Yes, Japan struck first - nobody’s arguing that. My point is that after the United States was formally at war with all of the Axis powers, every American citizen of Japanese descent was forced into prison camps and significant financial loss. That didn’t even happen to all of the German or Italian citizens in the United States at the time, much less American citizens with roots in those countries.
(Also, a few supply ships is whitewashing somewhat – hundreds of Americans traveling on civilian vessels were killed by the German navy and there were dozens of American flagged ships sunk prior to Pearl Harbor. No, not what the Japanese navy did but more than enough to have served as grounds for war if the US wasn’t trying so strenuously to stay out.)
(Was thinking of ships near the US East coast. If you have passenger ships entering a war zone, well then it was understood there were risks.)
The point I was trying to get at was that if you were faced with the same life-threatening decisions you'd likely decide the same. And if different it would only because of random chance. Not because you are smarter or more virtuous than FDR & Cabinet.
Shit, Truman had to decide to drop a nuke on the basis it would save more lives in the long run—with incomplete information. I don't envy those decisions at all.
(Also, a few supply ships is whitewashing somewhat – hundreds of Americans traveling on civilian vessels were killed by the German navy and there were dozens of American flagged ships sunk prior to Pearl Harbor. No, not what the Japanese navy did but more than enough to have served as grounds for war if the US wasn’t trying so strenuously to stay out.)