Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Faultline
But we declared war on Japan, which wasn't an Axis power at the time.
|
I'm sorry, but that's incorrect. Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in September 1940, significantly increasing tension in US-Japanese relations. Many CTs incorrectly claim that FDR allowed Pearl Harbor to be attacked because Germany would have been obligated to declare war on America under the terms of the treaty; actually, members were required to declare war only if another member were attacked. In fact, Japan did not declare war on the Soviet Union when Germany invaded in June 1941; CTs tend to ignore this inconvenient point.
Quote:
|
Germany declared war on US after Pearl Harbor because of our insistance on supplying England despite the German U-Boat blockade, not because Japan attacked.
|
Historian Richard Hill, although a Pearl Harbor CT, has come up with the most likely explanation for Hitler's declaring war on the US. Note that Hitler never declared war on any other country; he simply attacked. Hill feels that Hitler, who hadn't had any recent military successes, was simply trying to grab a share of the credit for Pearl Harbor. According to Hill, the Germans attempted to "retract" the declaration of war the next day by claiming that Hitler was merely stating the obvious; that US and German naval units were then shooting at each other (see my previous post). Of course by then it was too late.
Quote:
|
I appreciate your candor in stating your objectivity. You don't think that FDR or anyone else knew of the impending attack. I think we can look at history and decide that they SHOULD have known SOMETHING was coming, but they didn't have any way of knowing when, where, or how.
|
I get the impression that
turbonium is at best noncommittal about the CT. As to knowing where and when the attack would come, there were enough small clues that superior intelligence analysis might have pieced together to figure it out, but doing so would have required considerable skill and luck. CTs who claim that the clues were "obvious" are simply using hindsight.
[edited for grammar and clarity]