Answer to Question #157364 in History for Chris

Question

"Japan was provoked into attacking the Americans at Pearl Harbor... Everyone knows where American sympathies were. It is incorrect to say that America was ever truly neutral before America came into the war..."

Do you agree with the quote above?

What were Japanese motives for attacking the US?

Answer 1

I agree with the quote because Japan was responding to years of economic warfare from America. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was a self-defense mechanism aimed at destroying the US Navy morale, to prevent it from responding once Japanese forces began to intrude in the South Pacific.