why did the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor?

We didn't do anything to them!

Why did they attack us?

We were friends with China. They hated each other.

seems like a urine-poor excuse to attack someone...

U.S was actively supporting their enemies (china,u.s.s.r) and cut off oil and rubber supplies to Japan

so, instead of using diplomatic measures, they unilaterally attacked...

they wanted the entire south pacific to themselves , we stood in a defensive position , I think they wanted Hawaii also

they thought they could take out entire pacific fleet

seems like an unreasonable response.

Japan was expansionist trying to extend control over Asia so they tried to knock out the pacific fleet. Pearl Harbor wasnt the only site attacked, its just the only actual US State that was attacked as other territories and bases were attacked as well. There were negotiations going on at the time, Japan formally didnt declare war until after the attack. The rest of the axis powers declared war on the US also shortly after.

We actually did restrict trade with the japs.....if they would have caught the carriers in Pearl it would have been a very bad thing...worse than it was by far.

We turned the tide @ Midway thanks to very brave air crews.....they gave their lives to turn the tide of the war. May God bless them all....

As an Island Nation, they needed to control raw materials like oil. Just as the Nazi came to power in Europe, Japan became aggressive toward China and other Asian nations. The US imposed an embargo which backed them into a corner. Their emperor was all powerful and the people and military followed him blindly. Their military had ramped up the Navy but under grossly estimated the industrial might of the US.

We had already cut off most of their oil in opposition to their occupation of China. They needed the oil from the Dutch East Indies. Being an island nation they were woefully short on resources that were available in the East Indies as well. Problem, the US Asiatic Fleet in the Philippines stood in the way as did our line of supply at Wake and Midway back to Pearl.
They could not move against Java and Borneo with America's navy on their flanks. They were faced with running out of oil and resources while bogged down in China, and they knew it, or go for the whole shooting match. But if they went all in they had but one shot to take out the US Navy all at once and best case force a negotiated draw in the pacific or deliver a fait accompli when they controlled the East Indies and sat across the sea routes in the pacific.
Yamamoto knew this was a foolhardy idea having been educated in the US but as a loyal citizen he executed his orders to the very best of his ability.

The goal at Pearl was to catch the entire US Pacific Fleet at anchor and destroy it in full. They very nearly did just that were the aircraft carriers not already at sea reinforcing wake or enroute from California.
The smaller fleet in the Philippines did not include any carriers or battleships and had to evacuate to Australia and we lost quite a few in the process.

The barbaric, mass murdering japs were not punished enough..... japland should have been taken into the USA...period. No more japan, so sorry.

The us was starving Japan from raw products not just oil but rubber and other materials meant for the war machine. Japan was also trying to be a world global power and wanted to branch out much like its American, French, British, German, Italian counterparts. All these countries and many more where colonizing other countries and lands for raw materials. Think British empire during colonization. They owned half the world. What we did first is what Japan was trying to do. Two biggest kids in the sandbox gona be a fight at some point. It’s very simular to what China is trying to do right now. There might just be another fight coming in that same sandbox soon enough. China wants to make a point of taking Taiwan, it absolutely was a part of China before the communists took over. They very much want it back. If they could pull it off they can say to the world “we are a super power” and no one would doubt it.

Warrior and Lots of Mink have it right. Yamamoto knew what he was getting into.

SniperB irrelevant to the question at hand but Hawaii became a state in 1959.

Japanese people, like the Jews, think they are special. I have no doubt that most modern Japanese don't see a problem with the atrocity's committed in WWII . It was a mistake not hanging Japanese war criminals, including their emperor , the way NAZI's were hung. They were being denied trade due to their treatment of the Chinese and Koreans .

The decision to nuke them was a good one. They earned that response.

X2, most Japanese war criminals were never prosecuted. I had a neighbor who was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and those Japanese soilders should have been hung.

I have a couple foreign exchange students from each country over the years. It is amazing how much they hate each other! Japan and Korea.

Well when You're listed in the Bible as God's own ....You kind of Are special.

330 I'd laugh except I know you think all those fairy tales are real.

I guess you have to discredit and actively disbelieve, otherwise if true you have a heep of answering to do for the hatred in your own heart.

Except wars are being fought over who really is "special". Bottom line its why Japan attacked the U.S. The belief they were destined to rule the Pacific. Their culture of war wasn't that big a deal till they decided to export it.

