Official history pretends that the United States was surprised by the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. In reality, American President Franklin Roosevelt was seeking war with Japan to justify entering the war against Germany. He approved many plans to provoke war with Japan. The most aggressive was JB 355 that was secretly funded in August 1941 to send dozens of American bombers to China, painted with Chinese insignia, to bomb strategic targets in Japan. President Roosevelt approved this plan despite objections by General George Marshall and Secretary of War Henry Stimson. They considered it an illegal act of war that required valuable aircraft needed by Britain and American forces in the Philippines.