Kendall asks, "I often wonder if anyone cares why they declared war on us?"

Yeah. I wonder if anyone does? I always like to know why people do things like declare war, but most people seem to just be satifisfied with "Oh, they did it because they're evil!" (sheesh...)

There were plenty of reasons why. But remember, it wasn't the ordinary people of Japan who wanted to go to war. It was their government that made that decision for them, just like Mr Bush has made his decisions to attack Afghanistan and Iraq. The government decides all by itself to do these things, and then it sets about telling the people why it supposedly made that decision (and usually telling quite a few lies in the process).

Governments go to war because they feel their vital interests are at stake in some way. That usually has to do with things like land, trade, strategic resources, money....

Japan was in a period of industrial and imperial expansion. They were embroiled in a major war with China. To fight that war they needed huge supplies of oil, rubber, steel, and other strategic resources. The resources they needed were located in areas in the Pacific which were controlled by the USA, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. Roosevelt knew that, and he wanted to get the USA into WWII in order to defeat Germany, but he had an isolationist public AND Congress who weren't in the mood for entering a war in Europe.

Roosevelt knew that he could provoke Japan into a war by cutting off their sources of oil and steel. He did so by a trade embargo on Japan. Within less than a year the Japanese did exactly what Roosevelt KNEW they would most certainly do...they attacked the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands bases in the Pacific region. It was inevitable from the moment Roosevelt had put the embargo into effect.

So if you want to blame somebody for Pearl Harbor, there are two clear parties to blame for it:

1. The Empire of Japan...they did it.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt...he set it up to happen that way.

In retrospect, it is rather ironical that he would get all puffed and righteous in his speech about the "Day of Infamy"...as if he could have had NO idea it would happen...but that was just normal PR for a politician. Roosevelt had to act shocked and surprised by what the Japanese did. After all, his public certainly was!!!

Kind of like 911 that way....very, very, very convenient for an administration's long range military planning and strategy.

The public always reacts just as they can be expected to. They get really angry. They want to "kick someone's ass" (some foreigner). That's exactly how the young Japanese pilots felt when they flew off to hit Pearl Harbor.

The people who died in all these wars were the unwitting dupes and victims of their own governments. If you had had a chance to know them personally, you would not have wanted to see them get killed.