Why did the Japanese Empire attack Pearl Harbour?

Why did the Japanese Empire attack Pearl Harbour?

Because they had backed themselves into a corner and felt the only way out was war. So they hoped an attack on the USN at Pearl Harbor would delay the US for long enough for them to secure a nice big defensive perimeter around the Pacific, at which point they'd show themselves to be hard enough to dislodge that the US would decide it's not worth it.

Because they saw the future for their young men as meek, asexual virgins and decided to kill them all off and trust whatever came next.

More like pearl braaper am I right lol

With the freezing of Japanese assets in the U.S. and the oil embargo in late August 1941, Japan's ability to continue her campaign in China was about to grind to a halt. That presented them with two real options

A) Bow to western pressure, give up the campaign, beg for forgiveness.
B) Seize the primary resources they need, especially oil.

They decided to go with option B. The closest major source of oil to them was what's now Indonesia, which at the time was a dutch colony. They were, however, dead certain that invading the DEI would be the very last straw for the Americans (the sanctions up earlier's immediate prompt was their invasion of Vichy occupied Indo-China), and it would mean war. Picking on the Dutch is one thing, but the Americans are much stronger, and they have that colony called the Philippines right in between you and your main target in the DEI.

So you need to do something about the Philippines. And a campaign of that sort would and did take months to execute. In the meantime, you really don't want the American fleet coming in and fucking up your campaign. Solution? While you're making your surprise attack, you also attack the main base of their pacific fleet, hoping to knock as much of it out of action as you can. That way, even if they replace all the ships destroyed, it'll take 1-2 years at least, and you will have overrun the areas you've needed and set up the defensive perimeter by then, and you should have naval superiority in that entire short term.

As it was, the plan worked insofar as it achieved the objectives sought: The Japanese did invade the DEI and the Philippines (and other places) without substantial interference from the Pacific fleet. They got their oil, to the tune of some 16 million tons a year. (Or maybe that was barrels, I need to re-check my source). They just miscalculated on the part that they thought that America would negotiate after some fighting,have a peace with honor. That didn't happen.

If the autistic Japs had stayed out of French Indochina, the US would likely have played ball with them into the immediate future, and they told them that. Once they launched into Indochina, the US demanded that not only they pull out of Indochina, but they had to cease hostilities in China. That was a bridge too far for the Japs and they went to war with the US.

Yamamoto told his gang he'd be able to run wild for 6 months to a year, but after that it would get dicey. In the event, the US bombed mainland Japan 4 months later, defeated the Japs at Coral Sea 5 months later and destroyed Kido Butai at Midway 6 months later. Yamamoto fucked up his predictions apparently (although he did run wild against the bongs).

>implying that it happen
It was USA planes that bomb it. Why do you think carriers where not in port?
It was because they go to sea and USA planes attack Pearl Harbor from them.

How did the U.S. manage to perform the attack with Japanese planes, get Japanese pilots to be "captured" in the aftermath, and most importantly, do so with more craft than the Saratoga and Lexington could carry?

They did it with Japanese help of course. Yamamoto was helping USA and it was done on American request. As training with live ammo.
Of curse USA broke all deals and Yamamoto was later eliminated so he would not leak any info on deal.

Damn