Why the Emprie of Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor Part 2

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]a first strike without a formal declaration of war. It's complicated why Japan doesn't give a formal declaration of war. It's because the military doesn't answer to the civilian government. They are autonomous from the civilian government. That's how they start the Second World War in Asia in the first place. And so, what they do is that they devise that we're going to attack the American Pacific Fleet.

[00:00:19]At the same time, we're going to attack the Philippines, British Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Dutch East Indies.

[00:00:25]And the reason we're going to do this is that if we can catch them all off guard at the same time, we can overrun the areas, we can take all this territory, extract its resources, exploit its resources, and build up defenses and the inevitability when America is going to come west sometime in '42 or '43. And this was essentially a measure of buying time. Even Yamamoto, the head of the Japanese Navy, understood that for about 18 months, you had a good shot of outmaneuvering the Americans and the British, but after that point, it's we're going to lose. And this was essentially the plan of buying time, building up defenses, and hopefully ending the war in China, and hopefully having some settled agreement with America. That doesn't happen. But that's why the Japan attacks Pearl Harbor because it's a gamble based on the idea of we don't want to end the war in China, we need resources for our war machine, we're going to take them from Southeast Asia under the guise of these co-prosperity sphere and limit it and eliminate Western imperialism with Japanese imperialism. But that's why.

[00:01:27]Now, does FDR know about these attacks?

[00:01:30]Well, it's complicated. So, what we actually know is that Japan is planning to attack, but we don't know where.

[00:01:35]That's the ultimate problem. That's why the fleet is still in Pearl Harbor. We don't know where they are going to attack. And it turns out they're going to attack everywhere: Midway, Wake Island, British Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia. And FDR says this in a speech that he gives to Congress when he asks for declaration of war on Japan. So, yeah.

[00:01:51]Three minutes, four minutes, guys. Just watch this and you'll actually learn why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.