Isolationist Republicans were zealously pursuing any indication that FDR was aiding the Allies against Germany and Japan, certain that there was as yet no threat to North America. Also they saw political advantage in tapping into the still widespread disillusionment with World War I, as well as the small but influential constituency (which included Charles Lindbergh) that admired the Nazi system and saw it as the wave of the future. But FDR and the Democrats believed that if England and Russia fell, America would face the combined and much increased might of the Axis alone. FDR did all he could to aid England and Russia. He also did all he could to mollify Japan and avoid open warfare.
But by December 5, it was clear that negotiations with Japan had broken down irrevocably (even though formally they continued), and that war was imminent. Observing Japanese naval and troop movements, U.S. military intelligence expected Japanese attack in southeast Asia, probably Thailand. Though these were British and Dutch interests, the U.S. had warned Japan against attacking them. This would put FDR in a delicate position. It meant the Allies would be at war with Japan, but since American forces weren't attacked, he couldn't count on political and especially popular support for the U.S. joining them. Few analysts believed Japan would attack American bases in the Philippines or Hawaii because they thought the Japanese were too smart and cautious .
When Japanese planes attacked the Pearl Harbor base, the local commanders were so lax that all the ships were in port and the planes bunched on the runways. Hesitancy among military and civilian leaders in Washington seemed based on political fears. General Marshall recalled that earlier that year, Republicans had created havoc with the military budget over an order for "overseas caps."
The attack on December 7, 1941 devastated the Pacific fleet, and Japanese forces followed up with victories in the early months of the war. But in other ways, the Japanese had erred, tactically and strategically. Tactically they concentrated on bombing ships and planes. Though it took time, these were replaced with more modern ships and planes. (The battleships were already obsolete for the oncoming war.) But they didn't attack the actual base facilities, which remained intact and became important as the war went on.
Strategically, by attacking American forces without warning, and by killing many Americans--especially sailors trapped in their ships--they guaranteed that there would be full public support for the U.S. declaring war against Japan and its allies, including the principal threat, Germany.
When FDR went before Congress on Monday he reported that Japanese forces had attacked not only Hawaii, but Hong Kong, Guam, the Phillipines, Wake and Midway Islands in the Pacific. U.S. ships had been sunk "on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu."
Within hours and days, all the Allies and all the Axis countries had declared war on each other. There would be many very dark days in the coming year. But FDR was able to coordinate with Churchill and Stalin a titanic effort that eventually defeated the Axis powers, without warfare on the North American continent. It was the full beginning to 44 months of the largest and most destructive war in human history, that transformed America and changed the world.
Today most know of it through movies made about it during and directly after that war, that simplified it. Or through the novels and movies of the 1960s that looked at it through the lens of Vietnam. Here's Sherwood's assessment. After noting the massive war effort undertaken by the vast majority of Americans he noted that "morale did not become a vital consideration. Morale was never particularly good nor alarmingly bad. There was a minimum of flag-waving and parades. It was the first war in American history in which the general disillusionment preceded the firing of the first shot. It had been called from the American point of view "the most unpopular war in history"; but that could be taken as proof that the people for once were not misled as to the terrible nature and extent of the task that confronted them."
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