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The Japanese strategy was simple, to destroy the entire American Pacific Fleet. The Japanese did not succeed in destroying the fleet because most of its power was in their aircraft carriers. The Japanese did not destroy any carriers because every single one of them were away from the island that day on the water. Japan's original war plan was to attack in three waves. The first two waves were successful because the United States was unprepared for an attack, but the third wave never happened because the United States started to fight back and Japan started to suffer significant casualties. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because at the time they were imperialistic, which means they conquered new lands and to do that a country must fight wars. One author stated that "Pearl Harbor was attacked because Japan became imperialistic in early 1931, and they saw the United States Pacific Fleet as their only threat so they tried to neutralize it"(PearlHarborOahu.com). Japan wanted to try and take over parts of the United States, but the only thing that stood in their way was the American Pacific Fleet that consisted of battleships, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, mini submarines, midget submarines, war planes, and aircraft carriers. Once Japan destroyed the fleet they believed they could start their eastern conquest, but they were unsuccessful in destroying the most important part and the United States was very angry and alert at that point. In some ways, Japan's strategy was a success, but in other ways, it was a complete failure which ended up costing Japan later in World War II.
In the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, tensions between the United States and Japan were rising. One author accounted that, "Japan became imperialistic and decided it needed more land to grow its economy so it declared war on China in 1937 to try and take over more land"(History.
