It's a different time. Things will never be that simple again. Through the 30's, many an American businessman made many a buck helping to build the Japanese war machine. Everyone's hero FDR was well aware, but since we didn't have 200,000 cable news shows in real time-it kind of slid by the mainstream since he was busy pulling us out of the depression. Any chance the two are related? stevestojan, unfortuntely, came to a head. It's way more complicated than that. Remember Hitler? I've heard the name mentioned here. My personal opinion is that they miscalculated the breaking points. A relatively small group of folks made a lot of money in the six years leading up to Pearl Harbor. Why do you think we got so snookered? Isoruko Yamamoto, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack understood. The Japanese militarists, many of who had extensive business interests figured out there play, which was bold-dangerous-but could have resulted in great dividends. They did not take the lesson of Neville Chamberlain the correct way, nor did they account for a lot of water between us and them. Yamamoto said he would run wild for two years, and the sleeping giant would spank them. He understood our will at the time, we don't understand our own, now.