After the Japanese launched their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the morale of most Americans was quite low. The United States had finally been drawn into another war and in Washington, D.C. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was searching for something that could encourage Americans. FDR was looking for a way to strike back at the Japanese. James M. Scott describes the plans that were made and the astonishing result of that planning in his new work of history "Target Tokyo - Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor."
The Japanese were confident that after the shock of Pearl Harbor that the United States lacked the ability to strike back and launch an attack on Japan. They were complacent. They did not believe it was possible but that is exactly what FDR's people were planning; a daring bombing raid on Japan. They called them "Doolittle's Raiders." This is quite a story.