Explain Why Japanese People Attacked The American Pacific Fleet At Pearl Harbor

As was mentioned above, there are of course alternate theories as to why the Japanese people attacked the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. One such theory states that the Japanese attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbor to keep the US out of the war by crippling its Pacific fleet . This theory makes some sense at least at the most basic level of analysis. Japan had joined Germany and Italy in the war effort. Also, the Japanese and Germans were gambling that the US could not fight a war on two fronts and win. The motive under this theory was to cripple the fleet enough to stall the American decisions as to which front (Asia or Europe) to fight the war on because again it was believed that it was impossible to do both and win the war on both fronts . …show more content…
Many Japanese did not want to go to war with the United States; it was no secret that the American fleet was quite powerful and the organization of their military was astounding. It is important to keep in mind that World War One ended in 1918, so many Japanese were alive to hear of the marvelous and awestriking victories that the Americans had . This theory very clearly answers the question of the importance of Japan’s decision to attack the location that it did, Pearl Harbor housed the Pacific fleet which was what the Japanese wanted to attack. The question of why to attack is not as clearly answered because of the variance of the particulars within this theory. Some say stalling was the goal while others say that keeping the Americans out of the war entirely was the goal. These are two very different motives which are housed under the same