Before Pearl Harbor: China, FDR and the Plot to Bomb Japan

Could the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 have been prevented? Could war with Japan have been avoided? Or did a secret White House plan only hasten the attack?

In BEFORE PEARL HARBOR: China, FDR and the Plot to Bomb Japan, noted author and military historian Michael Lemish uncovers a top secret plan hatched between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Chinese government to send U.S. heavy bombers to Tokyo, long before the attack on Pearl Harbor, in a desperate attempt to avert a war with Japan that seemed more and more inevitable.

Painstakingly researched and meticulously documented, this explosive true story of presidential power and covert diplomacy was hidden from the American people for decades following the war. The cast of characters reads like a Who's Who of 1930s and 1940s history, including:

- Pioneer aviator and American icon Charles Lindbergh

- General Jimmy Doolittle, years before his legendary 1942 Tokyo raid

- Nobel Prize winning writer Ernest Hemingway

- Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and his charismatic wife

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself

As US-China tensions dominate today's global headlines, Before Pearl Harbor reveals the deep and complicated historical roots of this rivalry and asks the questions that historians are still debating: What did Roosevelt really know? Who ignored the warnings? And how different might the world have been if someone had just paid attention?

"Before Pearl Harbor provides an entirely new interpretation of the events of Pearl Harbor and takes a clinical look at the root cause of the attack. A must read for fans of history." Nell Chennault Calloway, granddaughter of General Claire Chennault, President and CEO, Chennault Aviation and Military Museum

"The first book on history I could not put down. A definitive work of impressive detail and analysis. A must read." Lt. Col. James Huggins, Producer, The Robert Hartsock Story

230 pages with 80 black and white photographs.

Published by Elm Grove Publishing. Distributed by Ingram.

Michael Lemish is an aviation and military historian and the author of three books on American military history. For 15 years he served as the Official Historian for the Vietnam Dog Handler Association. His work has appeared in more than 100 magazine publications including Aviation History, The American Legion Magazine, Vietnam, K9 Cop Magazine, Boy's Life, and The Atlantic Flyer. He has contributed to military documentaries broadcast on BBC, The History Channel, PBS, and the Discovery Channel.His latest book, Before Pearl Harbor: China, FDR and the Plot to Bomb Japan, has been adapted into a feature film screenplay which received five international film festival selections in 2026 including the prestigious Beverly Hills Film Festival, with Finalist and Semi-Finalist placements among more than 1,000 competing submissions per festival.Michael Lemish resides in New Hampshire.