Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

xiv Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
a particular incident must always decide where to start, how far
back to go. And so it is with Pearl Harbor. Th e Japanese attack
in 1941 was the fi nal outcome of complex, interconnected occurrences
that had their origins many years before. For the purpose
of this book, I have chosen to trace the confl icting forces that led
the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor in 1941, back to the 1894–
1895 Sino-Japanese War.
Events happen; once they are over and done with, they are
irrevocable. Learning after the fact what actually occurred is not
always easy. History needs to be written and rewritten constantly
in the light of newly revealed evidence and newly acquired knowledge
in other fi elds. As previously classifi ed and secret World
War II documents have been released in recent years, considerable
additional information has become available. To reconcile
the confl icting testimony of the many witnesses before the several
Pearl Harbor investigations, to keep abreast of new material as it
becomes available, to integrate new data into the previous body of
knowledge, and to separate the wheat from the chaff so as to make
it all intelligible and meaningful, calls for painstaking research
and analysis. Th e task of the historian is to try to reconstruct and
report the facts as accurately as possible. As historian, I have acted
as sleuth or detective trying to determine the truth. Th e Pearl
Harbor story is like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, the parts coming
from many diff erent sources, each part alone being of little value
until fi tted into the mosaic. Hopefully this book will supply a few
more pieces to the gigantic Pearl Harbor jigsaw puzzle and thus
make a small contribution to this period in history.
Percy L. Greaves, Jr.
Summer 1984