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

Air Raid, Pearl Harbor! This is No Drill! 339
economic catastrophe it really was. Roosevelt continued to improvise
new policies and new programs to prevent such a revelation.
To put off the day of reckoning and divert public attention
from his domestic failures, he had become more and more involved
in foreign aff airs. As Japan struggled to protect her Asian markets
and sources of supply from ever-increasing communist disruptions,
FDR had taken step-by-step actions to support China and
to strangle the Japanese economy. He had also joined in “parallel
actions” with the British and Dutch to blockade Japan and to
prevent her attempts to extend her trade and infl uence on the
Asian mainland.
Because of her straitened economic circumstances, Japan was
under pressure to obtain from southeast Asia, by fair means or
foul, the oil and other products she needed but which we refused
to let her buy. Time and time again, Joseph Grew, our ambassador
in Japan, had warned FDR that our embargo was starving Japan
economically and that he feared it would eventually lead to war.
Yet his warnings went unheeded. Moreover, FDR had given secret
assent to naval and military agreements to provide American
“armed support” to the British and Dutch if Japan should strike
their southeast Asian territories, which seemed likely as Japan
drove south for the resources she needed.
Several clues were available in Washington from the reading
of MAGIC, which indicated that the Japanese were planning
aggressive action against the United States itself. Yet these
indications were largely ignored, or at least not recognized by the
authorities as serious enough to warrant taking decisive measures,
except to plead for more time to prepare for war. As a result, the
military commanders in the fi eld remained inadequately alerted
to the impending threat.
As the extent of the Pearl Harbor catastrophe trickled in, the
enormity of Washington’s negligence began to become apparent.
Th e authorities then tried to conceal their responsibility and to