Dear Member,

We can lock horns on this till the cows come home. But the fact was that the US and the UK were preparing for war with Japan, because they knew Japan had to do something (either cave in) or fight. They expected Japan to fight. They just did not expect Pearl Harbor. So like someone who gets beat in a fight in a bar, we declared it was not a fair fight (if there is such a thing in war) because Japan did not declare war first. The reality is most nations have always declared war “after” the hostilities have begun. The US should have expected it. It was how the Russo-Japanese War began.

Jack E. Hammond

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