Japan has been a much better ally than it would of made an enemy and is critical in countering NK and China. Why is it we only talk about Axis powers war crimes? The Allies also committed atrocities especially the U.S.S.R which committed them with full U.S support and equipment. All this selective outrage while pointing out others who think they are special. Every people thinks they are special or unique or always acted in righteousness.

How about someone Google Admiral Perry and his forcible entry of the US Navy into Japanese ports to open Japan to foreign trade?
One could argue that Japan was an isolationist and zenophobic culture forced to interact with the west against their will. Same could be said of China as well.

Are we the baddies?

History isn't always pretty and hindsight is always 20/20.

"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it " Was a reasonable saying until Jim Jones made it his slogan for brain washing.

Japan has been a much better ally than it would of made an enemy and is critical in countering NK and China. Why is it we only talk about Axis powers war crimes? The Allies also committed atrocities especially the U.S.S.R which committed them with full U.S support and equipment. All this selective outrage while pointing out others who think they are special. Every people thinks they are special or unique or always acted in righteousness.[/quote]
Because Axis war crimes were sanctioned by the government and ours werent.It's one thing to do it on a large scale with broad support for your actions,including earning medals being promoted,and another thing when it's being done on a personal level.War crimes happen every time there is one,not every government ok's and supports it.The U.S. did not knowingly support Russian atrocities during WW2,and there was no official document supporting it in the Soviet army.It depended on who was running the show in different units.Some looked the other way,some condemned it,and at least one threatened to shoot any soldier caught torturing germans.The Soviets admitted it was hard to control their troops when they entered Germany after what Germany did to them .

U.S.S.R turned prisoners of war into slaves, ordered the mass killing of POWs and conquered a vast territory. The list of Russian war crimes would at very least rival the Nazis. I would argue the U.S.S.R was atleast as bad as the Nazis but probably worse.

The U.K forced POWs to clear minefields which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries. The Navy sunk ALL vessels without warning during the invasion of Denmark, civilian and military alike. They used Torture to extract information and they handed over huge amounts of POWs to the Russians who immediately machine gunned them.

Major-General Raymond Hufft admitted after the war that if the Germans had won he would of been tried for war crimes as he ordered German POWs to be killed. U.S units were ordered NOT to take German prisoners on D-Day. Some reports claim U.S service members raped up to 190,000 German women.

There were few Japanese prisoners taken by any of the Allies, the ones who were taken were often killed during transport.

War is a dirty business and few go about it and keep their hands clean, the history books would read very differently if the war had been fought to a Stalemate or the Axis had won. Any official documents linking an allied country to war crimes could conveniently disappear and who would investigate them anyways? Who would hold them responsible if they had been found guilty?

Your way off,your trying to make the case the allies sanctioned war crimes when they didnt.Such statements like the U.K. using Germans to clear mine fields is misleading to say the least,you make it sound like they forced them to March across the fields to detonate them.Ridiculous. Yeah,there are numerous books written by authors who come up with figures like 190,000 German women raped by U.S.servicemen.Their the same ones who never waste a opportunity to whine about us dropping the atomic bombs.Blah blah blah.This is starting to sound like an argument against a left wing rag.

The soviets had one advantage over the nazis as a built in part of their system. Don't write it down or keep records.

Dey was Stooopid!

When you are at war you do what you have to do win. I have never been in a fist fight to make friends.

Donnersurvivor - See above last line posted by me. What invasion of Denmark are you talking about?

The German invasion of Denmark. Anything in the Skagerrak was open game.

I think if the japs and germans never started world wars there would have not been any war crimes committed against them.....

i think its disgusting to claim the united states tortured prisoners and did same things nazis and imperial japan did.

i really seriously doubt our troops were wantonly raping german women. i am certain the u.s. command did not run brothels with german women forced into sexual slavery.

i am certain prisoners were killed and also soldiers trying to surrender. that is not uncommon. hardly equates to starving and torturing those prisoners that were taken.

Stalin was a criminal and responsible for the murder of untold numbers of prisoners both foreign and domestic.

Danes loss less than 100 sailors killed and wounded in the 6 hr. invasion of Denmark by Germany. Most of their boats were captured or scuttled. Look it up - Operation Safari.

Most people don't realize that neither Alaska or Hawaii wete US States at the time of the attack, and the USA was isolationist at that time. They probably thought we would roll over easily and give up the territories.

