Roosevelt's Secret Pre-War Plan to Bomb Japanー story of illegal campaign to bring United States into the Second World War

 Roosevelt's Secret Pre-War Plan to Bomb Japan

Several months before Japan's December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt secretly authorized devastating American bombing raids against Japanese cities. A top secret document de-classified in 1970, but only made public a few years ago, shows that in July 1941 Roosevelt and his top military advisers approved a daring plan to use American pilots and American war planes – deceitfully flying under the Chinese flag – to bomb Japan's major cities.[1]

 Franklin Roosevelt branded December 7, 1941, as "a date which will live in Infamy." And although many millions of Americans still regard Japan's "sneak attack" as the ultimate act of international deceit and treachery, it was hardly unique.

In 1801, Britain's Lord Nelson destroyed Denmark's fleet in a surprise attack on Copenhagen. In May 1846, the U.S. Army invaded Mexican territory before Congress got around to declaring that a state of war existed with Mexico. Far from feeling ashamed about it, Americans later elected as President the commander who had led the expedition, Zachary Taylor. In June 1967, Israel carried out a surprise attack against Egypt, and was widely praised in the U.S. for its adroit skill in destroying almost the entire Egyptian air force while it was still on the ground.

Just about every major power has resorted to surprise attack at one time or another, according to a study by British army officer and historian Sir Frederick Maurice. Between 1700 and 1870, he calculated, France carried out 36 surprise attacks, Britian 30, Austria twelve, Russia seven, Prussia seven, and the United States at least five.[9]

 The long-suppressed story of FDR's plan to bomb Japan certainly deserves to be better known. As sensational as it is, though, it is only one chapter of the larger – and still largely unknown – story of Roosevelt's extensive and illegal campaign to bring a supposedly neutral United States into the Second World War.[10] Indeed even before the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939, Roosevelt was secretly doing everything in his power to incite conflict there.[11]

In the months before the Pearl Harbor attack, the American president accelerated his illegal campaign. For example, after Axis forces launched the fateful June 22,1941, "Barbarossa" attack against Soviet Russia, he promptly began sending American aid to Stalin. On July 25, 1941, Roosevelt froze Japanese assets of $130 million in the United States, thus ending trade relations. He closed the American-run Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. In June and July 1941, he dispatched U.S. troops to occupy Greenland and Iceland. And by September-October 1941, U.S. warships were actively engaging German U-boats in the Atlantic, in flagrant violation of U.S. and international law.[12]

From a larger historical perspective, the magnitude of Roosevelt's undercover military operations against Japan and Germany, at a time when the U.S. was ostensibly neutral, dwarfs other, much ballyhooed, clandestine U.S. military operations in later years, such as President Reagan's help to the Nicaraguan "Contra" fighters, or the infamous Iran-Contra operation.

 

buvery Retweeted

【JB-355計画】真珠湾攻撃の5カ月前の昭和16年7月18日、アメリカ陸海軍合同委員会による日本爆撃計画が大統領に提出されました。中国に航空機を供与して日本を先制爆撃する計画でした。ルーズベルト大統領の承認署名FDRがあります。 pic.twitter.com/GAO6nmuYwR

— 六衛府 (@yukin_done) October 8, 2015

(歴史問題　Flying Tiger）