Pearl Harbor: A Conspiracy Theory

Today is the 68th anniversary of an overwhelmingly horrific day in our nation's history (like how I got all wordy there?). On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Generally, people agree that the United States had no prior knowledge that his attack would take place. Of course, people also used to generally believe that the world was flat. (Then again, people also generally believe that humans usually have fingernails. What now?)

What I'm getting at is that many conspiracy theorists out there believe that the Roosevelt administration had prior knowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which was purposefully ignored in order to gain public and Congressional support for America entering the war on the side of the British Empire and her allies.

Some believe this; most don't. However, theorists that challenge the traditional belief that the attack was a suprise do have a few good points.

For example, Roosevelt very much wanted to get involved in the war against Germany (though it was not publicly stated). To quote Wikipedia:

"A basic understanding of the political situation of 1941 precludes such an understanding as reasonable evidence Roosevelt invited, allowed, or even knew of the Pearl Harbor attack. Military historian and novelist, Thomas Fleming, argues that President Roosevelt, himself, had wished for Germany or Japan to strike the first blow, but did not expect the United States to be hit as severely as she was in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Even though it was Japan, not Germany, who actually attacked the U.S. fleet, America still officially entered the war in the European theater four days later after Germany declared war on the U. S."

I do believe that there is evidence that we don't know everything there is to know about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; howevecr, I won't go so far as to say that Roosevelt and his administration had prior knowledge of the strength of the attack.

What do you think? Even if you think it's a load of crap, I'd at least like to hear a word of respect for the soldiers that went down.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Harbor_advance-knowledge_debate