1 A disrespectful comment from a South Korean IP was deleted.

2 We were fiercely divided before Pearl Harbor, many felt that we had been maneuvered into a war by the Roservelt-Churchill cabal. However, the country came together immediately to defeat the twin foes.f the ultra- right and nationalistic foes of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany.

3 I first read about the battle in Herman Woulk's "War and Remberance", where he brought the battle to life. As far as a know, his treatment was accurate. Thanks for mentioning this bit of history that shows true American character.

4 And when reported in the NYT it was descrobed as a pointless failure. Nothing has changed at the MYT except Judy.

5 The six DAYS of the Battle of Leyte Gulf sure puts the "grim milestone" marker of the current war in Iraq in perspective - eh? God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces

6 The Battle of Surigao Strait is more properly thought of as the night battleship action south of Leyte Gulf, where Adm Oldendorff's battle group "crossed the T" of the Japanese Southern Force. We sank 2 Jap battleships (IIRC) and some cruisers and destroyers in what would be the last battleship-on-battleship fight. (2 of our battleships had been sunk at Pearl Harbor, and, resurrected, got some revenge.) The heroic destroyer attack took place off Samar, on the next morning.

7 Thank you for posting this article. My grandfather, who passed away a few years ago, was a gunner's mate and plankowner of the Samuel B. Roberts. He was a hard-as-nails Navy man and one of the few survivors of the assault of the Japanese navy. If you're interested, there's a great book called "The Spirit of the Sammy B" about the battle written from the perspective of the small destroyer escort.

8 Actually John, we were maneuvered into the war. I found it especially interesting that there was a program on the History Channel last night about exactly that subject, and they had more information, honestly and objectively presented, than I had seen before. There were numerous reports from military intelligence about the impending attack, and all were ignored so that the Japanese would strike the first blow. Pearl Harbor was sacrificed by a liberal socialist president so that we could enter the war on Russia's side. It wasn't about saving Britain or the Jews, it was about saving Roosevelt's buddy Stalin, whom Roosevelt referred to as "good old Joe" and said that he was "misunderstood". Roosevelt, our second liberal president, after Wilson, was also the second president to get us into a global war, and like the first war and the ruinous Treaty of Versailles, after the second, the groundwork was laid for decades more of misery and conflict by Roosevelt's and Trumans capitulations to the Communists. The times we live in now, the troubles we endure, are all products of the schemings and machinations of liberals, socialists, and so-called progressives. Liberals delenda est.

9 I have no problem with your overall theme Improbulus that Roosevelt maneuvered the Japanese into taking the first shot, but I do have some quibbles. I do not believe it was obvious the Japanese were going to hit Pearl Harbor. Quite clearly intelligence knew the Japanese were up to something, knew an internal Japanese deadline had come and gone, but did not have uh what is the phrase? Actionable intelligence, that's it. Lincoln also maneuvered the rebels to take the first shot as well. I think Roosevelt wanted to stop Hitler more than anything else.

10 Marcus, Right on both counts. Roosevelt was much more interested in the Germans, and in fact he was already at war with the Germans in the North Atlantic. The problem he had was that the Germans were not interested in declaring war on the United States unless Japan entered the war on the Axis side. German submarines had already been fired upon and sunk by US combat ships, and they had basically done nothing but pontificate. The Japanese were the key to Germany declaring war on the US, and Roosevelt knew it. This is, of course, subject to debate, but it's pretty apparent that Roosevelt was aware of a likely Japanese attack on US interests in the Pacific. Several warnings were sent out to various regional commanders in the Pacific, so obviously the Americans knew the Japanese were up to something. Many intelligence reports indicated movement of Japanese warships and troop transports. Personally, I think Roosevelt knew an attack was imminent and did nothing to stop it. I don't think he knew it would be at Pearl Harbor, but that still does not excuse him. But he needed the Japanese to attack and get the US in the war. The German-Japanese treaty previously signed by the parties pretty much guanranteed the German entry on the side of their ally, Japan. Roosevelt had his wish, and we all know what followed. Basically, the end of the West.

11 Beware of the BUNGO STREIGHTS and the ALAKAZI

12 We did not know for certain the nature of the Japanese aggression. Roosevelt was one of a small number of people with access to the decoded intercepts. I have always found it hard to believe that all these military men sacrified their brothers in arms for an excuse to get into the war, and all of them went to their graves without tellling the "real story". If we would have smashed the Japanese fleet the day before they attacked us America would have still gone to war and the Pacific war would have been pretty much over. If we would have alerted our Army Air Corps one hour before the attack over 50 fighters could have met the Japanese planes and we still would have gone to war. It is possible that we wanted to cover up the fact that we had broke the Japanese diplomatic code. That would have been a hard decision, but one still focused on the saving of more lives later on, at Coral Sea, Midway and other battles. From what I have read most of the cryptographers thought the Japanese would take out the over extended British and Dutch and leave us out of it, thus forcing us to be "the agressors". The messages to the Japanese diplomats, if I remember correctly, said that they were going to war, not "we are attacking Pearl Harbor". We could have handled the road to war better, but the Imperial Japanese are the ones to blame for Pearl Harbor. All they had to do was develop an alternative to imported oil and they wouldn't have needed to kill millions to get to the Indonesian oil fields. Or, maybe they could have not invaded Vietnam and then we wouldn't have cut off their oil supply.