On the Claim that the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor Was Totally Out of the Blue

Absurd, absolutely absurd.............a) "We needed the Japanese to make the first attack." Secretary of War, Henry Stimson.............b) From our breaking of the Japanese naval code we knew that an attack on Pearl Harbor was at the very least a possibility.............c) From that same Japanese code we also learned that the Japanese, "must take measures to secure raw materials."............d) "My first feeling was of relief that a crisis had come in a way which would unite all our people." One more time, good Mr. Stimson. RELIEF!!............e) For months, the U.S had been engaged in economic warfare against the Japanese (a termination of the 1911 Commercial Treaty, a signing of the Export Control Act,  a boycott on fuel, a boycott on lubricants, a boycott on scrap iron, a boycott on steel, a total freezing of Japanese assets, etc.) and when you couple that with the movement of our military bases closer and closer to their mainland, it's a miracle that the Japanese didn't attack us earlier.