23 Jun 1941 - Advisor Harold Ickes wrote FDR a memo the day after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, "There might develop from the embargoing of oil to Japan such a situation as would make it not only possible but easy to get into this war in an effective way. And if we should thus indirectly be brought in, we would avoid the criticism that we had gone in as an ally of communistic Russia."
FDR was pleased with Admiral Richmond Turner's report read July 22: "It is generally believed that shutting off the American supply of petroleum will lead promptly to the invasion of Netherland East Indies...it seems certain she would also include military action against the Philippine Islands, which would immediately involve us in a Pacific war."
On July 24 FDR told the Volunteer Participation Committee, "If we had cut off the oil off, they probably would have gone down to the Dutch East Indies a year ago, and you would have had war." The next day FDR froze all Japanese assets in US cutting off their main supply of oil and forcing them into war with the US. Intelligence information was withheld from Hawaii from this point forward.
14 August - At the Atlantic Conference, Churchill noted the "astonishing depth of Roosevelt's intense desire for war." Churchill cabled his cabinet "(FDR) obviously was very determined that they should come in."
18 October - diary entry by Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes: "For a long time I have believed that our best entrance into the war would be by way of Japan."
Yasukuni museum toning down exhibits on Sino-Japanese War
12/28/2006
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Responding to criticism from overseas countries, Yasukuni Shrine started toning down its museum displays related to the Sino-Japanese War but will stop short of calling Japan's actions a "war of aggression."
Shrine officials on Tuesday started refurbishing the war-related displays at the shrine's Yushukan museum in Tokyo.
The officials said they cannot reveal the contents of the changes until the shrine reopens on Monday.
However, shrine sources said displays concerning the 1931 Manchurian Incident, which led to Japan's occupation of the Chinese region, and the Sino-Japanese War are within the scope of the changes.
"Although the exhibition has been designed to counter a 'masochistic historical view,' we admit that there were some expressions that went too far, and as a result, they have been offensive to other countries," a shrine source said. "We want to soften these points."
The shrine plans to change seven panels at the museum: "From the Russo-Japanese War to the Manchurian Incident"; "The History of Manchuria"; "The Sino-Japanese War"; "Hitler"; "Stalin"; "Roosevelt"; and "U.S.-Japanese diplomatic negotiations."
However, the shrine will maintain the stance that there was no war of aggression by Japan, the sources added.
Yasukuni Shrine has long been criticized as glorifying Japan's wartime past and whitewashing the country's actions in World War II. Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual pilgrimages to the Shinto shrine shattered Japan's relations with China and South Korea because Class-A war criminals are honored there along with the nation's war dead.
An expanded Yushukan museum opened in July 2002 to publicly honor Japanese soldiers killed in Japan's wars.
Beijing and Seoul denounced the museum for using the word "advance" instead of "invasion" in its explanations of Japan's wartime activities in Asia.
The United States also took offense to wording in the museum's displays that effectively blamed Franklin Delano Roosevelt for Japan's December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
The display currently reads, "The last resort for Roosevelt was to drive Japan, which is poor in natural resources, into a tight corner with an embargo, and force it to open the war."
This part will be deleted on the advice of Taro Nagae, a former senior researcher at the Defense Agency's National Institute for Defense Studies, who is in charge of the new exhibition.
Instead, the diary of Henry Stimson, Army Secretary under Roosevelt, will be displayed. Nagae said the diary will show there was an "intention of starting the war" on the U.S. side.
"We decided to use historical doc-uments to tell the facts and try to avoid misunderstandings," Nagae said.
An English translation of the Imperial edict issued at the start of the war will be displayed at the museum so that foreign visitors can better understand the situation Japan was facing at the time, the sources said.