American school teachers critical of America often claim that Japan was "forced" to attack America because America was "blockading oil" to Japan. What they nev

American school teachers critical of America often claim that Japan was "forced" to attack America because America was "blockading oil" to Japan. What they never mention are the facts that Japan wanted oil to fuel their Imperial war machine's invasion of China and conquest of the Pacific, or that the "blockade" of oil constituted little more than the Dutch refusing to surrender the Dutch East Indies oil fields to Japan, and America backing up the Dutch. Japan then attacked the US Navy as a prerequisite to seizing the Dutch East Indies. In other words, America "forced" Imperial Japan to attack by not rolling over and surrendering the Pacific to Imperial Japan when they 'asked nicely'. Japan was "forced" by nothing more than their own imperial ambitions. Those who think America was in the wrong here are implicitly accepting the legitimacy of Japan's imperialist ambitions.