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Since there had not been any offensives launched by either side against the other, why declare war just because Japan had attacked the USA?

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Note that the US was already fairly involved in the war prior to Pearl Harbor. Lend-Lease allowed China, the UK, and the USSR to make use of a tremendous amount of US produced military equipment and supplies. Also, the US was already effectively at war with Germany in the Atlantic merely due to efforts to protect its own shipping. It would have been surprising if Germany did not declare war on the US once the US had officially entered the war. – Wedge Oct 12 '11 at 7:01
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The United States starting attacking Germany in early 1941, see lend-lease. So the question above is making assumptions that don't hold up to scrutiny. – Hermann Ingjaldsson Oct 28 '11 at 12:55
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Lend-lease was not an act of war. – quant_dev Oct 25 '12 at 11:28
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maybe not, but the attacking of US flagged merchant ships transporting goods to the UK definitely is, and this happened prior to the declaration of war (officially it happened in error, there was even a written order declaring it should not be done, but it happened too often to be error). – jwenting Feb 25 at 6:55
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@jwenting: Yes, acting on their own, and against Hitler's "official" instructions, a number of German ships sank American ships "accidentally on purpose." – Tom Au May 7 at 21:27
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7 Answers

up vote 22 down vote accepted

There actually was an 88-minute long speech from Hitler in the Reichstag on December 11th, 1941, which was four days after the japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, where he officially declared that Germany would join Japan in the war against the USA. In this speech, he mentioned a few of his personal reasons for this decision.

I think this would be an interesting read regarding this question, and there's a translation by a Mr. Mark Weber on the Website of the Institute of Historical Review

Edit

I need to correct myself a little, the official war declaration was issued 2 hours before the speech, quote taken from the same website as mentioned above:

About two hours before Hitler began his address to the Reichstag, Germany formally declared war against the United States when Reich Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop delivered a diplomatic note to the American Charge d'Affaires in Berlin, Leland B. Morris.

WARNING

Institute of Historical Review is considered by many to be a revisionist, Holocaust-denying institution with links to neo-Nazi organizations. Their translation of Hitler's speech might have been manipulated for propaganda purposes.

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Interesting indeed. – Massimo Oct 11 '11 at 22:16
Very nice, detailed find. – canadiancreed Oct 11 '11 at 22:25
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It would be nice if you could pull some bullet points from his speech into your post. – Wedge Oct 12 '11 at 6:05
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@GNi33 You are using "interesting" sources! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Historical_Review "Critics have accused it of being an antisemitic "pseudo-scholarly body" with links to neo-Nazi organizations, and assert that its primary purpose is to disseminate views denying key facts of Nazism and the genocide of Jews and others. It has been described as the "world's leading Holocaust denial organization." I wouldn't trust too much the stuff they put on their webpages. – quant_dev Oct 22 '11 at 13:50
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@quant_dev oh my god. I didn't know that. I will have a look if I can find the original german speech and write a summary. – GNi33 Oct 22 '11 at 15:40
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up vote 14 down vote

The US was already in a naval war with Germany (and not doing real well), was supplying all sorts of arms, supplies, and even warships to Britain, and was flagrantly violating the laws of war applicable to neutrals. Hitler was expecting war at some time in the near future, and chose to declare war first.

Hitler was also counting on the Japanese Navy to at least neutralize the US Navy, and considered the US to be a racially mixed and hence weak nation.

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How very wrong Hitler was, on both accounts here! But really, by all accounts the Japanese military at the time of WWII was heavily modeled on the US military, its technology based on US and European technology, and its training and tactics ultimately American and European. It was playing catch-up with the US and great European powers for many years. – Noldorin Oct 18 '11 at 1:54
@Noldrin - it did pretty well though! Well at least until all it's codes were broken and the other side were reading all it's mail – mgb Dec 10 '11 at 16:19
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@Noldorin - Well, if not for a couple of great strokes of luck at Midway, the US Navy could well have been held down for another year or so. Had it been the US carriers that were discovered first with their decks full of fully-fuled planes, things might have turned out very different indeed. – T.E.D.♦ Apr 3 '12 at 20:42
and had those carriers been caught with their pants down at the Pearl on 7 December, it's quite possible the US population would have demanded the government seek a "peaceful resolution" with Japan, essentially declaring strict neutrality in the Pacific. – jwenting May 8 at 5:33
up vote 7 down vote

During World War II, American aid to the Allies fell under three categories:

1) Lend-lease aid to Britain and Russia, of an amount roughly equal to the whole of the German war production, 2) Fighting Japan, Germany's major ally, and 3) the introduction of ground troops into western Europe.

