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I visited Pearl Harbour some 20 years ago and it was a serene and thought-provoking place. The footage of the exploding Arizona was particularly poignant.
One thing that surprised me was how many Japanese were there to pay their respects to the dead too. Everyone at the memorial was welcoming and respectful to all visitors, regardless of nationality and it was heartwarming to observe the respect and reconciliation which has developed between Japan and USA over the decades.
I see it as one of the most difficult responsibilities for any leader, to create among their electorate, the appetite to go to war, once one has decided to do so.
A document was produced for Roosevelt by one of USA's top diplomats in Asia specifying eight things which, if USA did them, would guarantee Japan's attack. He did all eight, and the attack followed thereafter. That is not to say that it was necessarily his intention to bait them into attacking Pearl Harbour in order to create the public appetite to enter the war, but it does show how war had become somewhat inevitable in the context of Japan's imperialism and US opposition to it.
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