Didn't we lose a lot of ships though? If we thought they might do something like bomb pearl harbor, wouldn't we have spread out our ships, or kept the oldest ones at the harbor?
It seems like a bad strategy to sacrifice a significant amount of useful military assets in a false flag..ish operation.
Supposedly, the loss of the battleships was not prevented, as the Navy knew they were useless in modern warfare. This smacks of internal struggle and politics, between the two camps of naval warfare, carrier-based and battleship. The carrier guys took advantage of the situation to eliminate their opponents crown jewels.
It seems like a bad strategy to sacrifice a significant amount of useful military assets in a false flag..ish operation.