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Tuesday 12 August 2014

Pearl Harbor Historian Divergent Views On The Incident

By Tanisha Berg


Historians always agree on many occasions. The incident occurring at Pearl Harbor raised varied opinions and thoughts. This is occurrence that happened when Japan attacked the American naval base in Hawaii during the World War 2. These made America to revenge. Many questions were raised by the citizens on the issue. They included: whether the U. S. Knew of the attack, was it unprovoked, as well as whether it was deliberate so as to trigger Japan and engage the two in nations into a war. Among the first to question the initial story was Pearl Harbor historian Beard.

From the book written by Beard, America cutting of access to raw materials by Japan was deliberate. The government intended to put Japan in a situation that they were forced to attack. This is due to the fact that Japan need these materials dearly and could do anything to get them including the risk of starting a fight with United States. He also suggested that the US government had some knowledge of a possible attack.

Thomas Fleming argues in his book that American president Roosevelt did a deliberate action to force Japan to fight the United State. Basil Rauch, in his book differed from this and said that America never knew this attack would happen. The government however knew the occurrence of a possible attack somewhere. He also agreed that indeed United States had done something that would have prompted Japan to launch an attack.

Richard N. Current even gave a more challenge to this issue. He alleged that Stimson anticipated this attack but probably not in the U. S. According to Stimson, it must have been on the Dutch or British possessions, in the Pacific.

He also did not agree with the thought that Stimson intended to somehow maneuver Japan to attack. His plan was Japan to attack the possessions owned by Britain or Dutch which could obviously look like attack on United State. This was a plan to convince United State Congress to approve a declaration of war.

Roberta Wohlstetter came up with a different approach on this issue. She did not care to answer whether United States wanted the attacks or not. She undertook the question regarding the knowledge of the government on this attack. She concluded that United States had enough warning about the intensions by Japan and should have seen the possibility of attack. The government however failed to interpret this evidence correctly.

Admiral Edwin raised a concern about the intelligence of United States about this issue in his memoir. There was also an allegation from Gordon W. Prange that the administration of U. S. Made mistakes in making wrong interpretation of the intentions of Japan. He however did not agree that Roosevelt was deliberate in forcing a war with Japan.

Finally, new evidence emerged years after the incident and allegations erupted. This came from John Toland alleging that in deed the navy new of that attack days before it occurred. The president therefore must have the knowledge but his view was for it to happen for this would arouse America. Even after this, Toland seemed just like previous writers with no convincing evidence.




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