“Roosevelt *knew* the Japanese would have to attack the US in order to secure the indonesian oil fields.”
Guess he ALSO knew they would bungle the attack to the degree that it would not only fail to force The USN back to California but leave enough Naval elements and repair/refuel capability to kick the living shit out of the Japanese Navy VERY shortly thereafter?
Wow. What a prescient guy Roosevelt was
You have to look at Japan’s war making from their perspective; they had whipped the Russians, held much of China & Korea and had sized up the Dutch and Brit holdings in SE Asia. They thought they were invincible. Trouble was, they’d learned the wrong lesson from 1905...