Were the Japanese and the US planning on peace talks before the attacked Pearl Harbor?

Answer 1

No. The US and Japan were negotiating but not for peace.

Additional Information:

The United States & Japan were already in negotiations in Washington, D.C. (which began in August 1941), prior to the Japanese attack on 7 December 1941 on the United States at Hawaii (incl. Pearl Harbor), the Philippines, Guam & Wake Island. At the same time as the Japanese attack on the US, the Japanese attacked the British (at Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong & Borneo) and later the Dutch in Asia.

These negotiations concerned the Japanese military’s brutal aggression against China and the resulting US sanctions taken on trade with Japan. The Japanese diplomatic position never changed from that of demanding that the United States accept the Japanese conquest of China and that the United States should not interfere in Japanese military actions. The Japanese wanted economic sanctions, against them, lifted by the United States, but offered nothing for it. Negotiations were doomed to fail, except that a small group of misguided intellectuals (American clergymen & some Japanese business interests) provided false & misleading information (about Japanese diplomatic positions) that lead to false hope in a diplomatic compromise. By 1941, the Japanese government secretly undertook to use the negotiations as a delaying tactic, while preparing & planning for war against the United States, Britain & Commonwealth, and the Netherlands. Even the Japanese negotiators in Washington, DC were not told of the futility of their efforts

The primary reason for the Japanese attack on the US was the Japanese Army's reckless obsession with their on-going brutal conquest of China. The United States had been taking diplomatic and economic steps against Japan for several years to convince (or force) the Japanese to end their war of conquest in Asia. The Japanese Army actually controlled the Japanese Government since the early 1930's. The Japanese Army refused to end its war of conquest & extreme brutality in China.

Beyond China, the Japanese Army had plans to take advantage of the weakness of the British, French, Dutch & Soviet Union in Asia because of Hitler's conquests in Europe. The Japanese wanted to be free of American interference, and create a vast Asian empire that would have eventually included China, eastern Siberia, Mongolia, Korea, Formosa, Indo-China, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, & New Guinea; and possibly India.

The Japanese military thought that the best way to keep the United States from interfering in their plans in Asia, was to deliver a surprise attack on various US bases throughout the Pacific to do as much damage to the US Military capability in the Pacific. At Pearl Harbor, they intended to sink as many battleships, cruisers & aircraft carriers as possible. At Manila they intended to follow-up with an invasion and capture of the Philippines. At Wake Island they intended to seize the island. The Japanese also attacked the bases, ships & troops of the British Empire. All this was intended to persuade the United States & Britain to negotiate a settlement giving the Japanese most of the western Pacific territories, and most of Asia. They hoped that the US & Britain would not want to fight a prolonged & costly war in Asia to liberate what territory the Japanese could capture in the first six months of the war.