On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
On December 8, 1941 the United States Congress declared war on Japan. The one dissenting vote was, interstingly enough, the same woman who voted against declaring war in 1917. It was also interesting because in 1917 very few women had the vote, but she was in congress.
She was a consistent pacifist.
But something else happened in those twenty-four hours between December 7 and December 8. President Roosevelt was desperately trying to realize his dreamof getting the United States into the war against Germany. But, even at the height of war hysteria, he could not get the votes.
Remember, this was the pre-World War II generation, and they were not blindly obedient. So from December 7 to December 11 the United States was at war only with Japan. I say December 7 because the declaration said specifically that a state of war had existed from the moment the Japanese attacked.
That was a critical period. Newt Gingrich even wrote a novel that was based on the idea that Hitler never declared war on the United States, so the German Reich was still in existence in the 1990s.
On December 11, 1941, Hitler gave Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin the greatest gift they had ever received. He did what Roosevelt had tried so hard to do on December 7. He declared war on the United States, a white country, “on the side of heroic Japan.”
If Hitler had not given this gift to Roosevelt, the very victory he had fought for and lost, the United States’ full militray effort would have been in Asia. Even after Hitler’s declaration, newspapers complained about the effort the United States was putting in backing Britain’s war in Europe and how we were ignoring the heroes the Japanese held as prisoners who survived the Bataan Death March.
If Hitler had not declared war, every ounce of effort Roosevelt put into Europe would have been subject to the complaint that it was not going into the war effort, the war against Japan.
It is impossible to explain why Hitler took Roosevelt’s side this way and backed Roosevelt, but may have been the greatest strategic blunder in history.
Instead of a united Communist Empire, the world would have had a mutually hostile Germany and Russia.
#1 by Peter on 12/09/2005 - 10:58 pm
Hitler didn’t declare on the US. He said that “a state war existed between the US and Germany.”
The reason was simple: Roosevelt was already at war with Germany and Europe.
Roosevelt was blowing up German vessels, Roosevelt was killing innocent Germans, Roosevelt had blockaded Germany, Roosevelt was bankrolling the war against Europe, Roosevelt was providing ships, armaments, and munitions free of charge in the war against Europe. Roosevelt was backing both heads of the same Jewish dragon: international Communism and and international Capitalism. The Germans found themselves caught in the middle between two totalitarian extremist states. When the Germans rolled into Russia, they found mile after mile of Ford trucks. Trucks made by the same man who sent a personal check to Hitler each year, by the same man who commissioned the International Jew.
Hitler said a state of war existed between the US and Germany not only because Roosevelt was running the war against Europe, but also because he declared war on an ally. When Roosevelt declared war against Japan war against the Japs’ allies was explicit. The US was at war with Europe in practice before December 7, the US was at war with Europe by declaration after December 7.
Bob, I have asked this before:
Why do you believe the South began the Civil War with Fort Sumter?
#2 by Peter on 12/09/2005 - 11:22 pm
In other words, the premise of Newt Gingrich’s book was stupid. Think about it.
#3 by lemon on 12/10/2005 - 12:07 pm
There was a funny poll in our paper this morning. It showed evangelical softening attitude toward Jews. One guestion was would you vote for a jew for president? I never had thought much about that, but after 9-11 I sure wouldn’t. It’s bad enough as it is! Shari
#4 by Elizabeth on 12/10/2005 - 2:40 pm
The media has always been better positioned in Europe than in Asia.
Before the shooting even started, the media was already in position in
Europe. In Asia, the media couldn’t get to the shooting except by
means of the military’s transportation network.
Before Pearl Harbor, this country completely underestimated the
Japanese. Look up 1930s articles in general circulation U.S.
magazines about the Japanese…