In honor of tomorrow's sixty-fifth anniversary of Pearl Harbor, I've dredged up a sixty-year-old Routers piece on who was really behind it...

December 7, 1946

HONOLULU (Routers) Five years after the sinking of the battleships in Pearl Harbor, many still question the official government story of what happened on that fateful day, and who was responsible. Some believe that the Roosevelt administration did it themselves, deliberately, making it look like Japanese religious fanatics were responsible, in order to drag the country into a war that they could get by no other means, to benefit arms merchants and the Jews.

The controversy has been renewed by a recently released film documentary, titled "Loose Ships." It makes a compelling case against the Shinto extremist theory, citing inconsistent eyewitness reports, mistaken radar readings, and structural analysis of the sunken battleships.

"It makes no sense to think that Japanese Shintoists could have done this," explains one of the film's producers. "Shinto is a deeply spiritual religion, derived from Buddhism, worshiping nature. A Shintoist would never have desecrated Pearl Harbor with all of that leaking and burning diesel fuel and oil. It is fundamentally a religion of peace."

He points out that many eyewitnesses saw American planes in the air that day, and that the radar images that many claim, preposterously in his view, were of the attacking Japanese aircraft, were actually a squadron of American B-17s on its way to Hickam Air Force Base, perhaps to take part in the plot. The Truman administration itself has admitted that there was a group of bombers in the area that morning, on its way from the mainland, though a War Department spokesman claimed that it was too far away and in the wrong direction to appear on radar at that point in time.

The documentarian went on to expand on his theory. "We don't think that Japanese aircraft would have the range to get here all the way from Japan, but if by some miracle they did, it was probably to protect Honolulu, in which many Japanese live, from the administration plot. That's probably what people were seeing."

Some have examined the wreckage of the Arizona, and claim that it wasn't brought down by aerial bombs, but by charges planted on the ship beforehand.

"Look at those two huge circular holes in the front and rear of the sunken ship," he said. "No bomb is big enough to make a hole that size, and do it so cleanly. It was obviously a shaped charge of some kind. It's just not possible to take down ships that big with the little bombs that are carried in those little Japanese airplanes."

"They killed thousands of sailors for their filthy war, and many of them died a long and horrible death in air pockets. And take a look at the roster of the people who died on the Arizona. How many Jewish names do you see there? I think they were warned ahead of time. And how do they explain the radio transmissions that were picked up with cries of 'Torah, Torah, Torah'?"

"It was all part of the Zionist neo-liberal conspiracy to drag America into a needless war of choice."

In response to suggestions that the Japanese used aircraft carriers, and that many of the Japanese planes were torpedo bombers, and that the large holes were the empty sockets for the gun turrets, that were removed afterward, he scoffed. "That's all just Franklin Delano Rosenfeld administration propaganda," he sneered knowingly.

Some enterprising and innovative people have carried the analysis further. In one sequence shown in the documentary, a man built a wooden model of the ship in his pond, and filmed himself dropping lit firecrackers on it from above, to demonstrate how preposterous was the notion that ships could be sunk by bombs. They seemed to have no effect other than a slight scorching of the deck, and the sturdy little toy remained afloat.

He was proud of his own small part in uncovering the cover up. "Other than the fact that the ship is wood, which is much weaker than steel, and I used firecrackers instead of iron bombs, and that there was no ammunition magazine aboard to explode, this is a perfect simulation of what the Roosevelt administration claims happened to the Arizona. But there the ship floats, to show to one and all the administration's lie. And how convenient of Roosevelt to die a year and a half ago, so he can avoid having to answer these questions."

[Copyright 2006, by Rand Simberg]

Obviously Rosenfeld had learned from his co-conspirator Churchill (or should we say "synagogue-hill", ha ha) who had arranged the faked explosions on the Hood in the North Atlantic to justify continuing his and that warmonger Chamberlain's war of choice against the peaceful, kite-flying, picknicing German people.

There is all very fun. However there are some very nutty conspiracy theories in the real world surrounding Pearl Harbor, to the effect that FDR knew it was going to happen and allowed it in order to force America in the war. Sounds kind of familier.

This would be funny if the parallels were not so eerily easy to draw. Great satirical writing.

Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark, Rand. ;-p

Be sure to slap your copyright on it.

(Yes, I know that as soon as you write something it's copyrighted, but it doesn't hurt to remind people who wrote it.)

Nice job, Rand. I always enjoy your satire-news pieces, and this is a good specimen of the breed.

Pursuant to Mark's comment, it just so happens that the parallels go even deeper than most people know. In fact, the performance of American intel agencies in fall 1941 was a mix of "very good" and "exceptionally dreadful." By December 1st there was little doubt left in the FDR administration that the Japanese were going to attack. Declassified documents and private memoirs of various people make it clear that FDR not only expected but wanted the Japanese to attack.

BUT he and all his advisors, relying on the best intel data available, expected the attack to fall in the Southwest Pacific -- against the Philippines and/or the Dutch East Indies, because the obvious Japanese objective was the Indonesian oilfields. No one expected an attack against Pearl Harbor. No one even knew the Japanese had enough fleet aircraft carriers in commission to launch such an attack, or enough effective carrier-based aircraft to carry it out.

