HONOLULU -- Suppose, for the sake of argument, the Japanese flotilla bearing down on Hawaii from the north Pacific 61 years ago this weekend had been discovered before its carriers launched their dive bombers and torpedo planes to attack the U.S. fleet in Pearl Harbor. What should the Americans have done?
U.S. political and military leaders could have decided to do nothing until the Japanese had actually struck. Or Washington could have tried to deter the Japanese by demanding that Tokyo order its fleet to turn around, and U.S. military commanders could have steamed their fleet into a blocking position between the Japanese warships and Pearl Harbor.
Or, the Americans, sensing a clear and present danger, could have ordered a pre-emptive strike in hopes of stopping the Japanese attack or at least blunting it. As it was, the Japanese surprise attack took the lives of 2,400 Americans and nearly crippled the fleet. The sunken battleship Arizona, in which 1,177 died, still leaks oil in mute testimony to America's greatest naval disaster.