. It berthed battleships and submarines in addition to hundreds of smaller ships. The air bases at Pearl Harbor served hundreds of warplanes. It also had extensive oil reserves, submarine repair shops and many other port facilities. It was most definitely a buzzing center of American naval power. It was also a perfect target for the Japanese military (Kaplan 298).Many Americans stayed dedicated Isolationists. They simply opposed entering the war. They were angry that Japan had invaded China, but they would not fight to save her. They also did not want to get involved in Europe’s troubles. They believed that America best served the cause of history by staying out of World War II entirely. The isolationists were united in their profound distrust of the president. They knew the president really felt that America should be fighting this war, that they should try to put a halt to the sickening things that were happening in Europe (Shapiro 20).According to Morgenstern, for years before Pearl Harbor Mr. Roosevelt had talked of peace. For months during the war, he had supposedly schemed for the entrance of the United States. His deeds belied his words. The following are some of the things he said, and some of the things he did to the public eye. It will seem that he is against our entrance, but as the events go on, we see different: At Chautauqua, New York, August 19, 1936, he said, "I hate war.” At the dedication of the Chicago Outer Drive Bridge on October 5, 1937, he proposed a "quarantine" of aggressors.To students of the University of North Carolina on December 5, 1938, he denied that "you and your little brothers would be sent to the bloody fields of Europe."On January 4, 1939, he urged repeal of the arms embargo and resort to methods "short of war" but "stronger than words" to deter aggressors. In the same month, he told the Senate military affairs committee, "The American frontier is on the Rhine”. On ...
