Pearl Harbor Dbq

There are many arguments made by intelligent historians that accuse president Franklin Roosevelt of deliberately provoking an attack from Japan in order to get involved in World War II. These claims come from a wide berth of evidence. For instance, one of the most common arguments that revisionists make is Roosevelt had a weak force at Pearl Harbor on purpose.(Theobald 262). They believe that he wanted to entice an attack from Japan by giving them the opportunity to make their move, knowing that it would not be hard to take down the ships/aircraft at Pearl Harbor. FDR was clearly leaning towards war based on these actions and his conversations with Admiral Richardson in 1940, saying that there had to be a drastic incident in the US to make

This important conference helped keep peace between the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and France over the Pacific Ocean. Once this pact was dissolved, it was pretty easy for the US to become a target. Another reason historians think FDR knew about Japan’s plans is because it was clear that something big was about to happen right before the attack. Tensions were high between Japan and the US, which should have put the US on high alert and ready for an attack. (A 297). Instead, Roosevelt ordered that the fleet in Pearl Harbor be weakened instead of strengthened, as mentioned above. Revisionists argue the president did nothing to prevent or prepare for these attacks despite all of the clear evidence that they would happen. Intercepted government codes are also pointed evidence that the US knew about the attacks. As Historian B neatly outlined in arguments, cryptologists in the 1920s cracked codes from Japan that gave indication of the country’s war preparations. (B 36). There were many codes that revisionist claim should have pointed in every way possible towards an impending war with the US. However, based on what we know today, there is little that the US could have done to prevent the Japanese from