What cause the attack on pearl harbor to happen?

Answer 1

First opinion:

This has been said to be for many reasons. The reason that is the most common, and to be thought in historical manuscript, Pearl Harbor was attacked due to Japan's lack of territory in the war. Most of the major areas wer controlled by Germany, Great Britian, or Poland. This left the U.S. Naval Base of Pearl Harbor, as well as other stations in Hawaii and Alaska. The Japanese had attacked the harbor, hoping to be able to have a large area of control during the war. This, however, had done the opposite. The United States had declared war on Japan, and they had lost control of the harbor after a 2-Year time-span.

Another opinion:

The Japanese attacked the US Military units at Pearl Harbor, and at other places across the Pacific Ocean, to prevent the United States from interfering in Japanese plans to conquer the Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, and the rest of South Asia. This was part of Japan's overall strategic goal of conquering China. The resources of South Asia (primarily oil & rubber) had to be seized so that Japan's war machine could be kept functioning. The United States had stopped selling oil to Japan because of Japan's aggressions in China and Japan's recent seizure of French Indo-China.

Bottom-line: The Japanese Army controlled the Japanese government and was obsessed with the idea of conquering all of China. The United States was trying to prevent this from happening. The Japanese thought the best way to stop the interference was to destroy as much of the US Navy's battleships, carriers & cruisers in the Pacific as possible in the surprise attack and then hope that this set-back & others would convince Americans that the fight was not worth it, and the US would negotiate a settlement with Japan.

Answer 2

First the Americans were at war with the Japaneses. They singed a peace treaty, but a person heard on the Japan radio that they were going to bomb Pearl Harbor, so yeah...