As we all now know, they were very very wrong.

Is this a real sotry coming from the mainstream media, or is it a piece of sarcasm? It's so hard to tell the difference these days.

You could add:

1. The USS Arizona was supposedly sunk by a bomb that went down her smokestack, but after the attack the metal grating atop the smokestacks can be seen intact. After this revelation, government sources began to explain that the bomb must have missed the smokestack and hit the forward magazine. Sources who spoke upon condition of confidentiality doubted whether a bomb could have penetrated the armor, and raised the possibility that the ship was intentionally sunk by government agents.

2. Before the attack, it was generally accepted that Pearl Harbor was too shallow to permit attack by aircraft torpedos which, upon being dropped, go deep into the water before coming up to their preset depth. Government spokesmen now claim that the Japanese sidestepped this by slapping large plywood fins on the torpedos. But several experts with whom we spoke doubted that such a jury-rig could have been successful. "You can't just glue a bunch of plywood to a torpedo, for pete's sake," one explained, "the stuff isn't even waterproof. The bottom line is, torpedos didn't sink those ships."

It's hard to blame the failure to guard Pearl Harbor on bad intel. The United States had recently enacted an embargo cutting off crucial war materiel from Japan and had admitted the two nations has irreconcialable positions. With Imperial Japan deeply committed to an invasion of China, their only options were to withdraw, which no one thought they would do, or to seize the Dutch East Indies.

We knew war was coming and that we would be directly involved. We had instituted the mechanisms for a draft, opened magnesium plants, began work on the Pentagon, etc. After the breakdown in talks between the U.S. and Japan in November,every U.S. installation on earth should have been on high alert. This was gross incompetence.

talk to the remaining participants....they can tell you what happened at Pearl. As to the surprise factor, it happened in Poland in 1939; Russia in 1941; Seoul in 1950; Yom Kippur in '71;so who was asleep at the wheel then? The point of secrecy is that it's secret, and one does not telegraph one's actions.

Is this real or satire? You make the call:

SEN. GRAHAM: Do you believe the Iranians would consider using that nuclear weapons capability against the nation of Israel?

MR. GATES: I don’t know that they would do that, Senator. I think that the risks for them obviously are enormously high. I think that they see value --

SEN. GRAHAM: If I may?

MR. GATES: Yes, sir.

SEN. GRAHAM: The president of Iran has publicly disavowed the existence of the Holocaust, he has publicly stated that he would like to wipe Israel off the map. Do you think he’s kidding?

MR. GATES: No, I don’t think he’s kidding. And -- but I think that there are, in fact, higher powers in Iran than he, than the president. And I think that while they are certainly pressing, in my opinion, for a nuclear capability, I think that they would see it in the first instance as a deterrent. They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons -- Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west, and us in the Persian Gulf --

OK, those conspiracy nuts who blame the zionists are obviously nuts. But that is not proof that Roosevelt didn't know the attack was coming and just let it happen. At the time the American public was pretty complacent about the Nazi threat, and if Roosevelt sacrificed some U.S. military members at Pearl Harbor for a larger political and military purpose, well, certainly that's troublesome, but it doesn't mean that he was motivated by Jewish interests. He might have just really (for good reason) hated the Nazis.

Another item you forgot to mention was the report that all Jewish naval personnel had, by some strange coincidence, not reported back for duty and reboarded their ships following the Saturday night shore leave. Hmmmm....

He might have just really (for good reason) hated the Nazis.

Nazis. I hate these guys.

"Illinois Nazis. I *HATE* Illinois Nazis.

Another telling detail: six months or so later, right before the battle of Midway, the United States painted over the red ball at the center of the US national insignia because it often led to American planes being mistaken for Japanese. Could this be the source of the reports of Japanese planes at Pearl Harbor? Of course, by the time of Midway the provocation againt the Japanese had been so successful that the ruse was no longer necessary.

Most of the Pearl Harbor conspiracy nuts are Republicans.

The idea that Roosevelt would have allowed such a devastating blow to the Pacific Fleet just to serve a larger political/military purpose is nuts. If that were the plan, surely he could have effected a sacrifice of lesser value. You can throw away pawns, you don't give up your rooks without a fight.

Reid says: You can throw away pawns, you don't give up your rooks without a fight.

Sure you do, to grab the queen or grab the victory. Sacrifice to achieve higher goals is always warranted in Chess....in warfare it gets sticky, because it involves lives. Personally, I agree with the above, that Roosevelt and the cabinet were expecting the Indonesian oil fields to get hit, and then he could talk the American people into helping. When it was Pearl, there was a terrible tragedy, with a silver lining (if you can look at it that way)

On a serious and somber note the Pearl Harbor Survivors are today attending what they are call their Final Farewell.

As the son of a WWII Veteran (who has been gone now for over 4 years) and an amateur student of WWII history I find today to be a terribly sad day indeed. Especially given the grievous lack of knowledge of WWII history among todays youth.

