what caused japan to attack pearl harbor? PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
338701
They wanted to invade the whole South Pacific, and the only force that could prevent them from doing so was the US.  So they attacked while the ships were parked in PH.
170900
Most historians do not believe that Hitler knew of the attack on Pearl Harbor itself. He was certainly aware however, that it was the intent of the Japanese to go to war with the US once the oil embargo and the closing of the Panama Canal had been announced. The Japanese had an embassy in Berlin but were not regarded highly by Hitler. He saw them more as a useful foil to keep the US and the USSR occupied.
383415
Japan entered WWII because numerous world powers were going to impose economic and resource sanctions against them.  The sanctions were going to be put into place becuase of Japan's war on China.  The Japanese took this very seriously as an act of war and went on the offensive first.
107818
Plain and simple...we out produced them.  This is not only how we defeated Japan but also Germany.  We produced far greater numbers of carriers, battleships, guns, aircraft etc etc.  Japan did not have the resources to go toe to toe with us in all out warfare.  They believed that if the attack on Pearl Harbor was succesfull, that America would not retaliate by declaring total war on Japan.  In that sence, one could say that they defeated themselves by underestimating American will.  \n  Island hoping was a very costly technique that was used effectively against Japan as well.  It had a devastating toll on life on both sides.  Another thing Japan did not count on was the fact that after they destroyed most of our battle-ships in Pearl Harbor, we would replace our ships with more modern versions than the ones destroyed....not to mention none of our aircraft carriers were hit in the Pearl Harbor attack.  Logistics also had a large roll on the war in the Pacific.  We effectively blocked most of the supplies Japan needed to conduct warfare against America by sinking supply ships that were on their way to Japan.  Japan being an island nation did not have the material resources on the island to keep pace with American industry...neither did Germany.  I believe this to be the main reason Japan attacked China and Mongolia before the U.S., for material resources.  There is much more but I'm tired of typing....good luck.
318886
Wow there are some bad answers here.\n\nThe assassination in Serbia was World War ONE.\n\nJapan and Poland had no conflict as such, but Germany invaded Poland.  Since Japan was allied with Germany, it just went without saying.  But Japan never had anything to do with that fighting.\n\nBasically; Hitler wanted a European empire centered around Germany, and Japan wanted an Asian empire centered around Japan.  Germany invaded a lot of nations and pissed everyone off, and Japan needed oil for their plans (the US boycotted oil to Japan, cause we didn't like their armies marching through China and Korea and Hong Kong) and so they attacked us.\nAnd so on.
329251
B - because of the advances in mainland China, it forced the US to fight a two front war.  The Japanese caused the americans, and Russians to have to balance their military efforts.  If the US and Russia could have spent less time in Asia, then they could have taken care of the German and Italians faster.
899329
Japanese interests were not taken into account in this matter.\n\nWhat caused all of this was the reactionary media and public opinion manipulated by the media that was the root of all that happened.....plus, a little thing called greed.  And, for good measure, racism.
