Sister comment was made about Tsushima >- this goes to their head, and they proceed to do the most foolish thing at Perl Harbor, and pick a fight with the 800

Sister comment was made about Tsushima >- this goes to their head, and they proceed to do the most foolish thing at Perl Harbor, and pick a fight with the 800 pound gorilla We in the US knew we would be getting involved in the war and had done things like oil embargo/trade disruption. The reason Japan attacked Pearl Harbor was because Yamamoto thought the only chance they stood against the US was to win such a decisive battle that we would not be able to fight them. He was trying this again at Midway(I believe) but we had broken their Coms so we were able to out maneuver them. Edit Add: As to if their isolation was helpful or not, I think that it allowed them to preserve and strengthen their culture both the good and bad aspects of it. I think that if a country was to close themselves off and turn inward, it could result in good things as long as they have an internal forces that prevents stagnation. Or to put it another way, progress only seems to happen when there are driving forces, such as competing groups. A strong government i.e. Dictator by nature has to wield control in order to stay in power, in doing so any competing groups must be eliminated as they a a threat to power. This brings about stagnation.