Before Pearl Harbor

Before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, both sides knew that the years of negotiations leading up to that moment had failed, and that war was inevitable. America's, or more to the point Roosevelt's, scruples kept him from striking the first blow, which left them on the defense. They didn't know where exactly the Japanese would attack first. Fleet movements made it seem likely to Singapore or the Panama Canal. Everybody agreed that it wouldn't be Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor's defenses were so good that the American Admirals had sent it to all his other commanders to use as a model. How wrong they were.