Pearl Harbor Conspiracy Research Paper

The Flaw in the Conspiracy Involving the Japanese Bombing of Pearl Harbour.

The idea of the American government ignoring the threat of an imminent attack in order to create an excuse for war prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour has been widely regarded as a conspiracy. It is argued that prior to the infamous attack on December 7th 1941, US intelligence revived a large amount of substantive evidence showing an imminent attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbour, in Hawaii. It is believed by some that a ‘False Flag Operation’ was the intention, wherein an excuse for war with Japan was given through allowing the attack to signal the beginning of an era where the entire world was at war. This essay will go into depth the reason for
This suggests that Roosevelt had anticipated the attack but had chosen to ignore it and let it happen. This triggers conspiracy theorists’ ideas as this leads to the idea that Roosevelt intentionally allowed this attack to occur, thus showing his intention to harm an American city. The basis behind his actions was to create a legitimate justification to declare war on Japan and enter the war. There is evidence which this theory is based upon. On December 4 1941, a memo was given to Roosevelt which stated “"In anticipation of possible open conflict with this country, Japan is vigorously utilising every available agency to secure military, naval and commercial information, paying particular attention to the West Coast, the Panama Canal and the Territory of Hawaii." This shows how naval intelligence had detected Japanese intention to attack US territory, in this Hawaii was included. The memo continued saying the threat to Hawaii was of the most
The evidence can be easily refuted with one alternate hypothesis: the intelligence given to the naval forces was mixed with far too many other threats to determine which the true threat was. With the gift of hindsight, we can easily focus on the memos and details which show the threat of an imminent attack without focussing on the bogus false threats which were also shared by the Japanese. In order to confuse the US, the Japanese intelligence sent messages out to the US. They spoke of threats to various locations; as the memo stated above mentioned, the West Coast, Panama Canal and Hawaii were all included. The Japanese purposely included Hawaii (their real target) in order to encourage the US to dismiss Hawaii as another false threat. US Intelligence at the time believed the threat was most likely directed towards either Thailand or Malaysia. It is shown that the confusion which came as a result to scrambled, intentional Japanese intelligence, led to US insecurity as to the true threat of the imminent Japanese attack. Claims involving the lack of response to Japanese airplanes and Japanese submarines being detected can also be explained by a lack of communication amongst military personal. It was only following the attack that Admiral Kimmel was alerted to the sinking of a Japanese submarine and told of a threat to Pearl Harbour as being imminent.(3) This shows that it was