6/28/2023 0 Comments Pearl Harbor by Richard Freeman![]() How different was the British scene in the years leading up to the First World War. There was no pressure to act, so all the warning signs were ignored. But the Americans’ abhorrence of war meant that their politicians were untroubled by political opinion. Never, perhaps, has a nation been so thoroughly warned of impending danger. That year saw a rapid deterioration in Japanese-US relations, coupled with repeated warnings from diplomats and intelligence services that Japan was planning an attack in the Pacific. Thus the Americans should have been deeply suspicious of the Japanese even before 1941. ![]() Their invasion of French Indochina followed in 1940. In 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria after contriving a bogus incident to cover its own aggression. The Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05 began with Japan’s pre-emptive strike on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. Did public hysteria in Britain help fend off an attack, while public apathy in America help to precipitate one?ĭespite their nonchalant attitude, the Americans had every reason to expect an attack, given what they knew about the Japanese. ![]() In the years leading up to the First World War the British lived in terror of a surprise attack and invasion by the German High Seas Fleet. ![]() The attack duly came on December 7th that year. In December 1941 most Americans refused to believe that the Japanese would mount a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. ![]()
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