patrick.net

The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor was Admiral J. O. (Joe) Richardson. Unlike Roosevelt, Richardson did not underestimate the Japanese — and he had studied them and the dangerous Pearl Harbor location thoroughly.

Even before Roosevelt ordered the Pacific Fleet to stay at Pearl Harbor indefinitely, Richardson had protested that keeping the fleet there posed a danger to every ship. He had been attempting to monitor the military movements of the Japanese to give the United States time to evacuate Pearl Harbor in case of danger.

Then, when the election was over and FDR re-elected to his third term, he fired Richardson from command of the Pacific Fleet and installed a lackey, Admiral Kimmel, to take his place. Kimmel agreed with FDR that Pearl Harbor was safe.

But of course it wasn’t safe, and actions Roosevelt took before and after the election made it even less safe. In January of 1940 Roosevelt had terminated the United States — Japan trade treaty. In July of 1940 he had restricted exports to Japan. In September of 1940 he had sent $25 million to the Chinese resistance against Japanese incursions, and he had also embargoed shipments of scrap iron to Japan. In July of 1941, Roosevelt had frozen all Japanese assets in the United States and expanded the embargo.

On Monday, November 24, 1941, only 13 days before the Pearl Harbor attack, Henry L. Stimson, Roosevelt’s secretary of War, recorded in his diary a meeting with Roosevelt:

He brought up the event that we were likely to be attacked perhaps (as soon as) next Monday [December 1], for the Japanese are notorious for making an attack without
warning, and the question was what we should do. The question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger
to ourselves.

FROM: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-07/pearl-harbor-day-one-which-fdr-shoulders-infamy

The US had cracked the Japanese code and knew an attack was imminent. FDR wanted the Japaneses to attack to get us into WWII.

Will Powers