I know my history well. I know all about our embargoes and Japan needing to expand their empire to acquire the resources to……expand their empire.
Keep in mind, Japan was already pillaging and raping other Countries before Pearl Harbor. They knew that sooner or later, they would have to come to a decision concerning the United States.
They chose sooner. It turned out to be a very foolish decision but at the time, and with their intelligence it seemed like their only choice.
Originally Posted by Jackie S
and the US had little choice but to cut off Japan. if not they would be enabling a potential rival who was as you point out already waging war in China and the entire western Pacific region. only a matter of time before they would move east toward the US. it was clear Japan's expansionist ambitions were designed if successful make Japan a world power.
the US was ill prepared to take on the Japanese navy which imo was the finest navy in the world because they were battle tested just the same as the German army was at the time. the Japanese made a smart call in the 1920's by launching their own naval ship building program. before, they had purchased the bulk of their ships from England, then the premier naval ship builder in the world. they took what they learned from the English and began their own program.
the results were obvious and by the mid 1930's Japan had succeeded in building a true White Water Navy that rivaled both the US and England. recall that Japan pulled out of the Naval Treaty that post WWI was supposed to limit the "Naval Arms Race" and were free to build whatever they wanted.
it wasn't just the two Yamato class super battleships, it was the 8-10 large modern carriers they built that made them a threat. the attack on Pearl Harbor could never had succeeded without carriers. the US had only 4 total carriers at the time. we were outnumbered 2 to 1 at least. like Japan, our Yorktown class was also state of the art purpose built carriers. we just needed about 4 more of them before Pearl Harbor.
fortunately the Atlantic was not a carrier centric naval war because the Axis powers Germany and Italy did not have a carrier fleet to speak of. Germany had one biplane based out of date carrier, Italy didn't even have one. the British had 5 carriers also biplane based with only the Ark Royale even remotely "modern". 4 of which the British lost rather quickly. by August 1942 4 had been sunk in battle. only the HMS Eagle survived WWII. the UK did build 4 true modern carriers beginning in 1940 but none were ready before late 1940/early 1941. all of those survived the war.
so the Atlantic was still a battleship based naval war like WWI where the vast Pacific required a large modern carrier fleet to control the vast space. this allowed the US to build up our carrier fleet exclusively for the Pacific while the Royal Navy handled the Atlantic without needing carriers. recall that the Royal Navy was still the largest Navy in the world at the time with over 1,400 ships.
everyone knows what happened after Pearl Harbor where the US began a massive naval build up that by war's end had over 24 modern Essex class carriers which were the gold standard in carrier design at the time. we also had a similar number of smaller escort/light carriers. what isn't generally known is that Japan actually managed to build 4 new modern carriers during the war. but all that did was replace barely their early losses especially at Midway where they lost half their carrier fleet in one battle. this output wasn't even close to enough to counter the US's vast industrial might. once the US was all in after Pearl Harbor the sheer might of american industry would eventually overwhelm Japan. the Japanese knew this would happen which is why they opted for a decisive blow to cripple the US Pacific fleet and buy them time. as successful as Pearl Harbor was, it didn't achieve the true goal, which was not so much the battleships but the carriers. the Enterprise was supposed to be at Pearl on Dec 7th but was delayed by weather returning. the rest were on the west coast fortunately. but losing just one main battle carrier at Pearl would have been a bigger blow than the 9 battleships we lost. and 7 of them were quickly returned to service except the Nevada and of course the Arizona.
of course these battleships were older designs but still formidable with 14 inch main guns. they had been updated over the years and were modernized again during WWII. of course they were no match for the newer classes the US immediately began building starting with the state of the art North Carolina class and culminating with the Iowa class. South Dakota and Iowa classes had radar and the Iowa had what was considered the state of the art radar based fire control.
the Iowa and probably the South Dakota class would have stood a strong chance of victory against the two Yamato class and the two Bismark German class super battleships in a classic battleship engagement. many experts give the Iowa the edge due to the state of the art radar based fire control.
the US did have a super battleship design in progress during WWII to counter the Yamato class but never built any in favor of Essex class carriers. it would have been a monster. 12 16 in. main guns vs 9 for the Iowa, better armor but slower at only 28 knots compared to 33 knots of the Iowa. it also would have been too large to use the Panama canal, another limiting factor.
here's a model of this bad boy. carriers rendered it obsolete before it even got off the drawing board.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana-class_battleship
the British did complete one so-called super battleship, HMS Vanguard and 4 also modern King George V class which were in service during WWII. the Vanguard was too late to see any action in WWII.