Japan knew from the beginning that they could not win a war against the USA. Their objective was to gain territory for the natural resources they needed, like oil. They were hoping to then bargain a settlement with the USA and keep the territories.
Two days after Japan declared war on us, Italy declared war on the US and then days later Germany.
Britain got us to fight in Europe first. They told the USA that we could win against Japan on our own BUT wouldn't be able to win against Germany without Russian help. The Russians did the bulk of the fighting against Germany.
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