Did America push Japan into war when it impose the latter oil embargo?

Answer 1

This was true, the American embargo on oil was the first and biggest problem with starting the war. Most of the Japanese leaders were against the war with America but, they were pushed against the wall.

America was threatening the Japanese about the invasions of all the Southern Pacific Islands and the Indonesian islands but, America wasn't doing anything about it. The British and French were struggling with both Germany and the Japanese in their war effort, while America had their "Hands off" police toward the worlds problems. They did supply arms to the Allies.

We were at the time an "Isolationist country" we watched while the world burned, you might say and, strangled the Japanese with the embargo's on oil, iron and other raw products. Do any of you see great Iron mines, oil wells or any other raw produce coming from Japan, no that's because they don't have any.
They counted on the rubber from Indonesia, the tea from Indonesia, the oil from China and the South China seas, the Iron from India and south east Asia. They had conquered the British and the French in these areas. The Flying Tigers were a force that were not supported by any country but separated and supported by General Chang Ki Check the future president of China, not the U.S. as some seem to think.

This just goes on and on, to long, it's all history and can be read a number of ways here.

We were ready to concede to Japan and give them their oil to stop them and keep them from further invasions, that's what they say, whomever "they" were. Everything is "to late" "they" say.
We did have a strangle hold on Japan, that cannot be denied, we took everythng they had away, they had to do something, they're factories came to a stop from lack of raw materials, what were they to do?

Answer 2

~If you ask an American who has been indoctrinated into the American mythology, then, no, the US did no wrong and was blindsided by the evil Japanese.

If, on the other hand, you read and understand history, you will see why the Japanese attacked. The fact that the US was providing aid and materials to China and otherwise helping the Chinese in the Second Sino-Japanese War (in spite of declarations of neutrality) surely had nothing to do with it. The fact the the US was sending military units to Asia to directly confront the Japanese (like the Flying Tigers) had nothing to do with it. The fact the Great Britain and the US (along with others) were attempting to limit Japan's military strength and ability to defend herself were irrelevant. That Japan could not feed herself from domestic stocks and lacked the necessary resources and raw materials to become a modern industrialized nation was of no consequence and the fact the British imperialist empire in Asia was attempting to monopolize the resources and to insure that Japan was deprived of them was well received by Tokyo, too. And just because in the US there was a growing demand for US military intervention in the Pacific and it was obvious that war was becoming more and more inevitable, the Japanese should have looked the other way. Evil creatures that they were, they had the effrontery to think they should be treated with some modicum of fairness and equality in and by the community of nations. Silly them.

Yamamoto was well aware that the US would rebound from the attack on Pearl. His goal was to forestall the inevitable attack on Japan by the US and perhaps to achieve by a single stunning victory a treaty which would have addressed Japan's grievances. By crippling the fleet and the US ability to wage war against Japan in a single blow, the hawks in Washington might be persuaded to let Japan exist and flourish. Had the carriers been in port and had Yamamoto gone after Midway on his way home, the outcome of the Pacific war may have been far different (certainly it would have been in the short term). However, Japanese troops were over-extended in China and elsewhere at the time and a full invasion could not be mounted. The purpose of Pearl Harbor was to buy time for the Japanese, but no sane person doubted that war between Japan and the US was in the offing. Make no mistake. The Japanese in their wildest dreams would not have contemplated an invasion on the US homeland. Japan simply wanted to protect its boundaries and its sphere of influence. US installations in the Philippines, on Guam, on Midway and at Pearl were daggers aimed at Japan's throat and heart. Removing them was sane, logical and necessary. Japan, as she feared long before December 7, simply lacked the resources to hold the ground and continue the fight. And that is exactly what the Americans and British intended by their trade policies.

The oil embargo was not an isolated incident. It was but one of the cogs in the British/American machine by which Washington and London were striving to keep Japan a subservient, dependent, second-class nation and to bolster American and British interests and influence throughout the Pacific Basin. Somehow, American high school history books seem to neglect the US role in bringing about the Pacific war. The documentation is a matter of record, if you choose to read it.

