The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: World War II Was a Noble Cause — Anything Else Is Ahistorical

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

Normally, we would expect the Left to be the ones questioning the validity of the United States’ involvement and conduct in World War II as anything other than a ‘noble cause,’ – which it was. As of late, World War II revisionism is happening on our own side, among some conservatives. These revisionists are not focusing on typical, left-leaning talking points like Japanese internment or the dropping of the atomic bombs.   Instead, they have chosen to die on some very odd hills: Japan was pressured into attacking Pearl Harbor because of the U.S.’ oil embargo, Admiral Yamamoto was a peacenik, and Hitler was sincere when he sued for peace in July 1940 after conquering much of Western Europe. This and more on today’s editions of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:” 00:00 Introduction: Revisiting World War II Decisions 01:00 Conservative Reinterpretations of WWII 02:08 Key Elements and Misconceptions of WWII 04:38 Japan's Aggression and the Pacific War 05:25 Hitler's Ambitions and the Importance of WWII 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1    👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273    👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I know I've talked to you before about the decision to drop the atomic bomb to end World War II in the Pacific. And we've talked about the revisionist that have appeared. But I want to revisit something that I think is happening, and it's on our side of the conservative atmosphere. And that is, people are starting at this critical time to look back at World War II and to reinterpret it. Usually we saw that on the left that said, you know, we were racist, we were colonialists, we didn't have to do this, we didn't have to do that. For the left, World War II is essentially the Japanese internment and the dropping of the atomic bombs. When we have the Internet and we have all of this fake news and all of these conspiracy theories, it doesn't behoove us to go back and say that this noble cause to win World War II was somehow flawed.

These were fascist, Nazis, they wanted a war, they thought they could win the war. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen with the Daily Seagery. I know I've talked to you before about the decision to drop the atomic bomb in August of 1945 to end World War II in the Pacific. And we've talked about the revisionist that have appeared such as Daryl Cooper and David Cullum on Tucker Carlson's show. We've talked about, I think, a misreading of what I said in the text. and she heard Dina West, who won an apology, which I can't give because she was mistaken. But I want to revisit something that I think is happening, and it's on our side of the conservative sphere and atmosphere. And that is, people are starting at this critical time to look back at World War II and to reinterpret it.

And usually we saw that on the left that said, you know, we were racist, we were colonialists, we were furthering our selfish ends. We didn't have to do this. We didn't have to do that. For the left, World War II is essentially the Japanese internment and the dropping of atomic bombs. So I want to look at just three or four key elements of World War II that have come up in the news and people have questioned, I think, quite ahistoricly without sufficient background. The first is we kind of forced Japan to attack as a Pearl Harbor because we imposed a boycott in 1940 of, oil and they would only have two years of oil and they pleaded with us and we said no. It was sort of like the Roosevelt administration was sort of doing what Donald Trump is doing

by putting boycotts, although it wasn't a secondary boycott, on Russian oil in reverse that people would not buy Russian oil because that was a desperate move to stop and aggression on the part of Russia. China had been invaded by Japan in 1931, the first sign of war in 1937. And the United States did not get active. And finally, when it went into Vietnam in Southeast Asia and 1940, it said, enough is enough. We're going to not sell Japan oil. And Japan, remember, had started that because they went in not only to get the rice belt of the Mekong Delta, but also to stop all importation of goods from the West end to China. So they started the blockade.

More importantly, you got to remember that the war in Europe had already begun on September 1, 1939. And by the time we imposed this 1940 boycott, there was no free Europe. And all of their colonies in the Pacific, and I'm talking about the rich areas of Southeast Asia that had been under the control of France. I'm talking about the oil, the shell oil companies' holdings in the Dutch East Indies, and I'm talking about soon the Malaysian rubber and Singapore. They felt that they could absorb these orphan colonies from a non-existent country that were now controlled by Hitler, and therefore they wanted to press the attack because they thought the only way that they could be stopped was the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. They thought they could take Singapore.

They did. They wanted the rubber Malaysia. They got the oil in the Dutch East Indies. They went into the Mekong Delta. They had been fighting in China. So it was kind of a last pathetic effort on our part to stop them and try to avoid war in the process. Very quickly, another thing about the Pacific War, Admiral Yamamoto was not a peacock. Everybody said, he said, I can raise hell for six months, and then I can't guarantee anything or up against the American Colossus.

He had been to the United States and studied at Harvard in a military context. But more importantly, Yamamoto threatened to resign to the Japanese military government unless he got his way. He wanted to attack Pearl Harbor. He thought he could get away with it. And he practiced for months and simulated the attack. And they said, if I don't get my way, I will resign. He was a bellicose militarist, as was the emperor. Hirohoto and as was the entire Japanese government. Finally, another issue that's come up among

conservatives is that in July of 1940, after all of Europe was under the control of Hitler, Hitler said, I am the victor. I don't need to have this war anymore. Great Britain, do you want a peace? You can have your British Empire. First of all, nobody could trust him because why would you, after the Anschluss, after the destruction of the Sudatenland and the annexation of basically the destruction of all of Czechoslovakia, the invasion of Poland. He had never told the truth about his territorial ambitions, but more importantly, I think this is really important, he had all of Europe under his control. Britain would not have been able to survive a mere 30 miles away from a German empire, extension. from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Russian border. And he had no intention of giving that up.

And there already had been disturbing reports coming out that he was killing the disabled, rounding up Jews in Poland, mass murdering. There was no way in the world Britain could make a deal with Hitler and expect him to keep it or survive in the next few years with the entire European continent under the control of national socialism. I could go on, but these are very important. important points because in this fractious times when we have the internet and we have all of this fake news and all of these conspiracy theories, it doesn't behoove us to go back and say that this noble cause to win World War II was somehow flawed or that we were too harsh on the Japanese or we started the war or we didn't give Hitler a chance.

These were fascist Nazis. They wanted a war. They thought they could win the war. If the United States was called. culpable for anything. It was in the Great Depression and 1939 and 40, we were not sufficiently rearmed. Hitler looked at us, the Japanese looked at us, and they said their army is the size of Portugal. They don't really have an air force that we have to worry about. They're weak. We can get away with it. That was our only mistake, not arming earlier. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal.

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