Description Food for Thought. Surprise or not?

"Date which will live in infamy." - FDR

These are the words written on President FDR's first version of the speech he gave to his fellow citizens after the "surprise" Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7th 1941.

This "surprise" attack was actually not as a surprise to some need-to-know military and civilian officials. In fact, Secretary of War Henry Stimson stated after the war, "we needed the Japanese to commit the first overt act." Meaning the attack on Pearl Harbor was a necessity for US citizens to back up USA's plan to go to war against Japan, even though the US had already been planning and maneuvering for it.

On Dec. 4th 1941, the Navy Intelligence office sent a "Japanese intelligence and propaganda in the United States" memo to the White House three days before the Pearl Harbor attack, speculating a Japanese military action and possible targets: the US west coast, the Panamá canal, and the territory of Hawaii.

Chance favors the prepared mind.

Although tragically, many of my brothers and sisters lost their lives during the Pearl Harbor attack, we must embrace some food for thought and ponder if it was luck that no US carrier was damaged by the onslaught since they weren't at the island, or was it something else entirely?