I've been studying a lot about WW2, and it seems that from the Japanese persepective, after the US imposed trade sanctions war became their only option.
Was this Roosevelts intention? Did he WANT to enter the war against Japan and Germany, and just want a Cassus Belli?
If the Japanese had not attacked Pearl Harbour but had gone after the Dutch East Indies, would US public opinion have gone in favour of fighting the Japanese?
mny thks for any info
The Roosevelt administration issued several embargoes on Japan over a period of time. On the 2nd of July 1940, Roosevelt signed the Export Control Act, which authorized him to license or ban the export of war materials. So on 31st of July aviation gasoline and and lubricants and iron and steel scraps (oxidized steel or iron was needed for production of new steel) were restricted.
On the 16th of October all scrap iron and steel exports unless to Western Hemisphere countries and Britain was banned.
On the 26th of July 1941 the Roosevelt administration froze all Japanese asstes in the US, effectively shutting down the Japanese ability to trade in the US and a week later they finally embargoed all oil, with the Dutch and British following suit.
The official reason for the sanctions was the barbaric Japanese attack on China and continued warfare there.
The Japanese thus had the options of either abandoning their war of conquest in China, attack to gain the resources they needed (mainly present in Dutch East Indees and the British colonies in South East Asia) or finally try to continue to fight in China with a severely limited industrial capacity due to lack of steel and oil.
As we know, they chose to attack.
As for attacking only the British and the Dutch, as far as I know, the Japanese planners considered the US bases on the Phillipines an intolerable strongpoint right on the sea lanes they would need to use both to attack Dutch East India and the British colonies in South East Asia and to bring the oil and other resources back to feed their industry in Japan.