by

Morgan Reynolds

Here are some facts you are not likely to see today from the corporate media on the 77th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor: it was no surprise to FDR and his top advisors. They planned it.

Since 1932 military exercises (“war games”) had proven Pearl Harbor extremely vulnerable to surprise aircraft carrier attack. Japan patterned its attack on these results.

At Roosevelt’s request, Arthur H. McCollum—Office of Naval Intelligence and an expert on Japan—submitted an 8-step plan on October 7, 1940, designed to provoke the Japanese into firing the first shot. An expert on the navy, Roosevelt put all steps into play.

Roosevelt fired fleet commander James O. Richardson, the top authority on Pacific naval warfare and Japanese strategy, February 1, 1941, for his opposition to FDR’s “illogical basing of the fleet at Hawaii.”

FDR deployed American warships in Japanese territorial waters to provoke the first shot.

Seizure of Japanese assets in the U.S. in July, 1941, terminated trade between the countries. Identical orders from the British and Dutch effectively cut off all oil from Japan, leaving it no more than a year’s supply in reserve and no peaceful prospects for new supplies.  Japan has next to no natural resources.

By October, 1940, U.S. cryptographers broke the Japanese military codes yet all crucial messages were denied Commanders Kimmel and Short at Pearl.

FDR refused to meet with a desperate, peace-seeking Konoye government, causing its collapse in October, succeeded by militaristic Tojo.

The “Vacant Sea” policy went into effect November 25 to empty the north Pacific of all traffic, allowing Yamamoto’s fleet to steam 12 unmolested days toward the attack point north of Pearl.