Why didn't Japan attack American oil fields at Pearl Harbor?

same reason America didn't attack oil fields in the Iraq war

>>3145982
Several reasons.

Firstly, Japan was banking on a short war, in which the destruction of the capital ships would provide a necessary short term favorable balance of force. Secondly, the amount of oil in those tanks represented about 1.3 days worth of American production, and even if you do eliminate it, it would hardly cripple the American efforts. Thirdly, the planes that they had weren't those lumbering strategic bombers, Even if they manage to hit the targets on land, 100 and 250 pound bombs are not likely to completely wreck a facility like that. Damage it, sure. Burn a lot of fuel, sure. But they almost certainly won't wipe it out, they'd need far more bomb capacity than they were capable of delivering to do that.

So they went after the battleships instead.

>>3146135
Japan never for a second believed they could seize Hawaii though

>>3146167
yeah but they did believe that America will stop the embargo on oil after the attack

can't give oil that was destroyed after all

>>3146173
You do realize that America probably wouldn't be selling them oil when they're at war, and they certainly wouldn't be selling them the stuff in their main fleet's stockpile, right? Because that's just basic common sense, before you get into things like actual knowledge and how the Japanese were counting on pumping stuff from the Dutch colonies in what's now Indonesia.

>>3146173
No they didnt. They werent stupiud enough to think that the US response to a massive surprise military strike would be to resume trading with the attacker

The point was to do enough damage to US naval power that japan would have a chance at stalemating them in the pacific leaving them free to expand their little empire