Responsibility For The Attack
Modern historians have gone back and analyzed the attack. Many now believe that the attack may have been intentional. According to John Prados, Navy cryptographers had intercepted and decrypted traffic relating to the attacking planes which clearly indicated that they were under orders during the attack, and that it had not been a mistake of any kind. Writer Nick Sparks believes that the chaos in Nanking created an opportunity for renegade factions within the Japanese army who wanted to force the U.S. into an active conflict so that the Japanese could once and for all drive the U.S. out of China.
Read more about this topic: USS Panay Incident
Famous quotes containing the words responsibility for the, responsibility for and/or attack:
“People without firmness of character love to make up a “fate” for themselves; that relieves them of the necessity of having their own will and of taking responsibility for themselves.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)
“Just as men must give up economic control when their wives share the responsibility for the family’s financial well-being, women must give up exclusive parental control when their husbands assume more responsibility for child care.”
—Augustus Y. Napier (20th century)
“Scandal is an importunate wasp, against which we must make no movement unless we are quite sure that we can kill it; otherwise it will return to the attack more furious than ever.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)