up north in the silicon valley region. republican contenders have come time and time again. it's smart campaigning pulling in last minute cash to buy up, last minute ad space in those battleground states. here is how the numbers shape up according to the fcc. the republicans have made $6 million, obama made $10 million. romney $3.9 million. rubbing perry 1.2, ron paul in third place with more than $790,000, newt gingrich, by the way which is topping most of the polls is number seven here as far as fund-raising goes bringing about $144,000. >> gregg: i'm gregg jarrett. now back to war stories. see you at the bottom of the hour. >> oliver: welcome to a special edition of "war stories." coming to you from pearl harbor, hawaii. i'm oliver north and this is the wreckage of the uss utah, one of 8 battleships moored here on december 7, 1941. at 7:55 that quiet sunday morning waves of japanese airplanes suddenly appeared overhead unleashing bombs and tore bedoughs in a savege surprise attack. 21 u.s. navy ships damaged or sunk and more than 2400 americans dead or dying. how could this happen? was it simply a colossal intelligence failure. in a lack of readiness? was it as some claimed part of a secret plot at the top of the u.s. government to get america into world war ii? was the japanese raid really a total surprise? tonight, "war stories" investigates the secrets, the evidence, and the debate over the attack on pearl harbor. >> the united states of america was is suddenly and deliberately attacked. the attack has caused severe damage. to american, naval and military forces. december 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. >> oliver: americans were stunned and devastated when they learned that pearl harbor had been attacked and in washington the sentiment was the same. >> after the attack was announced to the president, there was a steady parade of people in and out of roosevelt's study. his cabinet. you have the leaders of congress. you have high military officials. these are all in a state of shock that this has happened. >> oliver: joseph has extensively studied fdr's presidency. he is the author of roosevelt's secret war. >> roosevelt pounds his desk and calling out the losses. this ship. that ship. so many aircraft. he is outraged. not only of the japanese but we weren't prepared for this attack. >> oliver: there are those who believe that roosevelt knew in advance that pearl harbor was going to be bombed? >> roosevelt had no desire to be in a war against japan. he told winston churchill at one point prior to pearl harbor that a war against japan was a war in the wrong place and the wrong en enemy and the wrong session. he wanted to fight alongside the british in defeating naziism. >> 6700 miles away the japanese were launching a war of aggression. japan was a nation ruled by an emperor. a tradition dating back centuries. the real power was held by the military war lords. throughout the 1930s japan was a rapidly growing industrial state, desperately in need of land and natural resources for its exploding population of nearly 65 million. the japanese government took what it needed by force. >> japan was very poor. it was a farm country. >> oliver: "war stories" investigates tracked down lieutenant abe, one of the bomber pilots that attacked pearl harbor. born in 1916 in a small mountain village and the son of a saki brewers, he knew his country was and a war footing. >> the only thing she could do was to export silk and laquer ware which were nothing more than home industry. there was no way left for japan to exist. >> oliver: in 1931, japan innovated and renamed man cruko and forceddity into livery. the tokyo delegation announced their withdrawal from the league. >> at geneva japan withdrew from the league in this memorable scene. >> japan finds it impossible to accept the report adopted by the assembly. >> oliver: over the next six years japan went on a ram page in china. an estimated quarter of a million chinese were killed shocked the world. >> donald gold stein is a professor of international affairs at the university of pittsburgh. >> the japanese went in and raped women and killed people. and there were pictures of this and people saw dead bodies in ditches and it was quite the provokation. >> one of the issues for the united states was the japanese withdrawal from china and yet that was something the japanese were totally unwilling to consider. >> japan was facing its own destiny. a confrontation with the united states in 1937. >> it is the incident with a gun boat on the river which was clearly marked with american flag and clearly we know that the japanese attacked it. >> oliver: two sailors were killed and 48 injured. >> they fought against the japanese bombers as well as they could in this wanton assault. the attack was without sem ambulance of justification and relations is grew worse because of the sinking of the panay. >> this was outrageous this small little country the size of the state of california was acting like a bully in china tease the dog,isease the dog, the united states. >> oliver: by december 1940 hitler's liegeons conquered poland, denmark, norway and france. in washington, eyebrows were raised when japan sent troops and set up air bases in vici controlled indo china. days