How did FDR tried to bait the Nazis into war and why did Japan feel compelled to attack the Pearl Harbor?
The theory that historians use to forward FDR’s attempting to get the US into World War Two was not to bait Germany but to bait Japan. They argue that he deliberately had the entire Pacific fleet harbored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii where they would be a tempting target for the Japanese. And Japan took the bait. Japan was compelled to attack Pearl Harbor because of economic concerns guiding their war machine. Japan was fighting to gain the raw materials needed to revitalize their economy. Most of these raw materials were in China, Manchuria, and the Dutch East Indies. They found only two possible forces that could stop them. The US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor and the American presence in the Philippines, and the British garrison in Singapore.
