Did Franklin Roosevelt know Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked?

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Did President Franklin Roosevelt know Pearl Harbor was going

to be attacked? On December 7, 1941 the United States of America

was attacked at the naval base in Pearl Harbor by the Empire of

Japan. It was a day considered by President Roosevelt to live in

infamy. Pearl Harbor was the home to a large part of the United

States aircraft carrier fleet. It was definitely an intriguing

attack site for Japan to hit. The attack was an obvious surprise

to everyone living in the area of Pearl Harbor and the United

States. Journalist Clarke Beach of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin

said this 3 months before the attack, 'A Japanese attack on

Hawaii is regarded as the most unlikely thing in the world, with

one chance in a million of being successful' (Lord 33) Beach and

everyone else in the country would have no idea that they would

lose thousands of lives in what was an incident that was thought

to never happen.

The United States was now united in a obvious

decision to enter World War II. The question about this day that

still remains is did our own President have information that this

attack was going to happen. Did he let the attack happen because

he believed from the start of World War II that the United States

should have entered it then? This paper will explore the

possibilities that President Franklin Roosevelt had knowledge

before hand that Japan was planning an attack on Pearl Harbor or

that he had no involvement what so ever in the sneak attack.

When considering whether or not President Roosevelt knew

that Japan was going to attack Pearl Harbor, you have to consider

his viewpoint on entering World War II. Many people that

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criticized Roosevelt believed that there was a large...