Peace, it is my understanding that Japan attacked the US because America was making it difficult to obtain oil and other raw materials for manufacturing. They also thought that it they could finish the inevitable war, that stemmed from their attack, in a year or so they could wind up victorious, but if the war dragged on much past this period of time, the US could redirect its manufacturing might into building war materials, they would lose the war.

    Initially they enjoyed great success, with the fall of the Phillipines, and their capture of many of the Pacific islands, almost all the way to Australia. When we were able to supply and reinforce MacArthur with war materials and several divisions of Marines to spearhead the island hopping campaign, it spelled the beginning of the end for Japan, and some of their strategists had predicted this very situation. Each of these islands became a major battle, often lasting for weeks, and sometimes months, but we did prevail in the South Pacific, to the detriment of the Japanese dream of an entire mega-community stretching from Japan to Malaya. The loss of one of their key strategists when his aircraft was shot down by US aircraft deprived them of a rational approach to winning the war.

    We probably would not have been so hard on the Japanese forces had they declared war on us before they began the attack on Pearl Harbor, or treated our POWs in a humane manner, and routinely murdered prisoners because they were too much bother to feed and guard. This casual flaunting of the Geneva Conventions on Land Warfare, was a main reason why we held speedy trials for the worst of the offenders, and hanged those found guilty of war crimes as an example to others.

    By and large, our troops observed the standards of care for POWs mandated by the Geneva Convention, dealing with those who surrendered; although this observance slacked off markedly after the massacre of unarmed US soldiers in either Belgium or western France. In the Pacific campaign we would gladly taken prisoners, had the opportunity afforded itself, but the Japanese brainwashed their soldiers and the civilians under their rule that we would murder them out of hand, that many chose suicide rather that take their chances with the Americans.

       Dave