One word. BULLSHIT. You are like all the others who know nothing but the rumors and retold stories of his tenure. The fact is, like Bush, Hoover fucked America to the hilt, FDR rescued it. Say what you want but you are totally wrong in your second hand appraisals of his administration.
Like I said, we'll never know. But there is a significant amount of circumstantial facts that add up:
The Pacific Fleet was not stationed in Pearl Harbor until 1940. The commander of the fleet at the time (Admiral Richardson) refused to move his ships there, because of the inability to effectively defend the site. He was subsequently relieved of his command by the President.
Admiral Kimmel, in charge of Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack, said "I'll tell you what I believe. I think that most of the incriminating records have been destroyed. ... I doubt if the truth will ever emerge" when he was asked if we had advance knowledge of the attacks
In November of 1941, all Pacific commands of the Army and Navy received a warning about imminent war with Japan. Despite this, ammo for the AA guns at Pearl Harbor remained locked up in storage instead of loaded or at least near the guns themselves.
10 days prior to Pearl Harbor, the head of the War Department (Henry Stimson) wrote in his diary that he had a meeting with FDR about "how we should maneuver them [the Japanese] into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves."
One of FDR's aides, Jonathan Daniels, was quoted as saying "The blow was heavier than he had hoped it would necessarily be. ... But the risks paid off; even the loss was worth the price. ..."
It's also well-known that we had deciphered two of the highest level Japanese codes, and had decrypted a significant amount of their radio transmissions prior to Pearl Harbor. To date, much of these transmissions have still not been released.
Vice Admiral Frank Beatty, aide to the Secretary of the Navy said "Prior to December 7, it was evident even to me... that we were pushing Japan into a corner. I believed that it was the desire of President Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Churchill that we get into the war, as they felt the Allies could not win without us and all our efforts to cause the Germans to declare war on us failed; the conditions we imposed upon Japan — to get out of China, for example — were so severe that we knew that nation could not accept them. We were forcing her so severely that we could have known that she would react toward the United States. All her preparations in a military way — and we knew their over-all import — pointed that way."
Like I said, all circumstantial. But I can see how the totality of it begins to add up.