later they were shocked again when japan signed a pact with germany and italy. lieutenant avi remembers how japan sought to conquer neighboring countries around form what was called the greater east asia coprosperity sphere. >> japan wanted to claim that asia belonged to asian people. when the japanese went to war, they went to war saying that they were freeing asia from the yoke of the colonial powers and many people died. many japanese died believing that that is what they were fighting for this greater east asian prosperity. they really weren't fighting for that. they were fighting for the greater japan. >> oliver: to continue their murderous quest, japan had to have oil. by the late 1930s, 80% of japanese oil was imported from the united states. by 1940, fdr imposed an embargo of natural resources to japan. finally, all oil export were stopped. >> there are those who say that war was inevitable after the united states cut off aviation, gasoline and high tensile steel and things like that. is that true? >> the fact that they thought that war was inevitable is partially true. i say that because the japanese committed themselves to a full war effort after the embar were in place.embargoes >> oliver: one thing that stood in japan's path, the fleet. they were moved to pearl harbor to protect our interest to the pacific. >> it was an outpost of american might and there it sat. >> was the fleet sent to hawaii to lure the japanese into an attack? that is next on "war stories." daddy, come in the water! somebody didn't book with travelocity, with 24/7 customer support to help move them to theool daddy promised! look at me, i'm swimming! somebody, get her a pony! [ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. >> oliver: october 1940. in a bold military move, president roosevelt ordered 127 ships of the pacific fleet from the west coast to pearl harbor. on 8 october, admiral james richardson, commander of the pacific fleet told the president he was opposed to the decision. >> admiral richardson did not think that hawaii had the facilities adequate to service the fleet. >> oliver: michael gannon is a professor emeritus of history at the university of florida and aah you thor of pearl harbor betrayed. >> he was is worried about things that were human oriented such as recreational facilities for the men and opportunities for the mckinley into visit their lives and families. >> admiral richardson fired by president roosevelt because he was try dent about his views about where the fleet should be based. >> oliver: the man chosen to replace richardson was from henderson, kentucky. tom kimmel is his grandson and retired fbi agent. >> my grandmother was shocked, stunned as he describes it when was suddenly picked to be the replacement for general richardson. >> oliver: tell me about your first memories of your grandmother. >> he would pack up his four kids and go listen to admiral kimmel. you couldn't talk to this man for two minutes without the subject of pearl harbor being brought up. he was promoted over several others which upset a lot of people in the navy. >> oliver: over the years, pearl harbor conspiracy theorists argued over by president roosevelt moved the fleet to hawaii. >> roosevelt loved the navy. 9 fleet was his pride and joy and he didn't want that fleet destroyed. there is no way. >> president roosevelt in 1940 was running for his third term and he was being accused of dragging america into war. >> oliver: robert is the author of the controversial day of deceit, the truth about fdr and pearl harbor. >> he went out of his way so he would not be seen as a war president and so he wanted a clear cut outrageous japanese attack at pearl harbor that would unite this country. >> oliver: to support his theories, he points to the declassified member yu member b writing on 7 october 1940. stinnett discovered it in 1995 at the national archives. >> as soon as i read it i realized, oh, this is a hot potato. the significance of this member ran dumb is that it is a smoking gun of pearl harbor kept from all investigations. lays out the 8 provokations aimed at japan to get them to attack us at pearl harbor. one was to keep the u.s. fleet in hawaii. >> oliver: you are not suggesting that mccullum was advocating that the japanese bomb the pacific fleet in pearl harbor. >> i'm soggin suggesting it wat there as a lure to the japanese carrier force. >> oliver: to say that we are not going to take the first over the act does not say we want you to bomb pearl harbor? >> yes, it does. if he says we have to create more ado. he says if we do that then that would cause japan to commit the first over the act of war. >> oliver: the memo is addressed to navy captains. only knox initialed the document that he had seen it. >> i have won to the national archives and retrieved that memo myself because i thought it was of great significance. >> oliver: when there is no evidence that roosevelt did see this. >> no compelling credible indication. >> oliver: nothing that shows in the document? >> stinky fish get istinnett ie the big leap and assume roosevelt has got it. >> oliver: those who point to this as the smoking gun as it were would say that all 8 of mccullum's recommendations were, indeed, carried out. >> it was common place then as it