Why did the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour?

Question

They were are war with China at the time, so what was their motivation to attack America?

But the Japanese must have realised that their actions would bring America in to the War, at that time America was refusing to get involved. It would surely have been in in their best interests not to provoke America

Thank you everybody. I am overwhelmed by all of your fantastic answers. I have learned a lot today

Answer 1

Becuase the US had started an Oil Embargo on Japan (who had very little of thier own oil) to protest thier actions in China, or more likely to goad them into attacking our bases in the Phillipenes or Pearl Harbor.

Either way it worked, they attacked both plus british and other colonies in the south pacific and southeast asia.

Roosevelt finaly got the US into the war (he had also been putting British flags on US ships in the atlantic in the hopes of getting the Germans to sink one) but they never went for that ruse, so it took the Japanese to take the bait

right or wrong Roosevelts strategy was the only way to get the US congress (Republican) to declare war, they blocked every funding bill he wanted to help the allies thus leading to the lend lease deals and others that did not involve congressional approval

Answer 2

Roosevelt had embargoed oil exports to Japan, especially painful was the loss of aviation fuel to the Japanese. The ruling clique in Japan thought it best to strike Pearl Harbor and inflict a massive military blow to the USA. Apparently it was thought that if the operation was overwhelmingly successful, sinking the battleships and carriers at anchor; that the USA would be so demoralized that they might sue for peace. The first two waves were devastating to the ships on battleship row; however, the all important carriers were out at sea,somewhere that Admiral Kaga did not know. That is probably why the third wave was called off, Kaga felt a great victory had been won, and he had to protect his fleet from all those carrier planes. This was probably the worst and fatal mistake made by the Japanese that day. If that third wave had been able to destroy the tank farms with all the fuels for the ships and planes; even if the third wave had suffered high attrition, the destuction of the majority of that fuel would have set back the movements of the fleet a full year, since all fuels had to be tankered out from California The Japanese would have a full extra year to secure all that they had invaded.Because the tank farms were not seriously damaged, when the dangerous carriers came back into port to refuel, refit and resupply, they were readily able too, with alacrity. And the reaction of the American population was anything but demoralized; instead people were incensed and infuriated; thus Roosevelt soon after declred war on the Empire of Japan. He did not declare war on Germany, but Adolf Hitler, eight days later,declared war on the USA. Reportedly some of his aides were horrified, England was not defeated yet, now it was all-out help for England from the USA.

Answer 3

To be honest the Japanese felt they had no choice. We wanted the Japanese to give up China and some other gains they made right before the war. The Japanese nation was growing short on raw material such as steele and oil. They felt the US was going to try to force them out of areas such as China. I don't think we even had the ability before the war to force Japan to do anything.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was not meant to be a sneak attack but it was. The Japanese reps in America delivered the Japanese Declaration of war after Pearl was attacked.
The attack was meant to be a first strike to cripple the US Navy in the Pacific so that America would have to accept Japans terms of a Peace agreement.

Answer 4

The US was putting an embargo on their oil imports. The US was doing that to put a stop to Japanese attacks in China. Japan wanted to control the raw materials found throughout eastern Asia and didn't want any further interference from the US. The idea was that if they were able to destroy the vast majority of our fleet in a single surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, then they could operate in the Pacific with impunity. They were wrong.

Answer 5

The Japanese wanted to cripple the Carrier Fleet of the United States, thus disabling the United State's ability to attack Japan. It is as simple as that. Unfortunately for Japan, the Carrier Fleet was on an exercise at the time and their attack did nothing but provoke the wrath of the United States, who, up until that point, had been seriously considering joining the Axis Powers.

Answer 6

Well a bit of Japanese "shock and awe" that didn't go too well. They hoped that with one single attack they would paralyse the Pacific USA navy, leaving the Japanese imperial navy as kings of the pacific. China would have surrendered and they would rule the planet along w the German. Imagine an alt version of the cold war. Japan vs Germany! Shame it didn't work out (not).

As a quick note, they were NOT stupid. Tactically its was brilliant and very brave of them. The pacific was pretty much there's from then on. The proof of this is that the USA only managed to get there's back years later w the atom bomb. If it hadn't been for that japan would still be laugh in. The atomic bomb sounds a lot to us like a disproportionate measure now, but it reflect the American frustration at what was a tactically brilliant and unmatched attack

Answer 7

The intent of the strike was to protect Imperial Japan's advance into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies – for their natural resources such as oil and rubber – by neutralizing the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Both the US and Japan had long-standing contingency plans for war in the Pacific, developed during the 1930s as tension between the two countries steadily increased, focusing on the other's battleships. Japan's expansion into Manchuria and later French Indochina were greeted with increasing levels of embargoes and sanctions from the United States. In 1940, the US halted further shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools and aviation gas to Japan, which Japan interpreted as an unfriendly act.[5] America continued to export oil to Japan, as it was understood in Washington that cutting off exports could mean Japanese retaliation.[6] In the summer of 1941, the US ceased the export of oil to Japan due to Japan's continued aggressive expansionist policy and because an anticipated eventual American entrance to the war in Europe prompted increased stockpiling and less commercial use of gasoline.[7] President Franklin D. Roosevelt had moved the fleet to Hawaii, and ordered a buildup in the Philippines, to reduce Japanese aggression in China and deter operations against others, including European colonies in Asia. The Japanese high command was (mistakenly) certain any attack on the United Kingdom's colonies would inevitably bring the U.S. into the war.[8] A pre-emptive strike appeared the only way Japan could avoid U.S. interference in the Pacific.

Answer 8

I thought it was a plot by the British to get America into the war.What happen next is most interesting Gemany declared war on America. Making them enter the war in the east and the west.

Answer 9

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack that shocked the US. On the morning of December 7, 1941,planes and midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy began a surprise attack on the U.S. under the command of Vice Admiral. Despite long-standing assertions that this attack could have been predicted and prevented by the United States Military, the US forces at Pearl Harbor appeared to be utterly unprepared, and the attack effectively drew the United States into World War II. At 6:09 a.m. on December 7, 1941, the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed mainly of torpedo bombers, dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. The Japanese hit American ships and military installations at 7:55 a.m. They attacked military airfields and at the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. The battleship "USS Arizona" was hit with an armor piercing bomb which penetrated the forward ammunition compartment, blowing the ship apart. Overall, twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific fleet were damaged and the death toll reached 2,350, along with 68 civilians and 1,178 injured. Of the military personnel lost at Pearl Harbor, 1,177 were from the Arizona. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared Dec. 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy."

Answer 10

Buy destroying the US Navy's Pacific fleet,in a surprise attact

they hoped that America fearing there might be a west coast invasion, would sue for peace and in effect stay out of the war

but they didn't quite archive there aims, and only woke a sleeping Grizzly who after a slow start bit them on the ar-e

korky