Destro is correct. The US cut off oil and scrap metal trade with Japan, which the Japanese needed desperately in China. They also saw it as a further slight on their honor to add to the one under Admiral Perry.
Yes, Destro is correct in saying that we imposed sanctions. I disagree with the characterization of those actions as a "cause" of Pearl Harbor". It is only a "cause" if viewed from the Japanese perspective, the same way our rock and roll music was a "cause" of 9/11.
The Japanese were training for Pearl Harbor in the Spring of 1941, before trade sanctions were imposed in July 1941.
The US was morally correct, and right to cut off those materials to Japan. I'm glad the stupid, agressive SOB's needed those raw materials desperately, and I am glad we had the opportunity to deny them.
As I said privately to Destro, trade sanctions are not a justifiable cassius belli. Period. End of story. Countries may trade with whomever they please, and may refuse to trade with whomever they please.
If the Arab world cuts off our oil supplies, some may see that as a just cause of war, but it is not. It is our own responsibility to secure our raw materials, and if we allow ourselves to be held over a barrel, that is not just cause for war.
If a river flows from one country into another, and water is denied by dams or poisoning, that is a just cause for war. Because a country denies to sell another country food, steel or oil does not give the right of war.
It has been said that we supported the Flying Tigers, and that Pearl Harbor did not happen in a vacuum. I would like someone to explain to me how helping a country defend itself against an illegal invading aggressor, or impinging on their honor is a just cause for war?
These two things, the trade sanctions and loss of face are what we hear most from Japanese apologists to justify Pearl Harbor. There is no excuse for the perfidious stab in the back at Pearl Harbor.
Don't get me wrong. I like the Japanese, I lived in Japan for several years. They are wonderful, complex people, who can display extraordinary sensitivity and generosity. But I also lived in the Phillipines, where things like the Bataan Death March have a much stronger historical memory than they do here or in Europe. It is a fact that Japan has never come to grips with starting the fire in Manchuria which eventually spread to the rest of the world, costing millions and millions of lives. So whenever I hear these two things trotted out, it reminds me of the revisionist history going on, what you hear (or used to hear, before the vets got angry enough to get it changed) on the boat out to the USS Arizona or at the Enola Gay exhibit which are sympathetic to these "causes".