What inquiry was there concerning Pearl Harbor? What conclusions were drawn ? Who was held to blame? If ever there was a case of honest innocence that was it. What was said about the intelligence or lack of it ?

Note: Boy's Quest, a magazine 'geared towards boys aged 6 to 12 and focused on traditional values' helped a bit online: " The US declared war on Germany and Italy on December 11th 1941; thus World War II began ". Yup, you can't beat traditional values in reporting history. I wonder what the rest of us were doing before then?

This link might be of interest.

Regarding your second paragraph, Fred, my mother told of an American-made movie shown in London towards the end of World War 1 which began, "In 1917 all was peace." The British audience was understandably somewhat upset and almost rioted. The movie was withdrawn.

quote:

---

Originally posted by FredPuli:
What inquiry was there concerning Pearl Harbor? What conclusions were drawn ? Who was held to blame? If ever there was a case of honest innocence that was it. What was said about the intelligence or lack of it ?

---

There were plenty in the US government who were convinced that war with Japan was inevitable -- we had been on a collision course with them in China for years, and Americans were already serving with the Chinese military to resist the Japanese invasion of China long before Pearl Harbor.

There were also plenty in the War Department who suspected that Pearl Harbor would be the target of a Japanese attack. That's why, although the US navy had been increasing the strength of its Pacific fleet for several years, we had not a single aircraft carrier within thousands of miles of Pearl Harbor in December, 1941 -- they had all been pulled back to San Diego.

So while the attack was a surprise in the tactical sense, of catching the defenders unprepared to mount much of defence, in any strategic sense it was not, as the actual damage to the US military apparatus was relatively unimportant. Battleships were already pretty much obsolete, as evidenced by the shipbuilding priorities of both the US and Japan, and the shape of the naval battles of the war in the Pacific.

Alan Moore

Fuse, you beat me to the punch.

I've read parts of "Day of Deceit" before (check for a link to it on the bottom of the page Fuse posted). It's very interesting.

quote:

---

Originally posted by FredPuli:
What inquiry was there concerning Pearl Harbor? What conclusions were drawn ? Who was held to blame?

---

Apparently Michael Moore is now saying that George W. Bush knew about Pearl Harbor and let it happen anyway!