what I read is that someone - TOJO? made a decision to attack Pearl Harbor. But the discussions were also about haw much of an OVERREACH the Japs did with Pearl Harbor.
As for Oil they were in control of or could have been of the Philippines, and Bruani had all the Oil that they needed.
A good example of Upper management decision making. At these levels the hubris is overwhelming - Macron, Former CEO of Exxon, Nobama, the list is long
On China - They are working two issues with Russia - One is Oil/Gas trade deal. The other, much more ominous - China is volunteering to FARM some of the less desirable Russian far east - And this is the way of accruing Land through settlement by your people. - The Russians see this as a real threat.
Well, in order to get the oil, the Japs had to go to war with the USA. The Philippines were US Territory then.
Read my link. http://www.patriot.dk/pearlharbour.html
Both Toland (there’s only one l, sorry) and Strom believed and had proof that FDR LED them into the war.
Intercepted messages clearly show US and British intelligence knew the Japanese code, and the “East Wind, Rain” message was well known and intercepted on Nov 19th (I said 20th so I was a day off). Yet both Admiral Kimmel and General Short in Hawaii were NEVER told about it, and both were court-martialed.
Tojo was the leader of the War Cabinet, so had much influence. Admiral Yamamoto was against fighting the USA, but bowed to the Emperor’s decision to approve the War Cabinet’s plan. Yamamoto did appoint the officers who drew up the plan to attack Pearl Harbor, but didn’t want to pull the trigger unless the US carriers were there (they were NOT on Dec 7th). Even then he thought it was reckless gamble.
Tojo was too sure of himself and thought America was weak morally, and Japanese Bushido would carry the victory. Yamamoto had actually gone to graduate school in the USA.
I was very fortunate during the early 1980s when I was in Australia, to visit many Pacific islands were we had bases; American Samoa, Fiji, and also of course spend a couple weeks on Hawaii.
If I could be like Matthew Bracken or Jeff Head, I would novelize my ideas about a future war with China. It would go something like this:
1. After Trump, the Left ascends back to power (probably the most heart-breaking part) and continues to socialize the USA. They vote in “free” health care, make free speech that is hateful (using THIER definitions) illegal and imprison conservatives and biblical Christians, promote homosexuality and debauchery at all costs while going after heterosexual men who like women and above all ruin the economy until the last factory shuts down and moves to China.
2. Now China, meanwhile, grows in military and economic strength. While the Left is gutting the American military, China builds several fleets of modern aircraft carriers and supersedes the USA in combat aircraft.
3. Credit in the USA fails on a massive scale. The democrats sieze the Federal Reserve and make it cough up money for the poor and the deficit. But the deficit skyrockets. There is no one paying taxes. The rich have fled, the middle class is now poor, and the Left prints fake money.
3. The Chinese, sick of taking phony dollars for their stuff, start seizing American assets. They’re everywhere in the States, controlling about everything not socialized by the government.
4. Eventually the Chinese military lands in Long Beach and seizes control of the United States of America. The Leftist leaders, under President Ocasio-Cortez, are purged (read executed) and Americans who are actually subservient Chinese puppets (read: just OTHER Leftists who hate America) are put in charge.
5. The puppets order Americans to commit to slave labor, where they declare a People’s Republic on World President Xi Jinping’s method of subordinate states, and the American serf starts making cheap iPhones for the new, swelling Chinese middle class, now that Apple belongs to Huawei, for 20 cents a day and a bowl of dirty rice.
See, there is no need to fight a war between the USA and China, as long as the Left get back into power. Everyone forgets about Global Warming as the new, growing ice sheets press down from the North.