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Japan did issue a declaration of war to the US, with the idea that Pearl Harbor would be attacked before defenses could be mobilized. It backfired on them terribly because the declaration was not translated from Japanese to English until after the attack. If Japan had declared war and then attacked Pearl Harbor the next day, damage would have been much less and Japanese losses much higher. The success of the attack, on which Japanese strategy in the Pacific was based, depended on surprise.

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16y ago

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