Why did Japan Bomb Pearl Harbor?

[Saevus]

Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in order to destroy the U.S Navy based there, thereby eliminating the U.S's ability to wage war against Japan in the Pacific.

This is a very basic, crude outline of it; there are other major factors as well, but this is generally the starting point.

I thought the US weren't in WW2 until Pearl Harbor was bombed though ?
I mean they weren't planning to fight the Japanese anyway were they ?
I don't know much about this stuff obviously.

Indirectly the USA was already fighting Japan. US volunteer pilots were flying for the RAF in the Asian theatre of war, the US had cut off Japan's supply of Oil, was supplying Britain constantly with all the necessary supplies to keep fighting Japan and Germany, was providing arms and assistance to the Chinese Resistance, as well as Canadian and ANZAC forces (Australia and New Zealand).

All of the above contravenes the existing international war rules of the time. So in a sense, Japan had been provoked in every possible way.

Also worth looking at is the incompetence of the Radar operation on Hawaii. Without this there would have been US Navy and Air Force fighters in the air in time to resist the Japanese attack, mitigating the devastation. As covered in the fantastic 'The World at War' documentary series, the Radar operators had no idea how to interpret the huge signal that represented the coming Japanese attack force and when they contacted their commanders (who really should have known better) they were told to ignore it.
This has lead to some people (the occasional historian included) believing that the commanders knew what was coming and were under orders to allow a successful Japanese attack in order to provoke the American public into supporting Roosevelt's desire to join in the war - with the USA's capacity to rapidly construct replacement ships and recruit replacement soldiers/sailors Pearl Harbor could be considered 'acceptable losses'. Though I personally don't entirely share that opinion.

I agree with your disagreement on the 'acceptable losses' hypothesis. While the blatant warning provided by radar was ignored, one must keep in mind that the Japanese had still not actually declared war - the only notification America had was the declaration of war intercepted and decoded long before the Japanese embassy could deliver it. And even then, it was rather fuzzy in its intentions. It is paramount that one does not abuse hindsight in evaluating past actions.

 

[the captain]

Adding a reason that nobody has mentioned...

The US was mad at Japan's genocidal campaigns in China, so the US cut off Japan's oil supply. Pearl Harbor was retaliatory and then it was threating the US, saying that if they didn't give oil there would be war.

Pearl Harbor wasn't as effective as Japan had hoped and the US didn't back down.

Not to mention the fact that they couldn't stop the US's massive industrial power. In the course of the war the US Navy brought into service 104 fleet, light fleet, and escort carriers, 8 battleships, 46 cruisers, 349 destroyers, 493 destroyer escorts and frigates, and 203 submarines; the aircraft losses incurred at pearl harbor represented less than two days' production by March 1944. In the attack only 18 warships were either sunk, destroyed or damaged, and out of those 18 only 3 were total losses and the rest were back in service by early 1944.

In all honesty, it was a completly ineffective first stike which only hastened their defeat. Japan is a country which is in no way designed for war, due to the fact the they had very scarce natural resources of their own. Even after they took over the Southern Resource Area, they still had to keep large portions of the navy held in reserve to protect merchant shipping. Also they had to patrol huge areas of the Pacific to try and protect all of their assets along the front lines.

 

[willard3]

I am trying to figure this out for a research project. Why did Japan bomb Pearl Harbor.

For Honor, to win the hearts of 15 year old schoolgirls

So, for squee's?

 

[PurpleRain]

Sir William Samuel Stephenson, CC, MC, DFC (January 23, 1897 - January 31, 1989) was a Canadian soldier, airman, businessperson, inventor, spymaster, and the senior representative of British intelligence for the entire western hemisphere during World War II.
Wow :O

He's also the inspiration for James Bond! He's pretty much the coolest guy ever.

*Ahem* Who... did some stuff once. Hey I fed the dog the other day!

I haven;t researched a lot on this topic though, so what I have learnt, my memoreies a little fuzzy. But America was supporting most other countries as well as getting ready military wise. To have a base ready with a fleet of ships is sign enough for war.

 

[Naal]

Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in order to destroy the U.S Navy based there, thereby eliminating the U.S's ability to wage war against Japan in the Pacific.

This is a very basic, crude outline of it; there are other major factors as well, but this is generally the starting point.

I thought the US weren't in WW2 until Pearl Harbor was bombed though ?
I mean they weren't planning to fight the Japanese anyway were they ?
I don't know much about this stuff obviously.

They wern't fighting per-say, but they were shipping goods to the UK. Although we wern't official on taking sides til the bombing it's obvious that we didn't support the Axis.

To answer the OPs question: Paranoia. Japan was scared we'd start attacking them since we were obviously helping out the Allies.

 

[L33tsauce_Marty]

Long story short, we kicked their asses in the end. AMERICA! FUCK YEAH! COMIN' AGAIN TO SAVE THE MOTHERFUCKING DAY YEAH!

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

The short version: The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in an attempt to eliminate the abiltiy of the US to project combat power against the Japanese since we were the only power remaining that had any real capacity to stop them. This was a direct result of a long history of foreign policy where the US attempted to curtail the power of the Japanese. Had the carrier fleet actually been present at Peral Harbor, it's likely that the war in the Pacific would have been far different as the biggest reason the US won in that particular area is because we had the resources to replace our naval losses whereas Japan did not.

 

[Dele]

Even though Yamamoto was a brilliant tactician, Japanese admirals were mostly obsolete for post-WWI warfare. Contrary to the popular belief aircraft carriers were not the main target of Pearl Harbor but instead all focus was put on destroying battleships. Yeah you got that right, whole supprise attack aimed to destroy floating scrap metal that had no real combat potential and were not a threat at all. Port itself was mainly undamaged and large oil tank farms that had fuel US pacific fleet desperately needed to effectively operate were left unscratched. With no carriers and no submarines sunk, I conclude that the attack was a complete failure on all levels.

Getting Yamato gun to Starcraft almost makes up for it.

 

[gremily]

Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

Germans?

Forget it, he's rolling.

The Germans didn't bomb Pearl Harbor. -_- (sigh)

 

[Scarecrow38]

Looks like everyone before me has collectively covered it all basically so I'll just say they did it for funsies.

 

[Nightfalke]

Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

Germans?

Forget it, he's rolling.

The Germans didn't bomb Pearl Harbor. -_- (sigh)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077975/quotes

I am going to assume you are just merely ignorant of one of the greatest movies of all time.