why did japan attack pearl harbor?

Question

i just need to know why japan attacked pearl harbor

Answer 1

Because we let them. It was the only way we could enter the war with so much of the country against it. We purposely let our guard down, but not too much as to let our aircraft carriers get destroyed. Funny how they were sent out of the harbor right before the attack.

Answer 2

Japanese attacked pearl harbor because of reasons such as oil embargo imposed by US because Japan occupy China but unknown to anybody before the attack by Japan Imperial navy to Pearl harbor the Civilian leader of US and few selected Naval Commander or Mil Ldr have a pre-hand before the attack that s why their Aircraft carrier were not around during the attacked. The US knows in advance about time and when and strenght of JIN because they have already deciphered or decoded the radio or the US have access to their JIN communication between their civilian leaders and Military ldrs. The US has a best signal intelligence and human intelligence even when US at war with China, China will be defeated cuase their communication was already debugged by US long time ago. Now you cannot do this if not of the elite people or conglomerate businessman who has power even the leadership of China and mil ldrs are under in their sphere of influence including the US. My conclusion therefore is business if China does not behaved they are doomed for destruction.

Answer 3

Japan had ambitious plans to rule the area of the world around the Pacific Ocean, plans born in arrogance and a sense of superiority.

They had conquered most of the asian mainland already, killing millions of innocent, unarmed civilians in their path. Japanese Army troops were instructed to rape Chinese women and little girls on this rampage of evil, and the twisted Japanese Emperor and people thought that this had brought 'great glory' to the Empire of Japan.

The Japanese Navy now needed an opportunity for "glory" because they had been left out of the rape of china for the most part and they now planned to control the Pacific. To carry out these plans, they knew that one big opponent would be the US.

Since the US at the time had their "heads in the sand" with regard to Japan's intentions, (just like many of our leaders do today with regard to the worldwide threat of Islamofacists), they let their entire Pacific Naval fleet dock at Pearl all at the same time, giving Japan the opportunity to knock the US out of the war with one bold attack.

This is why Pearl was attacked on Dec 7, 1941. Japan hoped to wipe out the US Pacific Fleet and then invade California. They actually did invade Alaska, and they got pretty close to Austrailia down south.

Pearl Harbour was a damaging attack, but they did not catch all the fleet and the remaining ships of the U.S. Navy were able, by luck and some incredible fighting skill, to destroy most of the Japanese fleet over the next couple of years, leaving Japan ultimately defeated in WWII.

Answer 4

Japan and America had been economic and political rivals in East Asia and the Pacific for most of the late 19th and early 20th century. This led to America and Japan coming to blows in the early 1940's.

Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, the commander of the Japan Imperial Navy Combined Fleet, figured out that the best way to win a war against America in the Pacific was to destroy the US Navy Pacific fleet at it's docks in Pearl Harbor.

He copied the tactics the Royal Navy used to destroy the Vichy French Mediterranean Fleet at Mers-e-Kebir, Algeria and Toulon France in July 1940 and the Italian Fleet at Taranto, Italy in September 1940 - sail aircraft carriers under radio silence to attack possitions off shore of the naval station, and launch a suprise attack with torpedo and dive bombers to sink the enemy warships at anchor.

Yamamoto figured this would buy Japan 6 months to invade the Phillipines, South China, Hong Kong, Indochina, Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Australia.

Admiral Yamamoto had the Japanese Fleet do the same thing - they succeeded in staging suprise attacks on the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor (while land based Japan Imperial Army Air Corps and Japan Imperial Navy Air Corps planes destroyed the Asiatic Fleet in Subic Bay, Phillipines).

Fortunately for America, and unfortunately for Japan, the 3 aircraft carriers assigned to the Pacific Fleet happened to be on a training exercise that same day, so they escaped destruction.

