excuse my nievity, but what was the japanese reasons for attacking pearl harbour ?

it was because the japanese thought it was a decent opportunity to cripple most of the american navy ships and have like a head start in the war. But the japanese broke the 'international rules of war' by attacking without actually declaring war.

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Pearl Harbor was almost an afterthought in the original Japanese planning. It wasn't until October 1940 that it was even considered as a potential target.
Their major reason as Wild says was to cripple the US Pacific Fleet (which up until mid 1940 had been based on the US West coast not Pearl thereby rendering it immune to such a Japanese attack) now that it was just within striking distance of the Kido Butai (the Japanese fast carrier force).

The success of the Japanese in striking Pearl Harbor undetected gives me reason to believe that they could have achieved the same success against a US west coast target. I realize there are more obstacles that would have to be overcome. The west coast is a much larger area and would mean that the resources could have been much more scattered. I also realize that naval and aviation resources would have been more concentrated closer to the mainland.

Don't you think that it would have been just as possible to have achieved a similar success against Seattle as they did in Hawaii? The ocean route to the northwestern United States is not that much farther than the more equitorial route to Hawaii. The carrier fleet had sufficient resources to protect themselves on the return journey against whatever quick response could have been mustered by the United States. They were fast enough to outrun our fleets. They had enough air power to deal with whatever long range air power could have pursued them. If they could have caught just as many naval resources in the Puget Sound maritime area as they did in Pearl Harbor it could have been just as devistating.

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PEOPLE SLEEP PEACEABLY IN THEIR BEDS AT NIGHT ONLY BECAUSE ROUGH MEN STAND READY TO DO VIOLENCE ON THEIR BEHALF. GEORGE ORWELL

Remember what the purpose of the strike at Pearl Harbor was however. They wanted to destroy or disable as much of the US fleet as they could at the onset of hostilities in order to safeguard their operations against the Philippines, Dutch East Indies, etc. The majority of the US fleet in the Pacific Ocean at the time was forward based at Pearl Harbor. While their were some units at bases in Washington and California, the risks of going an additional 2600-2700 miles to get to either the bases in Long Beach or Seattle would necessitate at least one if not 2 additional refuelings at sea for the Japanese task force. The risks of a west coast mission for less of a gain than could be achieved by hitting Pearl Harbor would have been too great.

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Bill Murray
Why do we press harder on the remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?

I agree with you Bill that it would have been unwise to try to strike the US bases while the fleet was forward deployed to Hawaii. I was really answering the question from a standpoint of if they had still been in the US as they were in 1940. The post by T.A. made it sound as if the Japanese would not have been able to perform the attack at all if the fleet had not been in Hawaii. I think if the US fleet would have been concentrated anywhere along the west coast of the US that they could have performed the attack. The location would have determined if it was militarily possible. Certainly only having to go to Hawaii made it easier. I was just thinking that it wasn't the only reason it was possible.

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PEOPLE SLEEP PEACEABLY IN THEIR BEDS AT NIGHT ONLY BECAUSE ROUGH MEN STAND READY TO DO VIOLENCE ON THEIR BEHALF. GEORGE ORWELL