The View From Monday: Doubt cast on lead-up to Pearl Harbor attack.

While searching for books on Amazon.com's online bookstore, I came across one in which the author claims that the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan in 1941 was not a surprise at all, but a carefully orchestrated high-level effort by the United States to have Japan carry out such an attack so that it could declare war on this country.

The book, "Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor," was written by Robert B. Stinnet, a former reporter for the Oakland Review, who spent 17 years interviewing subjects and researching government archives.

Over the years, a number of people have come to believe the Pearl Harbor attack was, in a sense, initiated by U.S. President …