Thank God we had FDR, because if we had Bush, he would have wanted to ignore Japan and invade a country that had oil. If we'd had FDR in mid-September 2001, bin Laden would have been dead by Christmas.

Not a humorous story, but a good retelling of a major failure of intelligence and communications. Too bad so many young people will have learned of Pearl Harbor from that Ben Afleck movie. One of the reasons Japan attacked was that the United States had cut off exports of oil and metal. FDR knew to put the right men in charge. We defeated two modern industrial nations in less than four years, completely occupied them and rewrote their basic laws to ensure neither would ever pose a military threat again. Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and now Obama have been fighting for over 20 years against a handful of 7th century desert savages and cave dwellers with no end in sight. If Obama or his successor ever brings this war to an end, it will be through unilateral withdrawal on our part. One thing FDR had that our recent crop did not have was the moral certainty that the United States and its ideals are superior to those of our foes, and that we have the absolute right to pursue the utter annihilation of anyone who threatens them. If Bush I had been FDR he would have backed up the Iraqi rebels and overthrown Saddam in 1991, Milosovic would not have dared pursue genocide in Yugoslavia. If America had been the imperialists our enemies accuse us of being, we would have seized Saudi Arabia, and by now women their would have the vote and be allowed to drive cars.

The US knew MONTHS in advance that Japan was preparing to attack from Naval intelligence and chose to ignore that. Then, on Dec 7th aroud 5am the USS Ward fired on a Japanese mini-sub trying to enter the Harbor- 3 hrs before the first wave came in. Add the blunder of misinterpreting the first wave by radar as just a flight of B-17s and you have a mess. The Japanese also never sent in the third wave which would have certainly cost even more lives. Anyway, nice story telling (I would be more specific if I do a parody on this attack)- 555!!!

Hu - I can tell you the location of all the major ships and many of the smaller ones, not to mention those who made up the Japanese attack force. For historical accuracy, forget the recent film Pearl Harbor and check out Tora! Tora! Tora! ;D

OMR. I saw the Afleck 'Pearl Harbor' at a theater, based on the trailer, which was one of the best ever. As soon as I left the theater, I went straight to a video store and bought a copy of "Tora, Tora, Tora". I once saw a book published in early 1941 which touted Pearl Harbor's invulnerability to surprise attack. Despite the coded message intercepts, Washington would not warn Admiral Kimmel. As you noted, the USS Ward sank a Japanese mini sub that had to have had a larger support ship nearby. The radar detections were written off as the B-17's. The radar crew knew which direction the Japanese planes were coming from. The B-17's could have been armed and sent after the fleet. The whole debacle was a massive failure of communications. In the Afleck movie the P-40 pilots talk on their radios to lure two Japanese planes into a mid air collision. Later, on Doolittle's raid, they manage to talk to their girlfriends back in Hawaii. The producers ignored the fact that radios in those days weighed a lot and were left off the planes on the raid to make room for more fuel.

In 4th Grade, I did a report in front of the class on Pearl Harbor, and if I remember correctly, which I sure I do, I got an "A" on it! ;-) So you get a 555 on this parody report! :-)