Pearl Harbor: FDR was Jap Oil 'Appeaser'... Until he Cut it Off a Week Later to Start a War
US Govt Provided Japan the Oil to Create an Empire, and then Abruptly Cut Them Off
So I ran across a random tip, with a citation, in a collection of notes about Secretary of State Cordell Hull.
The tip sounded too wild to be true. It can’t possibly be true.
Here was the tip:
FDR was selling oil to support the Imperial Japanese expansion for two years prior to cutting oil off? That can’t be right.
Produced 2.3 million barrels of oil domestically
Imported 27.2 million barrels of oil from America
Imported 4.8 million barrels from the Indes and Borneo
Imported 1.5 million barrels from other sources
Meaning that, of 35.8 million barrels used that year, 76% of it came from the United States.
This story will break so many historical memes that you may want to re-read it a few times.
FDR was appeasing the Axis Powers? FDR was ‘abetting Axis aggression’ according to war hawks in the Congress?
Neville Chamberlain made a reasonable peace treaty and is forever the eternal appeaser. FDR gave Japan the oil it needed to build its empire, explicitly to keep the peace at all costs, and FDR’s the great conscience of the anti-appeasement crowd?
This isn’t what they teach in school.
This article is from July 25, 1941. FDR’s comments were from the day before to the Volunteer Participation Committee, on July 24, 1941. FDR’s diary logs from that day checks out. FDR enacted the oil embargo a week later, on August 1, 1941.
Within one week FDR was saying to the media that selling oil to Japan was critical to avoiding war, and then cutting off that oil.
Yet there are still people who claim FDR’s oil embargo had little to nothing to do with the war and the attack at Pearl Harbor.
In our taxonomy of claims about Advance Knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack, this is certainly strong evidence that:
FDR took steps to cause a war.
FDR had the chance to stop the war and didn’t.
Here’s the full article:
The Scranton Tribune, July 25, 1941, page 1
Politica | PEARL HARBOR SERIES:
Pt 11 - A Week Prior to the Pearl Attack, Admirals Discuss "Offensive" Against Jap Fleet on the Move
Pt 10 - Fr. Aloysius Schmitt & John Austin aboard the sinking USS Oklahoma
Pt 9 - Weak Leads-- Pearl Military Judge Drafts Martial Law Before Attack
Pt 8 - Reporter Tells US Japs Will Attack After Midnight on Dec. 6th
Pt 7 - Toward a Taxonomy of Claims about “Advance Knowledge” of the Attack
Pt 6 - Japs Were Trying to Escape Panama on Dec. 2nd
Pt 5 - Yes, there was Warning of the Pearl Harbor Attack
Pt 4 - ‘Very Bitter’ Housewife in ‘45 Notes Flaws in the Official Story
Pt 3 - Lloyd’s of London Cancelled Insurance Policies in August 1941
Pt 2 - Tips About The Pearl Harbor Attack 77 Years Late
Pt 1 - Pearl Harbor Revisionism