This great question of Pearl Harbor -- what did we know and when did we know it? -- has been argued for years. But no investigator has ever been able to prove that foreknowledge of the attack existed at the highest levels.
Until now. After decades of Freedom of Information Act requests, Robert B. Stinnett has gathered the long-hidden evidence that shatters every shibboleth of Pearl Harbor. Not only was the attack expected, it was deliberately provoked through an eight-step program devised by the Navy. Whereas previous investigators have claimed that our government did not crack Japan's military codes before December 7, 1941. Stinnett offers cable after cable of decryptions. He proves that a Japanese spy on the island transmitted information -- including a map of bombing targets -- beginning on August 21, and that we knew all about it.
The evidence is overwhelming. At the highest levels -- on FDR's desk -- America had ample warning of the pending attack. At those same levels, it was understood that the isolationist American public would not support a declaration of war unless we were attacked first. The result was a plan to anger Japan, to keep the loyal officers responsible for Pearl Harbor in the dark, and thus to drag America into the greatest war of her existence.
Day of Deceit is the definitive final chapter on America's greatest secret and our worst military disaster.
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“Stinnett provides overwhelming evidence that FDR and his top advisers knew that Japanese warships were heading towards Hawaii. The heart of his argument is even more inflammatory: Stinnett argues that FDR, who desired to sway public opinion in support of US entry into WWII, instigated a policy intended to provoke a Japanese attack…If Stinnett is right, FDR has a lot to answer for—namely, the lives of those Americans who perished at Pearl Harbor. Stinnett establishes almost beyond question that the US Navy could have at least anticipated the attack.”
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Publishers Weekly (starred review)