New docs on Pearl Harbor attack emerge

[TomcatViP]

Sry but US didn't need to be involved in a war to feed their economy.

The war was alrdy raging in EU and China and all the allies fighting were dependent of US materials. Moreover in 1939 teh US economy had alrdy recovered from the great depression.

http://www.usstuckonstupid.com/sos_charts.php

US were more concerned with the War in the Atlantic and the way to protect their marchand fleet and their neutrality.

The last thing they wanted was a war in the Pacific that proved way more costly than profitable.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/pe...acific/numbers

You'll see easily (bottom page) that despite suffering for nearly no destruction in its continental soil, the War did cost much more to the US than any other nations.

The huge cost of furious destruction all over France is also easy readable.

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by TomcatViP

Sry but US didn't need to be involved in a war to feed their economy.

The war was alrdy raging in EU and China and all the allies fighting were dependent of US materials. Moreover in 1939 teh US economy had alrdy recovered from the great depression.

http://www.usstuckonstupid.com/sos_charts.php

US were more concerned with the War in the Atlantic and the way to protect their marchand fleet and their neutrality.

The last thing they wanted was a war in the Pacific that proved way more costly than profitable.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/pe...acific/numbers

You'll see easily (bottom page) that despite suffering for nearly no destruction in its continental soil, the War did cost much more to the US than any other nations.

The huge cost of furious destruction all over France is also easy readable.

Sorry man, but it is a known fact that the US are the only country that did actually gain unmatched economic and industrial supremacy from WW2, have a look at this

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/tassava.WWII

and in particular at the conclusion:
"The U.S.'s Position at the End of the War

At a macroeconomic scale, the war not only decisively ended the Great Depression, but created the conditions for productive postwar collaboration between the federal government, private enterprise, and organized labor, the parties whose tripartite collaboration helped engender continued economic growth after the war. The U.S. emerged from the war not physically unscathed, but economically strengthened by wartime industrial expansion, which placed the United States at absolute and relative advantage over both its allies and its enemies.

Possessed of an economy which was larger and richer than any other in the world, American leaders determined to make the United States the center of the postwar world economy. American aid to Europe ($13 billion via the Economic Recovery Program (ERP) or "Marshall Plan," 1947-1951) and Japan ($1.8 billion, 1946-1952) furthered this goal by tying the economic reconstruction of West Germany, France, Great Britain, and Japan to American import and export needs, among other factors. Even before the war ended, the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 determined key aspects of international economic affairs by establishing standards for currency convertibility and creating institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the precursor of the World Bank.

In brief, as economic historian Alan Milward writes, "the United States emerged in 1945 in an incomparably stronger position economically than in 1941"... By 1945 the foundations of the United States' economic domination over the next quarter of a century had been secured"... [This] may have been the most influential consequence of the Second World War for the post-war world" (Milward, 63)."

[TomcatViP]

you are absolutely right saying that post war US did benefit from the fall down of the war. But my point was that US didn't need to commit itself into a war only to fight the great depression.

In 1939 that was alrdy nearly a thing of the past.

[335th_GRAthos]

Guys, am I wrong to believe that the naval base did receive a message from Washington that there was a probability they could become target of a Japanese attack but, this message arrived that morning so too late as the Japanese attack was already on the way?

~S~

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by TomcatViP

you are absolutely right saying that post war US did benefit from the fall down of the war. But my point was that US didn't need to commit itself into a war only to fight the great depression.

In 1939 that was alrdy nearly a thing of the past.

mmmmh I don't know, the impression you get by the war effort is that industries were striving to start such an unprecedented mass production, so much that a lot of the new stuff produced went straight into surplus storage and in many cases was axed without having even being used. Let's not even go into the issues regarding occupation and the clever idea of the Marshall plan.

In a nutshell, I reckon that the influential industry giants pressed hard on the Congress and ultimately on FDR for an entry to war, which turned out to be the best choice the US made since their birth.

[fireship4]

US didn't need to commit itself into a war only to fight the great depression

I may be confusing this with world war I, but if the allies had lost the war then the US would have lost the huge loans it made to the other powers. Weapons, ammunition, money, etc.

the clever idea of the Marshall plan.

Yes, I haven't studied it properly, but iirc they were re-development loans which could only be used to pay for material from the US.

[ElAurens]

One trap we always fall into on subjects pertaining to the US entry into the Pacific War is viewing these events with our modern perspectives and mores.

The view of Japan in the eyes of early/mid 20th Century Americans and Europeans was a very racist and distorted one. The Japanese were viewed as (literally) near sighted, short, people incapable of innovative thought, incapable of building anything but cheap copies of small household trinkets, and would never be able to fight a war against anyone but a poor, and poorly lead country, like China.

All intelligence to the contrary was simply ignored because it flew in the face of our pre-conceived ideas of what Japan was capable of. A perfect example is the stream of intel sent by Claire Chennault to the War Department about the capabilities of the Japanese in the air. General Chennault had first hand experience fighting the Japanese Air Forces, both Army and Navy in his role as air advisor to the Chinese government. Yet he was roundly ignored by the military brass back home.

There was no conspiracy. We simply did not take the Japanese seriously at all, because of our racial bias against Asians.

[TomcatViP]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

One trap we always fall into on subjects pertaining to the US entry into the Pacific War is viewing these events with our modern perspectives and mores.

The view of Japan in the eyes of early/mid 20th Century Americans and Europeans was a very racist and distorted one. The Japanese were viewed as (literally) near sighted, short, people incapable of innovative thought, incapable of building anything but cheap copies of small household trinkets, and would never be able to fight a war against anyone but a poor, and poorly lead country, like China.

All intelligence to the contrary was simply ignored because it flew in the face of our pre-conceived ideas of what Japan was capable of. A perfect example is the stream of intel sent by Claire Chennault to the War Department about the capabilities of the Japanese in the air. General Chennault had first hand experience fighting the Japanese Air Forces, both Army and Navy in his role as air advisor to the Chinese government. Yet he was roundly ignored by the military brass back home.

There was no conspiracy. We simply did not take the Japanese seriously at all, because of our racial bias against Asians.

Very good add.

A lot of US officials did not believe for tht reason that any serious US force could be regulary defeated by the Japanese.

What is ironic is that many Japanese official latter in the war had a reciprocal tough against US armies