FDR Declares War on Japan in 1937

When the US went to war over the Maine in 1898, many considered it a quixotic move to attack because of only one ship accidently exploding.

The Panay was a gunship with a handful of soldiers on it. The Maine was a warship with hundreds of marines on it. I hardly think that thousands would recruit and the US would declare war with an overwhelming majority just because of the accidental loss of several lives, however unfortunate the incident was.
 

bard32

Banned
By the 1930s, the battleship was on its way out. In 1940, three years after the
attack on the Panay, the British attacked the Italian Regia Marina, (Royal
Navy,) in port at Taranto. The attack was originally scheduled for October 5,
1940, which is Trafalgar Day. However, due to bad weather, it was put off for
over a month. Then over a year later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. However, since everything's butterflied, with my scenario, the British wouldn't
attack Lepanto.
 

bard32

Banned
The sinking of the Panay wasn't an accident and the deaths weren't accidental.
They were a deliberate act of war. The Maine may have been a warship with
hundreds of Marines on it but at least there was the yellow journalism of the time that made people enlist. Never underestimate the power of the newspapers and newsreels in the 1930s.
 
The sinking of the Panay wasn't an accident and the deaths weren't accidental.
They were a deliberate act of war. The Maine may have been a warship with
hundreds of Marines on it but at least there was the yellow journalism of the time that made people enlist. Never underestimate the power of the newspapers and newsreels in the 1930s.

You've said that several times, but without proof to back it up. The Panay was a gunship that happened to be present during the Japanese attack. They had nothing to gain from attacking it, and if they did attack it on purpose, then why did they try so earnestly to avoid any possibility of war?
 

bard32

Banned
That's right. We blamed it on a Spanish mine but the cause was more mundane. Instead of a mine, a team of investigators, led by the late Adm.
Hyman Rickover, concluded that it was a fire in the coal bunker that caused the explosion. That was the third investigation since 1898. The second, in 1912, concluded that it was a Spanish mine. The most recent one, from 1976,
is in of itself, controversial, because there are those in the Navy who still think
it was a Spanish mine.
 
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