Japan shares the blame. Just as the British needed to subjugate large parts of the world to maintain herself, just as the US had to conquer and annihilate the American Indians to expand and maintain her empire, the Japanese could survive and grow only by expanding off the home islands. This the US and British were not about to allow since the Japanese expansion infringed on the empires of the Anglophiles. The irresistible force was going to hit the immovable object some day, and the Japanese logically decided that it should happen at a time of Japan's choosing.

Answer 3

NO - - - and I have said this before and will repeat this because it is important to not lose sight of the fact that Japan had no sane logical reason to attack Pearl Harbor. It was a stupid Idea. And it is one of World War Two's biggest mysteries how Japan's war leadership was persuaded by Admiral Yamamoto to abandon their original 'sane' plan in favor of angering America into declaring War.....

A short answer - - - Japan pushed itself. Oil Embargo? So what. Yes. So What? The oil in question was in Indonesia and Malaysia then in Dutch and British control. Japan's original war plans were to attack Dutch and British Colonial Territory. The Philipines, maybe, that too was iffy. Now Japan was certain that by attacking Britain & Dutch Colonies the Americans might jump in. And if Japan absolutely felt they had to seize Guam and Wake Island, well then yes America would decalre war.
But when? Japan originally planned to ignore America, and let America make the first move. That first move, logically, would be a America's Fleet seeking out the Japanese fleet in the deep waters of the Mid Pacific. Japan's nine aircraft carriers against America's Four.

Instead Japan launched an attack on a Sunday morning against ships in a shallow harbor. The Japanese did minimal damage to repair facilities, made no effort to destroy the drydocks and anyone who knows ships knows that a drydock destroyed is six months to a year in the remaking. And Japan did nothing too destroy the petroleum farm, a technological miracle that is still a wonder now in 2007.

A last tid bit. Planes are fine but goes how much a Battleship's cannon can do? Now imagine if the fleet that launched the strike against Pearl Harbor continued ON to Pearl Harbor. The first wave of planes crippled or sunk the majority of batteships. WIth the fleet sailing towards Pearl Harbor, the planes could have landed, set out on a second strike, and about the time the second strke was ending there would have been battleships & cruisers steaming across O'ahu's South Shore and the approach to Pearl Harbor. One shudders to think what might have been.....

But no, Japan pushed herself, if any Japanese politcian claimed the Oil Embargo, made them do it, then it is like the murderer who said that eating twinkies & milk made him do it.

///========O . -. O =========== \\\ Peace..........

Answer 4

the reality of the subject is Japan knew whilst they attacked china and indo china that someplace down the line the u.s. could get entangled. So no, the oil embargo had not something to do with the attack. The attack grew to become right into a final ditch attempt to knock out the U.S. Pacific Fleet as an substantial combating rigidity so shall we not oppose their conquest of South East Asia and the Pacific Islands. They concept that as quickly as that they had conquered all that territory that we would be unable to dislodge them from it despite the fact that if we did rebuild the fleet.

Answer 5

Obviously this question pushes American buttons.

The Japanese imperialists believed they were entitled to act like white imperialists. They needed the oil to sustain their imperial drive. When the US embargoed them, they were down to, I forget, 6 months' (?) supply -- whatever the exact figure, it was too little to keep their empire and its expansion going.

So if you buy into imperial rights for the Japanese, yeah, the US pushed them over the edge. And if you buy into imperial rights for Americans, you will agree that it was necessary to practice genocide on the Native Americans, provoke a war with Mexico and seize 1/3 of its territory, repress self-government in the Philippines for sixty years, annex Hawaii, etc.

Answer 6

That did indeed give the Japanese provocation. Other strategic materials were also banned. But the US imposed the embargo because of Japanese expansion in Asia - they eventually killed 20 million Chinese (over 13 million were civilians). We needed to set limits somewhere and it was obvious that the Philippines and other territories would also be on the list of Japanese conquests.

Answer 7

No since the Japanese militarists were hell- bent in expansion through warfare in Asia and Pasific and so sooner or later a class of arms between Japan and the US was bound to happen

Answer 8

I would say yes. In order to carryon their expansionist policy, the Japanese required oil. Remember, we were dealing with a militaristic controlled government, not a rational democratic one. They gambled at Pearl and lost. They underestimated the US response. I like Oscar's response, it describes the complex interactions a little more clearly.