is today for officers to write intelligence think pieces. on 7 february 1941 aboard the uss pennsylvania, admiral husband kimmel was bor sworn is the new commander of the pacific fleet. protection of the fleet while in port was the responsibility of the newly appointed commander of the hawaiian department lieutenant general walter c. shore. >> in command of all army and air corps forces. the fleet is to be protect the by army resources. >> kimmel wasn't confidence that the army resources could protect his fleet. >> eeoc knew all of the short comings of the pearl harbor compound out there and prepared a lengthy estimate with admiral richardson of what needed to be done to improve that. >> he did feel that he could rely on his personal friends for support. >> when mayanfather got the job he says the reason i took the job was i was convinced that that friendship and their professionalism woulden sure that i was kept properly and timely informed of all important developments. >> oliver: u.s. army and navy code breakers were intercepting and reading japanese messages for months warm front attack on pearl harbor. why weren't our commanders in the pacific given these messages? 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>> throughout the far east, to the british and all over washington, d.c. about everywhere you you can imagine except for hawaii. >> oliver: this is the original decoded bomb plot message in which yoshikawa detailed the layout of the fleet's moorings. a japanese bomber pilot recalls using this bomb plot. >> we knew the geological formation of pearl harbor. the japanese spy reported where the u.s. pacific fleet was. >> oliver: there is no conclusive evidence that president roosevelt saw this communique but by mid october it was seen by the new director of naval intelligence, captain theodore wilkinson and the chief of army intelligence, general sherman miles. they reported to admiral stark and general george marshall both of how many would ever deny seeing the message. shockingly, admiral kimmel never received it. >> is seemed to them prepostorrous that the japanese would attempt to attack the powerful bastion of american might, the fleet at pearl harbor. president roosevelt sends ... >> gregg: live from america news headquarters, i'm gregg jarrett. we're getting new reports that the u.s. is withdrawing from an air base in pakistan. a senior pakistani official saying u.s. personnel are leaving the compound. pakistan demanded the pullout after a nato a air strike killed 24 pakistani soldiers. an investigation is under way. >> new flood fears as a huge weather system causing problems from ohio valley to texas. maria is in the weather center. >> we could have a large system we're tracking stretching from texas up to the great lakes. the system is very slow moving system pulling a lot of moisture out of the gulf of mexico. a lot of these rings are heading out. parts of ohio, kentucky, down to tennessee and mississippi and northern arkansas and flood warnings because of the amount of rainfall we'll see from the system, generally speaking 3-6 inches of rain. locally you could get more than that, up to 8 inches are anticipated and another big concern, we have seen a lot of rain along arkansas and kentucky the past month. the month of november was record set are for if some of these cities, now we're looking at major flood concerns. once the ground is saturated more water on on top of that can't absorb it. here is the rain down through western ohio, tennessee and texas and this rain is beneficial for texas, again, gregg, those areas that have seen a lot of rain is not good for them. >> gregg: thanks very much. i'm gregg jarrett. now back to "war stories." we'll see you at the top of the hour. bye-bye. >> oliver: by november of 191 it was clear the empire of china was going to continue the brutal conquest of china and east asia. >> they were machine gunning healthy civilians from the air. bombing undefended cities. roosevelt was alarmed by all of this. >> he gave an ultimatum. >> the united states insistd that japan get out of china. >> japan also made demands that america and britain remove their military presence in the far southeast, that the u.s. lift its oil embargo and stop aid to the general in china. >> the country was poised on the edge of war and diplomatic mission was equally as busy as diplomats try desperately to avoid war. >> on november 14 alived in san francisco smiling his toothy smile as he sang the old song of japanese friendship. on november he and the japanese ambassador were received by the president in the presence of the secretary of state. >> these two honorable men came to washington hoping to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the problems. >> oliver: but the special envoy didn't know that japanese prime minister had already decided to go to war if the negotiations weren't successful. their deadline, 29 november, 1941. >> tell us about what things were like for the japanese in the days leading up to the war? >> the militarists had a death grip literally on japan's future and the army that led that under hideki were determined that it could be solved with the allied powers by going to war. >> they were in our way. we had to be removed. it is the japanese way. >> oliv