American "Lend Lease" efforts had troubled Hitler and his admirals all through 1941. This was particularly true after American forces occupied Iceland, and the U.S. extended its zone of protection that far east, meaning that Britain would have to "cover" a relatively short part of the North Atlantic route on its own. Hitler could barely restrain his admirals from attacking U.S. ships.

Basically, Hitler could not win the war without the aid of Japan, because Germany was not strong enough to fight Britain and the Soviet Union alone (at least not after the latter received Lend Lease aid). Hitler could win if Japan could break the back of Britain (in India) or the Soviet Union (in Siberia). And it appeared to Hitler that Japan had, in fact, done this to the United States with its stunning (if incomplete) victory at Pearl Harbor. Journalist William L.Shirer reported in "the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" that Hitler exulted, "we cannot lose this war, for we have an ally that has not been defeated in 350 years."

Hitler believed that the Japanese had started the process of destroying the U.S. navy, and that his submarines could finish the job. With the U.S. supposedly helpless, Germany and Japan could divide up the eastern hemisphere before finishing their dealings with the Americas.

On the other hand, if the United States fought Japan, that country would not be able to help Hitler finish off Britain and the Soviet Union. If the United States defeated Japan, and allied with China and/or India, Hitler could not win the war even if he conquered Britain and the Soviet Union. Hitler's "best chance" was to help Japan contain the United States in exchange for Japan's help in the eastern hemisphere.

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+1 for we cannot lose this war, for we have an ally that has not been defeated in 350 years , says a lot about japanese history!! – Beagle Bone Mar 27 at 13:48
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Funny about Hitler's quote, because to that point, the US had never lost a war. Ever. – Evan Pak May 7 at 21:17
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@EvanPak: But at that time (and even today), the U.S. was less than 350 years old. It was regarded by many Europeans as a "nouveau riche" country, and therefore not to be taken seriously. Of course, we "Americans" know better. – Tom Au May 7 at 21:26
@TomAu I understand that. However, if you look at it in a less-than-serious light, the US had a better percentage of conflicts won. Anyways, past track record doesn't mean very much in war. I mean, look, Japan lost, then the US lost the war in Vietnam. Still, I think that it's pretty funny. – Evan Pak May 7 at 21:31
@EvanPak: Doesn't 1812-5 count as a sorta loss? – Felix Goldberg May 7 at 21:57
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up vote 5 down vote

Because Germany, Italy and Japan were allies, and fighting common enemies together is exactly what a military alliance is about.

By the way, the USA actually wanted to get involved in WWII, because they really didn't like how Germany was conquering most/all of Europe. Pearl Harbour and the Germany/Japan alliance acted as the classic casus belli.

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When you say "... the USA actually wanted..." you mean; Roosevelt really wanted to get involved? Several Senators were opposed to the war up until the Pearl Harbor attack. Ref: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt#Policies – noocyte Oct 12 '11 at 5:18
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Agreed, "the USA" was a bit too generic. – Massimo Oct 12 '11 at 6:23
Also, FDR wanted the US into the war against Germany. He was trying to avoid war against Japan. – David Thornley Oct 18 '11 at 1:39
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But how do you account for the fact that Japan never declared war on the Soviet Union, despite being Germany's ally? Isn't that what allies do? – Felix Goldberg May 7 at 21:58
up vote 2 down vote 
Since there had not been any offensives launched by either side against
the other, why declare war just because Japan had attacked the USA?

The United States had been attacking Germany since october 1940, and actually enacted a law to that effect in march 1941. They just flew over to Britain, changed flags and pretended to be British. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

So this question is based on a false pretext and should therefore be edited.

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-1. As a wise American had said: everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts. – Felix Goldberg May 7 at 22:00
up vote 1 down vote

Hitler, not being over-informed in US history or culture, probably felt such warfare was inevitable, and, indeed felt that the multicultural USA would indeed be a weak opponent, and that the prime German war aim would be done by the time they actually came to blows.

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up vote -1 down vote

Hitler thought that by declaring war on the USA, he would persuade Japan to declare war on the USSR in turn. This did not happen, and it is one more strategic mistakes of Hitler.

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could you please provide evidence for this – ihtkwot♦ May 8 '12 at 15:31
Really interesting conjecture... Any sources, though? – Felix Goldberg May 7 at 22:00

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