> Japan was worried that the US would cut off all oil exports to Japan, so they attempted to gain control of the pacific in order to solidify access to oil. Er

> Japan was worried that the US would cut off all oil exports to Japan, so they attempted to gain control of the pacific in order to solidify access to oil. Errr, the US did cut off all oil exports to Japan in August 1941. As you say, though, they needed to keep their machine going; the obvious prospect of a US declaration of war in response to their planned (and executed) seizure of oil-producing regions in the South Pacific was the key motivation for the "pre-emptive strike" on Pearl Harbor.