383035
Holy cow, some really horrible answers so far........\n\nThe US had imposed economic sanctions on Japan because of their invasion and occupation of Manchuria, and their invasion and occupation of most of Western China.  We wanted them to withdraw from China, and imposed increasingly stringent sanctions that were hurting the Japanese economy, which not only prevented them from supporting their military activities but also hurt civilian production and consumption.\n\nThe Japanese decided that the best way to get the resources they needed (primarily tin, rubber, oil and other natural resources)  was to invaded the resource rich Dutch East Indies.  They also felt they needed to invade US possessions in the Phillipines and the Central Pacific in order to provide an outlying perimeter to protect their conquests.  The Japanese were well aware that such actions would cause the US, Enland, and the Dutch to declare war on them.  Since the English and Dutch were heavily involved in the war in Europe against Germany and Italy, the only real threat the Japanese faced was the US, primarily the US Pacific Fleet which was based at Pearl Harbor.  \n\nTherefor the Japanese devised a plan whereby they would launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, crippling the US Pacific Fleet to the point where it couldn't interfere with their plans for quite some time.  By the time it could, the Japanese would have built up their outlying perimeter making it extremely difficult for any US fleet to interfere.  They also hoped that the attack would so horrify the US civilian population that the US government would sign a peace treaty and accept the status qou.  Admiral Yamamoto and other high level militarly leaders warned that if the US decided to go to war, it was a war that Japan could never win because of the industrial and economic might of the US.\n\nSo, the attack was in response to US sanctions, sanctions which crippled the ability of the Japanese to conduct their war in China.  Since they were unwilling to give up their conquests there, and any further invasion would bring about war against the US, they decided on launching a surprise attack.\n\nHerbmueller99 gave a very short, essentially correct answer. Bobmarley and karatekaty are pretty much dead wrong, and everybody else besides nywrek are almost dead wrong. Nywrek is generally correct, although it was no secret that Germany, Japan, and Italy had signed the Tripartite Pact, and the entire USN wasn't based at Pearl Harbor, just a majority of the Pacific Fleet.\n\nHigh school and college history teachers must be doing a lousy job nowadays, or people simply don't read anymore.
372142
That my friend is probably true.  How many Japanese civilians were killed when Curtis Lamey ordered the firebombing of Japan.  Think about the two atom bombs dropped as well.  Justified in my opinion because of the casualties the Americans would have suffered if they had been forced to invade.  Had we lost most top leaders would have been beheaded.
215781
Sneak attack by the japanese on Pearl harbor, Hawaii ,which in turn we declared war on the japanese empire and germany, known as the axis powers, we were known as the allied powers, along with russia, england, france and others.Hope this answered your question.
690767
Nope; the planners of the attack were firmly convinced that it would strike a crippling blow against their eventual rival in the Pacific, forcing the U.S. to make more favorable arrangements to split spheres of influence in the Pacific Rim.\n\nThe Japanese Empire was shamelessly and eagerly imperialist; they wanted everything in Asia subservient to them.  They saw the U.S.A. as the only serious obstacle to that hegemony, since the English, French, and Dutch were tied up in World War.
9711
Pearl Harbor was not part of the US at the time.\n\nThe attack on Pearl Harbor was Dec 7th, 1941.  Hawaii did not become a state until 1959.\n\nIn the war of 1812 we were attacked by the british.\n\nIn World War II we were attacked by both the Japanese and the Germans on our mainland in minor obscure occasions.\n\nThen there was the Brittish invasion of the 1960's where we were overrun by, mostly bad, british bands.  The Beatles were a bright spot.
200529
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Harbor
442860
Well, the japanese had bombed one of the US ships, but they claimed that they did not see the US signs. That action angered the US, thus leading up to Pearl harbor. Yamatato, the  chief of the Military in Japan tried to persuade japan to bomb pearl harbor to see where the war was going. The battles that eventually led up to WWII was the battle of midway, the battles of Iwo Jima. The japanese enventually lost the war. During WWII Japan was a part of the axis powers, with Germany and Italy. After Pearl harbor happened, many many Japanese were sent to Internment camps, in the US, there were 10 total. They were located in California, Arizona, New mexico, Wyoming and i think Nevada(not sure about nevada but others i am positive). that is all that i can think of right now, hope this helped in some way.  :-)
72372
well they bombed Pearl Harbour (hawaii) in order to eleminate the threat of US intervention, and give them time to sieze an empire before the Us could strike, that way they might get to keep it
500005
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii\nAdak was attacked in the August of 1942.
1107193
If you are talking about Pearl Harbor Dec 7th 1941 that is correct.  At the end of the Japaneses attack on Pearl Harbor there were only a very small amount of ships between Hawaii and the California Coast.\n\nThe Big mistake was that the fleet was anchored in two straight lines bow to stern and made a very large target.  Since then the Navy has a new policy to separate ships at anchor. And to anchor them in a random pattern.