One has to understand the thinking of the majority of Americans and our govt. at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. There was a very strong ethnic prejudice in our country against the Japanese to say the very least! We considered them short, weak, stupid, blind, "bucked-toothed", and way behind intellectually, and technologically, to the West.
We (the U.S.) treated the Japs very condescendingly and just “dared them” to challenge us on several issues/fronts! When we embargoed raw materials to Japan (with the rest of the Western Powers) in early ’41 (in particular, rubber and iron ore), anyone with any knowledge of the eastern mind-set, and their pre-eminent occupation with “pride/saving-face”, knew that war was immediately imminent!
Roosevelt clearly knew this, as did his top advisors, and hoped that when the attack inevitably came, that this attack could be “couched” as a “surprise”/”dastardly” attack (which it was), so as to galvanize the American populace/press with him...which still was strongly “isolationist thinking” at the time! Roosevelt was desperate to get involved directly in the war! He was well aware of the conditions of the Tripartite Pact b/t Germany, Italy and Japan and knew that war with Germany, once Japan launched their “surprise attack” against us was inevitable.
In late 1941, Russia was reeling from the German invasion of 6/22/41, and all of the military experts were predicting their surrender/collapse at any moment with the Germans at the gates of Moscow. Once Russia fell, only a battered and totally inadequate England remained as their enemy. Roosevelt was desperate, and rightly so, and the American people (like now with terrorists flooding across our borders with CBR weaponry) had their heads up their isolationist-thinking/uninformed ass!
The naval commanders at Pearl Harbor (e.g. Kimmel) were deliberately treated like mushrooms (i.e. kept in the dark and fed BS) and deliberately denied crucial info. to be made aware of the imminent attack. Of course, these naval commanders were later sacrificed in trials after the attack as “scapegoats” and Peal Harbor was blamed on them. Again, there was the usual lack of communication, cooperation, cover-up, etc., between govt. agencies to divulge/share vital info., just as existed before 9/11 (times have not changed!).
Prior to the attack, it had been proved in several U.S. military war games (e.g. Billy Mitchell) that the perfect attack on Pearl Harbor was from the northwest out of the shipping lanes, and yet this stark possibility was often ignored in planning the defense of Pearl, etc., etc.!??
I have an old copy of the pre-eminent (at the time) Aviation mag. dated Nov. ’41, I believe, with an article on the Japanese Air Force. The aviation experts writing for the mag. critiqued their air force as totally obsolescent to the West and left out the Japanese Zero fighter altogether! Of course, the Zero fighter, for approx. a year-and-one-half afterward, totally out-maneuvered every U.S. fighter. We paid a terrible price in American blood and treasure for our total disdain, lack of knowledge, and appreciation of Japanese intellect, ability, and technology!
Thank God, we broke their naval code before the pivotal battle of Midway and developed survival fighter tactics to combat the Zero fighter that literally flew rings around our fighters!
From then on, there were just two main U.S. goals to accomplish…sink their merchant shipping and burn/destroy their cities...which we did.
