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DDonde · 31-35, M
The gist is that it was in order to continue their war against China, because it was politically unfeasible for them to pull out of China (which is what America was demanding in exchange for lifting the oil embargo on Japan). Japan had a limited amount of fuel reserves for its large navy, and believed that America would eventually go to war with Japan, and so decided that if that was the case, that they should strike first and decisively and then try to hold out in a war of attrition.