Answer 5

Without being too specific, Japan signed a treaty (unwillingly) pledging to dismantle their military force, along with many others, a military anit-proliferation act, if you will. Just before this happened they went through great lengths to build their Navy, buying British made battleships and aircraft carriers. At the time Japan's newly formed government was only about 40 or so years out of the feudal system, and still operated with their own system of honor. They saw this treaty as a direct insult to their own percieved military superiority, or potential of thus harboring much animosity toward Britian and the US. In the years leading up to December 7th, 1941 diplomatic relations between our two countries failed completely. Then you factor the US governments position on the war, which was to support Europe with as many goods and equipment as possible. Then the oil pipeline to the northern US territories was redirected and much of the oil produced from this pipeline went to the war effort. This pipeline was the cheif source of oil to Japan, with diplomatic relations so bad, they were effectively cut off. This added injury to insult. So they planned a suprise attack on Pearl in retaliation and to embolden their position as the sole superpower in the Pacific.

Answer 6

At the time, Japan's proto-fascist government was intent on becoming the sole Pacific power and overlord of the surrounding Asiatic and Polynesian peoples. To accomplish that goal, they had to force out the remaining British Imperial forces, any Chinese/Korean resistance, and the undeveloped potential rival Australia. Since the US had major interests in Polynesia, Hawaii, and the Philippines, we also were a major threat to a Pacific empire. Our naval fleet represented the largest sea-based threat to Japan and they believed (wrongly) that a quick and devistating strike on the fleet would cripple our ability to project power into the Western Pacific and demoralize us at home. It had the exact opposite effect and by 1943, Japan's navy was a shambles compared to what it had been on 12/7/41.

Answer 7

The reasons are many along with complex. To full understand you must also understand Japanese military, social and economic cultures of the 1920s and 1930s. Many here have given fairly good answers. One reason that still sticks out is the Japanese leadership's fear of a civil war if they bowed to the US demands. The reason is because Japan had spent considerable resources in China. They feared that the civilians, especially families of soldiers killed, would think the leadership was betraying their sacrifice. Such a betrayal of the governmental figures at that time was considered unthinkable. Of course this is the short version, you could write a book about this and still leave things out.

I find that the biggest problem people have with looking back in time is they look back with the taint of today’s world. If you allow yourself to rid that taint you will see history for what it is.

Answer 8

As I understand it...
Japan and Germany had secret agreements. Japan was to be the power in the Pacific. The US was a threat to both Germany and Japan. With most of our naval fleet docked at Pearl Harbor, the target was easy for Japan. The effect was to knock us out as a Pacific Power as Japan took over the islands of the South Pacific...even Australia. They did knock us out. What saved us was out ability to retool and rebuild quickly.

Answer 9

It is a result of the political disputes between the U.S. and Japan that goes far back as the 1930's. The whole story is quite long. I suggest that you read the book below. It tells the whole series of events that led to the eventual clashing between Japan and the United States in WW II.

Answer 10

To knock out the US Pacific Fleet in one blow....their mistake was not taking out the Carriers and ordering the third wave to take out the dry docks and remaining ships. All the attack did was to awake a sleeping giant.

The existence of US naval power was a threat to their ambitions for regional hegemy in the orient. They needed the raw materials in the neighboring countries that they conquered.

Answer 11

Japan was on the rise to becoming a regional world power. Their agressive imperialism was a threat to American and International interests in the Pacific Ocean and they had both a large naval force and large (relatively) modern air forces. Due to their invasions of nearby countries, the USA enacted trade embargos against them, denying Japan one thing it's offensive tactics could not go without: Oil. Japanese forces would run themselves dry in a matter of months without the USA providing oil to power their machinery.

The result was a need to control the pacific in order to gain what few but valuable oil resources were available in the region. To do that, the Japanese would need to eliminate American control of the seas and THAT required destruction of the pacific fleet. To that ends the Japanese naval forces launched a highly secretive large scale mission that utilized six Japanese Aircraft carriers to launch more than 300 air craft in two waves to attack pearl harbor which, due to anti-terrorist measures and personnel problems lacked the defensive capability to stand against a large scale air invasion. In one attack the Japanese were able to damage or destroy almost every ship in the US Pacific Fleet, lending them the dominance in the Pacific Ocean to control the resources they needed and capture alot of Island territory.

The saving grace was the fact that the US Air Craft Carriers were out on excercises that morning, leaving the Japanese fleet to have to worry about the military capability of the US Navy to launch Air Attacks against all kinds of targets. This played out at the Battle of Midway, where the US Forces took on the Japanese Naval forces and finally managed to turn the tide of Pacific Naval Power projection BACk in favor of the USA.