Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor? What impact did it have on American support for intervention in World War II?

The Japanese
attacked Pearl Harbor because they
wanted to knock the US Navy in the Pacific out of action long
enough to allow
them to consolidate their empire.  When they did, they swung American opinion
on
WWII.  Where Americans had once been reluctant to join the war, they were
now eager to do
so.

The Japanese wanted an empire in Asia
and the Pacific.  They felt it was
their due as a powerful nation and they
also felt that they needed it so they could have a
guaranteed source of
natural resources.  However, they realized that the United States would

oppose their attempts to get an...

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