It was necessary to wage war against the Nazis. By the late 1930s, we had reason to believe that Germany was working on atomic weapons.

Hitler had access to Uranium from occupied Czechoslovakia. And "the most important source of Uranium" at the time was the Belgian Congo. If Hitler had occupied Beligium -- which he eventually did -- he would have had access to this important source of Uranium from Africa.

Just because Albert is a great physicist does not make him an expert in matters of peace and war. Einstein lied, and people died.

Hitler was not trying to obtain uranium from the Belgian terrorities in Africa. This, and other inconvenient truths, is all explained in the documentary film Fahrenheit 127.

PS - The way Roosevelt revealed my wife's status in the O.S.S. for political purposes is shameful.

Investgators also point to the fact that MacArthur in the Philippines did not do anything after the Pearl Harbor attack. "If MacArthur knew it was not the Japanese in Hawaii - then it makes perfect sense why he did nothing after hearing about the attack. The subsequent attack by the Japanese at Clark was a defenisve move after they saw what Roosevelt did to Hawaii."

wow zowie - what a classic straw dog to dissuade from the obvious.

thats right kiddies - everybody in unison -

LOOK AT THOSE SILLY CONSPIRACIES

The truth of the matter is that Roosevelt was a flaming communist who covered up the Communist Genocide of 10 million in 1932 and the great terror of the late 30's.

That is nearly twice as many as all soldiers killed in WWI.

Just as his son made millions on a SECRET deal to sell aircraft to the russians, so were there plenty of other secret deals - including the utter lack of surprise at Pearl Harbor.

Do not try this at home - history is for professionals.

"history is for professionals."
How can we trust history to someone who's just "in it for the money", i.e. a professional?

I knew it! All of history is a lie! Made up to sell t-shirts and postcards.

It wasn't the Commies—it was the Hebes.

Truly Roosevelt's masterstroke, after engineering the attack on Pearl Harbor, was to get the Germans to declare war on the US, rather than the other way round. That way he guaranteed US involvement in the invasion of Europe, something clearly favoured by the Zionist cabal for whom he actually worked. Without US involvement in Operation Overlord, the invasion would probably have had to be pushed back to 1945 or even 46, which was unacceptable to the agents of international Jewry.

Proof the Jews masterminded the attack?

Remember, the Japanese swooped in yelling, "Torah! Torah! Torah!"

Seriously, hilarious essay.

Remember, the Japanese swooped in yelling, "Torah! Torah! Torah!"

Oh, that's good. Pardon me while I go steal it.

My grandfather was an intelligence general in the Nationalist Chinese army, and his dept did send dispatches to Washington that the Japanese navy was on the way. Of course, U.S. intelligence may not have found that to be credible. Or they reported it up to the White House, who decided not to do much (besides send the carriers out of harm's way).

And why did FDR attack Hitler in response? They didn't bomb us. FDR only wanted to go to war to benefit Israel in advance of their creation because he and the Zionists planned it all since FDR was Secretary of the Navy. They decided to throw all of the Arabs out of their homeland decades in advance to steal their wealth. Once Japan supposedly bombed Hawaii, he had all the excuse he needed to create the Zionist haven, with the added benefit of getting to kill docile yellow peoples who refused to give in to American capitalism.

RE: "Shinto is a deeply spiritual religion, derived from Buddhism, worshiping nature. A Shintoist would never have desecrated Pearl Harbor with all of that leaking and burning diesel fuel and oil. It is fundamentally a religion of peace."

>>>>>>>>>>> cute...

Shinto predates Buddhism by thousands of years and if this satire were not so sophomoric, that bit might strengthen it, however, its ignorance only reinforces its obviously puerile lack of depth.

"My grandfather was an intelligence general in the Nationalist Chinese army, and his dept did send dispatches to Washington that the Japanese navy was on the way. Of course, U.S. intelligence may not have found that to be credible."

In each of the four big strategic surprises of WWII (Invasion of France 1940, Pearl Harbor, invasion of Russia, and location of D-Day) the party on the receiving end had accurate intelligence of the enemy's plans. In each case they chose to believe alternative intelligence. Being unable to discerning the truth from the chaos of real and false intel seems to be a classic failure mode.

Shinto predates Buddhism by thousands of years and if this satire were not so sophomoric, that bit might strengthen it, however, its ignorance only reinforces its obviously puerile lack of depth.

"its ignorance" is precisely the sort of ignorance that 911 conspiracy loons and Islamist apologists display. That's the point of the satire. Sorry you missed it.

While in the Air Force I worked under one of the officer that flew a B-17 into Hickham Field on Dec. 7th, 1941. I also worked with the former Commander of the B-29 Bocks Car. I traveled all over the Pacific where all the important battles occured. I lived in Japan and married a Japanese woman and I am aware of their customs etc. I forgot more about WW11 than you can ever dream of. Your stupid theories are just that lousy theories. You disgrace your self by even coming up with such a story. I really hope you don't have any WW11 Vets living near you because I'm sure they could straighten you out very quickly.