Should the Americans Really Have Been Free of “Guilt” in WW2?
Americans, who sat in judgment of the Japanese and Germans, as members of a victorious nation in WW2, regarded themselves as “divine protectors of freedom and democracy,” people who boldly went up against totalitarianism and won in the face of it. However, in truth, they massacred civilians with their Tokyo air raids and in the droppings of their atomic bombs, and they robbed future Japanese citizens of their patriotism through their racist occupation policies, which dishonored their wartime opponents as “unjust” enemies. Should the Americans really have been free of “guilt” in WW2?

Franklin Roosevelt ranks high as one of America’s most popular presidents, as a leader who stood up for freedom and democracy, winning WW2. However, if we follow his actions in detail, we begin to see “the picture of another person behind the public façade he presented”. Was Roosevelt really a “hero”?

His outer face

Fellow Americans, I will not go to war!

His outer intention 1

“I will not interfere with other countries’ wars.”

After WW1, Americans felt as if that they “should not interfere in other nation’s wars,” unless a foreign nation attacked them first. Then WW2 started, and it spread across Europe, but 85% of Americans were still against going to war. It was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th (the 8th in Japan) in 1941 that changed their sentiments.

The following day, when Roosevelt spoke to Congress, he made a declaration. “(Japan) cowardly attacked us,” and he called for a war with Japan ‘out of necessity’.

His outer intention 2

I won the election because I vowed “not to go to war”.

In the presidential election in the autumn of 1940, Roosevelt, who was going for his third term, and was aware of the public opinion that Americans didn’t want to be dragged into another war in Europe, appealed to his citizens as a “non-interventist.”

In his speech in Boston at the end of October, he stated, “I will say it again. Your children will not be dragged into a war abroad.” Before the election on November 3rd, he repeated his pledge to the American people, “Our priority in foreign policy is to not have America enter into any wars.”

His ulterior face

I want to go to war!

His ulterior intention 1

“I can’t wait to start a war.”

As fighting spread across Europe and Asia, Roosevelt wanted to join the war. However, public opinion and Congress were adamantly opposed to his desire for boots on the ground. In order to persuade his detractors, it was absolutely necessary for “a foreign country to attack America first”.

Roosevelt tried to provoke Germany in various ways, but the Germans wanted to avoid going to war with the States. It was then that he considered provoking Japan, who was an ally of Germany and had a conflict of interest with America in Manchuria, so he set the Japanese up to attack American interests in Asia.

Economic sanctions against Japan went into full effect from around 1940. In the summer of 1941, Americans froze Japanese assets in the States and placed a full embargo on its oil supply. In November of that year, the Roosevelt regime sent the “Hull note” to Japan, which demanded a complete withdraw from China and Southeast Asia, and forced Japan into a situation where it had to choose between “war or total slavery to America”. As a result, the Japanese military decided to go to war, and it attacked Pearl Harbor, and just like Roosevelt had predicted, America’s public opinion switched overnight to “entering the war”.

His ulterior intention 2

“I want to revive the economy through war.”

One reason Roosevelt entered into war was because he wanted to help the British, who were under attack from the Germans, and also because there was a deep recession domestically. The New Deal policy, which Roosevelt initiated, was in vain; there were over 10 million unemployed in his cities.

With such circumstances, WWII started, and Roosevelt tried to rebuild the economy with special procurements during the war. In November of 1939, he amended the Neutrality Act, and in March 1941, he established the Lend-Lease policy. America’s economy began to go up with revenue from “weapon factories”. Roosevelt’s war was necessary for America’s economic recovery.

His ulterior intention 3

I will show preferential treatment to the Soviet Communists and the Chinese

Soon after he became President, Roosevelt recognized the Soviet Communists, who he had not acknowledged until then as having had a nation-state. The works of the “Comintern”, which aimed to create a Communist world, were left alone, and that led to the preferential treatment of Soviets within various areas of the American government. Furthermore, Americans gave funding and weapons assistance to China’s Chiang Kai-shek, and along with the British and the Dutch, it created a coalition against the Japanese to limit their trade opportunities.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Americans’ preferential treatment of the Soviet Communists and the Chinese led to the Cold War after WW2 as well as to China’s military expansionism.

His ulterior intention 4

I will destroy the entire population of Japan in a holocaust with air raids and atomic bombs.

Roosevelt’s greatest sin was how he conducted his “holocaust” in Japan. With the air raids and droppings of atom bombs over Japanese cities, he killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. His targeting, not only of combatants, but also of civilians, went against international laws.

Roosevelt died 4 months before the end of the war, and so it was his successor, Truman, who officially decided to drop the atom bombs. However, it was Roosevelt that had planned the atomic bombings over Japanese cities all along.