does anyone know?

Question

why did the Japanese attack pearl harbor ? I know what took place after but my book doesn't explain why they attacked pearl harbor

thank you for your answer

Answer 1

I'll tell you why and then you will understand why it's not in any U.S. history book...They prefer to let you think that it was an unprovoked attack.....It makes us look good...And the winner of the war always write the history book!
President Roosevelt wanted the US to go to war but it was a hard sell to the passive people in America...We wanted to stay out of a war half a world away.. Roosevelt had already pushed the lend lease plan into law and we were virtually giving Great Britain everything they needed..
Japan has no internal source of oil so the US had through political actions virtually shut off their supplies around the world. Next for some strange reason The US relocated most of it's fleet to a little place called Pearl Harbor. Creating a tempting target for the Japanese...Then during the the Japanese attack fleet's course all of the warning signs that the US picked up were ignored....We knew they were coming...And what they were going to do.
Roosevelt knew that suck an attack would do just what it did...Make every American outraged and ready to go to war..

Any of this sound familiar???

Answer 2

The Japanese were trying to expand their territory. The primary reason for wanting to expand was to claim territories with valuable resources. One of Japan's more important targets was the Phillipine Islands for rubber and oil. But, at the time the Phillipines was a US territory, so attacking the Phillipines would put Japan into a war with the US. So, the Japanese devised a plan to attack Pearl Harbor and knock out the US Pacific fleet first so they could move on the Phillipines relatively unhindered. They were also hoping that such a crushing defeat right at the beginning, followed by the capture of all the US holdings in the west Pacific would convince the US to simply not fight.

Answer 3

Japan wanted to be a Great Power like the Western European nations and the U.S. To do that, they needed to create an empire. As an island that barely supported itself, they needed portions of Asia owned by other countries (Western countries), to fuel their war machine (rubber for tires, brass for bullet casings, oil to run tanks and planes and ships, etc.). They saw the U.S., and rightly so, as a block to their expansionist plans. Pearl Harbor was a response to the American decision to cut off oil & steel sales to Japan, because that's when Japan knew that the U.S. and they would eventually come to blows, so their leadership figured that if they sank the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and whacked the U.S. Army Air Force in the Phillippenes, Japan could do what it needed to do before the U.S. recovered. They were wrong, but only because the U.S. aircraft carriers weren't at Pearl Harbor the day of the attack. If those had been sunk, too, Japan likely would have been able to consolidate their position in the Pacific before the U.S. could repond.

Answer 4

Pearl was home to the Pacific Fleet, the only force that could block/relieve an attack on the Phillipines. The Phillipnes control the sea lanes from Japan to the resource rich areas they wanted to conquer

Answer 5

The U.S. and the Allies had cut off all economic ties with Japan,. Japan had no way of keeping their country's economy going with the embargoes that were placed on their exports, and also lack of imports allowed into the country by the U.S. and the Allies. They felt as thought they were pushed to take drastic measures because of what they thought was lack of cooperation on the part of the U.S. and it's Allies.

Answer 6

they wanted to drag america into the war. so they did

Answer 7

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_the_Japanese_attack_Pearl_Harbor

Go there to find out all the different theories!