24. The Claim That FDR Knew That Japan Planned to Attack Pearl Harbor, But Did Nothing
One of the more pernicious World War II myths claims that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt knew in advance of the Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor. He nonetheless allowed it to happen in order to get America into the war on Britain’s side. The claim, which arose in the context of the 1944 presidential elections, is not supported by any credible evidence, and is both irrational and illogical. It is based on the fact that American cryptanalysts had cracked Japanese codes and gleaned messages indicative of hostile intent. However, those messages did not specify the when and where of Japan’s aggressive designs.
Warnings were issued to American commanders throughout the Pacific, but the ones in Pearl Harbor did not take adequate precautions. Neither did Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines, who was also caught unprepared despite the warnings. As to the myth’s illogic, FDR saw Nazi Germany as the world’s greatest menace, and sought to rearm and prepare America for what he deemed the inevitability of war against fascism. There is no causal nexus between allowing the Japanese to bomb Pearl Harbor and the US going to war against Nazi Germany. It was Germany that FDR wanted to fight, not Japan. The Japanese attacking the US would have resulted in war against Japan, not against Germany.
