On December 7th, 1941 war was forced upon America by the Japanese assault on Peal Harbor, and declarations of war by Germany and Italy four days later. It is a myth that Franklin D. Roosevelt was anxious to bring America into the war, and was prevented from doing so by the overwhelming isolationist spirit of the American people. The evidence shows that FDR was primarily concerned with his domestic policies and had no wish "to join in a crusade against Nazism or totalitarianism or indeed against international aggression." He took no positive steps to involve the United States in the conflict. The war came as much a surprise-and an unwelcome surprise-to him as anyone else. There is a persistent myth that he was forewarned about the Japanese aggression at Pearl Harbor, and did nothing to stop it, being anxious that American participation in the global conflict should be precip

Roosevelt had no real belief that Pearl Harbor was ever going to be bombed. The Japanese war preparations were a characteristic combination of breathtaking efficiency and inexplicable muddle. Gen. George Marshall, FDR's principal military advisor, had repeatedly assured the President that Oahu fortress complex, which included Pearl Harbor, was the strongest in the world and that a seaborne attack was out of the question. The plan of attack on Pearl Harbor, which involved getting a gigantic carrier force unobserved over thousands of miles of ocean, was the most audacious and complex scheme of its kind in history. Nothing like it had ever been conceived before, in extent and complexity, and it is no wonder that Marshall discounted its magnitude and FDR brushed aside such warnings as he received.

law at a time and place not of its own choosing, but of its enemy's.

between nations. America's ruling elite was always far more open towards, interested in, and knowledgeable about the world (especially Europe) than the French-Canadians to the north and the Spanish- and Portuguese-Americans to the south. Despite the oceans on both sides, the United States was from the start involved with Russia (because of Oregon and Alaska), China (because of trade), Spain, Britain, and other European powers. Isolation in a strict sense was never an option, and there is no evidence that the American masses, let alone the elites, favored it, especially once immigration widened and deepened the ties with Europe.

Akira Ariye: Across the Pacific: an Inner History of American-East Asian Relations

The Second World War was not started in secrecy and deceit. Roosevelt was not an ideologist, who saw salvation in forcing an isolationist country into international affairs. He was a President fraught with the problems of a panicked, economically debacled country. His entire focus was on the regrowth of the American infrastructure. The fickle attitude of Japan, a country that occilated between threats of war and neutrality, between military and civilian control, were not taken seriously in leu of more prevalent problems. This is not to say, either, that the U.S. itself was a populace of isolationists. America had grown wealthy through international trade and exports, but the devastating implications of a war on an already strained people was too much. America joined the war, initially, in retaliation to the threat of war. It was forced, inadvertently, into war, not by Presidential conspiracy to overturn isolationist feelings, but out of self-defense.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Pearl Harbor, World War, Americanization Japan, Franklin Roosevelt, American Asia, Japan's American, Neutrality Act, Theodore Roosevelt, Britain European, Benjamin Franklin, pearl harbor, world war, 19th century, american people, international affairs, war forced,
Approximate Word count = 1943
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)