← Back to the front page

Fabricated Stories About World War II Still Known by Many

Khalid Elhassan November 15, 2019 35 min

An American battleship sinking in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Encyclopedia Britannica

13. Did FDR Know in Advance About the Japanese Plan to Attack Pearl Harbor?

One of WWII’s worst myths first surfaced during the 1944 presidential campaign. In a nutshell, it claimed that president Franklin Delano Roosevelt knew in advance of the Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor, but allowed it to happen in order to bring the US into the war on Britain’s side against Germany. Aside from the absence of any evidence to support the myth, the claim is irrational and illogical.

The myth stems from the fact that American cryptanalysts had cracked Japanese codes and gleaned messages indicative of hostile intent. However, the 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 failed to take adequate precautions – as did Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines, who was also caught unprepared despite the warnings.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.