Some of my earliest memories are hearing talk about the war, I was born in 1940. No one has ever been able to answer this question for me, why did the Japanese attack us?
To damage our naval capability so that we wouldn't hinder their take over of the far east.
Oil and trade.
Oil. No really, basically oil and rubber. The Japanese planned to invade Southeast Asia for natural resources and we were the only thing keeping them from doing it. They decided instead of doing their thing and then fighting us when we decided to stop them, they would just wipe out our Navy and we would not be able to stop them.
The US was opposing Japan's imperialist aggression against China and we embargoed the sale of gasoline, oil, and steel to Japan. They relied on those resources for their imperialist expansion plans, and were hurting without them. They planned on taking the oilfields of the Dutch East Indies to replace the American oil, but the U.S.-held Philippines and the American Pacific fleet in Hawaii stood in the way.
So, in a way, it was a war for oil.
It’s a simple map.
http://www.pwc.com/id/en/publications/indonesiaoilgasconcessionandinfrastructuremap.jhtml
Oil and Gas in indonesia. What’s in between Indonesia and Japan? The Philippines. In 1945 - who controlled the Philippines?
Short answer; they thought we were screwing with their ability to import oil, which was not available domestically.
Regards,
GtG
Why did Zimmerman get out of his Truck?
The Japanese obviously bombed Pearl Harbor because they thought we were following them and felt dissed. Then when their 19 Year Old Morbidly Obese High School Junior Girlfriend told them that we were a bunch of Gay Rapists, they couldn’t help themselves.