Well it's obvious just who hates America here. Free to enjoy all her benefits while (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) and moaning about her. Nasty ingrate.

Denmark had no real means of stopping the nazis. What is admirable is their plan in the event of invasion. First they evacuated the majority of their Jewish population to Sweden then scuttled what they could before the Germans got it.

The NATO plan to deter a Soviet invasion was less admirable, plan was to Nuke the Soviets in Norway a NATO country. Imagine being a member of a organization knowing you were the sacrificial lamb.

And just where are you accessing these cold war war plans?

Yes, closure of the shipping lanes.

There was a youtube video about it, I couldn't find it, guessing it was based on these plans.

https://thebarentsobserver.com/ru/node/756

Everywhere the sons of Nippon operated there were sanctioned war crimes. From bayonetting nurses and nuns in Malaysia, all the atrocities on the Bataan death march, special unit in china using germ & chemical warfare and cutting out the livers of live Americans and eating them ( read the book Flyboys) nothing was off limits. Beheading, rape and beatings were common and they would take women from countries they occupied and put them on troop ships and bases as "comfort women". Bear Tracker that's one of the reasons your Korean students hated the japs, they not only raped their country but would ship Korean women off for the same fate.

The reason there were so few jap survivors is because they would not give up, they would rather die than be captured, not because we killed them in captivity. Donner you are way off base but I think you know that. Dad was at Iwo and Okie, wish you could have told him your point of view.

It was called bushido. To surrender was eternal dishonor and shame for one's family. In some respects admirable but not when it meant entire families of women and children jumping to their deaths off the cliffs of Okinawa.
That same bushido made it perfectly acceptable to abuse and massacre POWs and civilians as they had no honor in the eyes of bushido.

What am I off base on?

Revisionist smears against US armed forces. I think we can all agree that bad things happen in war and not every serviceman or woman lives up to our ideals but to make the claim that war crimes were US policy official or not is unsupported at best and slanderous at worst.

The Japanese greatly underestimated several things. As an Island nation with limited arable land, dependent upon other areas and regions for resources and food they chose to engage in war instead of working to build relationships etc. They greatly underestimated the USA's ability to ramp up war production, and it was a good thing we were ramping that up prior to 12-7-41. When Hitler invaded Russia the Japanese felt that the Russian threat was no much less to nil. The Japanese greatly underestimated the sacrifices and lives lost and burning of crops Stalin's Russia would do to defeat Germany. The Japanese overestimated Germany's military might and man power to occupy almost all of northern and western Europe the northern 1/4 of Africa, keep their sea lanes open and fight the Russians. After the battle of Midway it was down hill for the Japanese empire, it just took 39 more months and heavy battle casualties to close the deal. The end of WW11 initiated the era of great, strong and healthy democracies. Now 70 years later we seem to be working hard to find issues to divide citizens of democracies instead of working as a more unified nation. History does often times repeat itself and it does so in my opinion because many choose to not even want to study about it let alone take it seriously.

Bryce

The atrocities committed by the japs were many and policy. Us troops cannot be compared to that at all, end of story.

Pointing out the fact the Allies committed war crimes is not a smear, it's just factual. Again a direct quote from Major-General Raymond Hufft 'if the Germans had won, I would have been on trial at Nuremberg instead of them.'"

My grandfather Hated what he called "Japs", he worked on the Manhattan project and suffered and eventually died from a multitude of cancers. My Great Uncle helped liberate Japanese POW camps, it was often said "Bomb was to good for the Japs" anytime the war or anything Japanese was brought up. Never got the full story of another great uncle, he was in a tank and some sort of explosion took out most of his hearing while fighting the Japanese, he didn't talk about it. My Grandfather on my moms side came back from Korea and wouldn't even pick up a rifle to hunt anymore, couldn't even shoot a cow to butcher it, if you asked what he did in the war he replied with "I was a cook" and that was the end of the conversation.

It's not that I love hating on the U.S armed forces, I pointed out crimes were committed on all sides. We can wrap ourselves in the flag and pretend every action the U.S has ever undertaken has been morally upright and just or we can look at the history discuss it and attempt to do better in the future.

I am not on some left wing rant about how we need to go apologize and give reparation's, it's just a discussion of facts as I have read them.

Would I have been better than the guys who shot Japanese or SS POWs? Who knows, probably not if we're being honest. It's not judgement, it's just acknowledgement.

Pictures and videos are the only crimes of war.