#3 ~ The attack on Pearl Harbor
We’re Coming around the bend in the road, good creative people, with our goal of the number one top conspiracy theory of all time in our sights – and boy is it coming up quick. Today I have for you a tale of misinformation, ulterior motives, double-sided war funding, and poisoned corruption which leads its sickly serpentine trail all the way up to the President himself! This is…
The attack on Pearl Harbor
On December 7th, 1941; famously described by FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt; the 32nd president of the USA), as, “A date which will live in infamy”, the Empire of Japan caught us completely unawares, (with our pants around our ankles, sitting on the john, reading maxim), when they launched 353 aircraft – in two deadly waves – hellbent on destroying our naval fleet – and hoping to prevent our inevitable involvement in their invasion of south-east Asia (the Philippine islands were a territory of ours).
When all was said and done, the attack claimed; the lives of 2,350 American citizens (1,178 instantly from the Arizona, which was hit with an armor-piercing shell, and exploded… sinking in seconds), 9 naval ships (2 were later brought up, and put back into service), damaging 21 more (3 were irreparable), and effectively ending the collective consensus among American citizens to take a stance of isolationism from foreign happenings in Japan, and most of what was happening in Europe for WWII as a whole.
On December 8th, 1941 – the very next day – our visa as a Neutral party in WWII was revoked when we declared war on the Empire of Japan, and joined the Allies in their fight against the members of the tripartite Pact, or the Axis (of evil! In later years even President Bush himself went evil…). And… that’s how history went. And not a single one among us can question it. Take care good creative people, thanks for reading…have a great day…
Or, is it? Dun, Dun, Dun (i feel like I’m over-using that, but frankly I don’t care :-P)!
A widely popularized misnomer of the situation is that we had no idea about the oncoming attack to pearl harbor. 
However multiple accounts in the days – and even years – leading up to the attack might lead you to believe otherwise. Grab your comically over-sized Magnifying glass, and get your best Dick Tracy trench-coat ready creative peeps – were about to become detectives to this conspiracy!
Flashback: Feb 1, 1933; Hawaii, (8 years, 10 months, 6 days, before Pearl Harbor was attacked)
Fighter planes circle the small helpless island of O’ahu Hawaii, home to Pearl Harbor, and conquer the hapless island unquestioningly – despite the numerous Battleships, Cruisers, and Destroyers stationed there. Luckily, this was only an excercise. The reason for this theatrical demonstration was to highlight the weaknesses of the small island in the pacific, and prepare it for, (wait for it…), an impending attack, most likely to come from Japan.
You see, for years Japan; a nation of roughly 50 Million at the time, had been running out of land and resources (on their isolated tiny islands off the coast of eastern Asia), that could adequately support all its citizens. After a few trying decades, where the crowding got completely out of hand (actually it still is…), Japan felt it had no other choice but to start trying to find its people another place to live. With their superior numbers, and China right across the way (I can see china from here), they had thought it a pretty swell idea to start invading parts of their neighbor, eventually turning their sights toward south-east asia as well, in an effort to assuage their tiny islands woes.
So, in the late 1920’s, right on into the early 1930’s Japan forced its influence into these areas, and began to undertake the familiar process of imperialization, with some isolated battles that were labeled “incidents” (a cute term, no doubt used to hide their terrible acts, like gremlins…don’t add water!).
Enter big bad USA
We didn’t like the idea that Japan was spreading its wings. We had plenty of interests in south-east Asia (Like I mentioned earlier, the Philippines was our territory, and hard-won too – through our own imperialist ventures; namely the Spanish-American war), and we knew that if Japan’s conquering ways weren’t stifled, that we would lose the land. What we needed to do was to rush in there and fight, we needed to protect our sovereignty, we needed a war. But how could we, when the American people had taking such a shining to the idea of isolationism? We couldn’t just charge into war with out the support of the people behind us…
This posed a large problem to the US government
If we waited to attack, and allowed Japan to get fortified into a position of defense in eastern Asia, it would be a very difficult stronghold to break, and, not to mention, Germany was at the time busily gobbling up all the other nations in Europe, which meant that soon, if we did nothing, we would have enemy’s knocking on the front, and the back door of our nation… The question became, behind locked doors and in private meetings: how do we get Japan to attack us?
(1 year, and 2 months, before Pearl Harbor)
October 7th, 1940. The 8 action memo; a little known/remembered memorandum, was written by Arthur H. McCollum, and sent out to Navy Captains; Dudley Knox, and 
Walter Stratton Anderson. This lengthy, well-preserved, eight bulleted document proposes a plan (of 8 steps), to bait the Japan into attacking us at Pearl Harbor, which will result in (other then all the horrific death, tragedy, broken families, and property damage), the whole of America immediately abandoning their isolationist ideals, and rallying behind the war effort (officially the president never saw this memo… although presidential logs and collateral Naval intelligence strongly suggests otherwise).
To Conspiracy theorists across the globe, two points of the memo (other than it’s existence itself), stick out as shocking:
1) We put an embargo on all dealings with Japan (Up until this point, we had been the majority supplier to their war effort, as 80% of their consumed oil came from us.), which will make them desperate, and force them to be on a deadline – as their reserves could only last 2 years at best without our support.
2) We place multiple ships at Pearl Harbor, a place very hard to get back-up to quickly in an emergency situation (as proved through the mock attack back in 1933).
Is it just me, or is this is starting to sound less and less like conspiracy, and more like truth, creative people? We backed the lion into the corner – after starving him for a year – and proceeded to dangle our we-willy’s at it, double-smoked bacon wrapped around… what did we really expect to happen?
On October 8th, 1940 (the day after the memo came about), Admiral James O. Richardson – commander of the Pacific fleet – requested that his ships be removed from Hawaii, as he felt that both the ships, and his men’s lives, were being placed at risk for no apparent reason… FDR promptly replied to the wise Admiral with a resounding NO, stating that the ships would remain where they were, as they were there as protective measure (to who Delano, I thought we knew nothing of an attack…).
July 6th, 1941 (4 months & a day before pearl harbor), the US had its Oil embargo; it had begun to starve the tiger
Japan’s options had run out. If the Empire hadn’t acted to stifle our fleet (so that they might invade their neighboring provinces), then they would be right back to where they had started… with no land or resources to support their people. They needed time to solidify their position in Asia before the Calvary arrived, so, to slow our fleet, they pounced on Pearl Harbor like that starving tiger lusting after that bacon, and eventually felt the weight of repercussions in a way unlike any t he world had ever seen.
President Harry S. Truman OK’s the bomb
Fat-man, and little-boy landed on August 6th, and 9th, 1945; in Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively… They killed over a quarter of a million citizens… and decimated enormous amounts of land. Land that would not be safe to live in for years to come.
They surrendered 6 days later.
The Allied powers went on to defeat the Axis in WWII, thanks in no small part to the US involvement. But, when we examine the evidence; with all the lives lost, the lies and betrayal, and the conspiracy, one cant help but wonder… who really is more Evil.
There can be no question that Hitler was an insane individual, but perhaps Japan, and Italy were simply misguided. It would seem to me that, yet again, someone had interests in us going to war, good creative people… who could that be? You’ll have to stop on by this fri/saturday to find out the number one greatest conspiracy theory of all time, and to hear my final thoughts on the matter.
As always, stay curious, stay creative, and take care.
Don’t stop now, only two more to go!
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JaredBlakeDiCroce 