Michael Lemish
Early on Sunday morning, December 7th 1941, waves of Japanese Naval bombers took off from carriers in the Pacific to attack the United States Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In his radio address shortly after the raid, President Roosevelt described the unprovoked act of aggression as “...a day that would live in infamy.” It ended the United States’ position of neutrality in the war in Europe and plunged the nation headlong into World War Two. Could the attack on Pearl Harbor have been prevented? Could war have been avoided? In “BEFORE PEARL HARBOR – China, FDR and the Plot to Bomb Japan, noted author and historian Michael Lemish explores America’s relationship with China – already at war with t”he Japanese Empire – and uncovers a secret plan being hatched between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Chinese government to send bombers to Tokyo, long before the attack on Pearl Harbor, in the hope of averting a war which seemed inevitable. Painstakingly researched and well-documented, this true story of political power and intrigue was hidden from the American people for decades following the war. It features a cast of characters that reads like a who’s who of 1930s and ’40s celebrities, from pioneer aviators Charles Lindbergh and Jimmy Doolittle to writer Ernest Hemingway – as well as senior politicans and leading journalists from both countries, including Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek and his charismatic wife, and FDR himself. All of them held strong opinions and wielded considerable influence...includes 80 photos. 3
