands were located squarely in the center of Japan's sphere of interest. It could therefore be assumed that any Japanese action would begin first against the Philippines, and General Douglas MacArthur's preparations were receiving full support from Washington. 

Defenses throughout the Pacific, in fact, were being beefed up in anticipation of possible Japanese action. But the charge that FDR knew the attack was coming, leveled at least in part to deflect blame from the commanders on the scene in Hawaii, fails to stand up on many grounds.

First, if a conspiracy had existed it to conceal knowledge of an impending Japanese attack, it would have had to have involved top military leaders including, Admiral Leahy, FDR's Chief of Staff, the secretaries of the Army and Navy and other officials of high and medium high rank, all of whom would necessarily have been aware of any communications revealing specific Japanese intentions. The notion that all of those people would have held their peace, even after Roosevelt's death in 1945, is hard to assert.

Second, Franklin Roosevelt loved the Navy. He even took vacations on warships, fishing off the stern, or guiding vessels into waters of his beloved coast of Maine. That he would have deliberately sacrificed lives and ships to make what amounted to a political point is inconsistent with everything we know about Roosevelt. Furthermore, if FDR had known the attack was coming and wish to allow a surprise attack to go forward, he could still have directed Army and Navy forces in Hawaii to be placed on high alert in a battle ready status under secret orders without revealing to the world that he knew the attack was coming. The surprises attack would  still have had the same shock value to the American people, but it could have been far less devastating.

Despite all the speculation it is exceedingly doubtful that Roosevelt actually knew the time and location of the Japanese attack. From people who were present with Winston Churchill at the time he heard the news, it is apparent that he too was surprised and, given the close relationship which had quickly developed between Roosevelt and Churchill, it is quite likely that Churchill would have been pre-informed had Roosevelt known what was coming.  It is apparent that the two Japanese ambassadors in Washington on December 7 were also unaware of the attack, and if they did not know, is it reasonable to suppose that Roosevelt did?

Certainly there is substantial evidence that a lot of people ignored warning signs. The Japanese aircraft were picked up and presumed to be B-17's coming in from the states; never mind that they would have been 200 miles off course and going in the wrong direction. A Japanese submarine was located off the mouth of Pearl Harbor; a warning telegram which was sent went astray; and so on.  All of those things amounted to massive failures of communication and intelligence, but they fall far short of creating evidence of a deliberate conspiracy. The United States was surprised, shocked, and embarrassed by Pearl Harbor. But as the Battle of Midway was soon to demonstrate, the United States was resilient, resourceful, and more than ready to take up the fight once it was thrust upon them.

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