Roosevelt did not want a war with Japan. He recognized that the real danger to the world was Hitler, not Japan. He DID try to provoke a war with Germany. This was necessary because the American public was against getting into a foreign war. We felt we had been "used" in WW I, and did not want to repeat the mistake again.

There was great sentiment for the Chinese as a result of reports coming from there from American missionaries, and other sources. Especially after the "Rape of Nanking."

Typically American (we used the same method with Lybia and Iraq) was to shut off trade with a nation in an effort to get them to behave properly. (It worked with Lybia, but not with Iraq.) We used the same tactic with Japan. We wanted them to get out of China, so one by one we stopped sending important material to them. One such was Scrap Iron and Steel, but the Japanese continued taking over China. Finally we "froze" their assets. (Meaning we would not give them credit, or allow them to buy or sell anything in America.)

Without being able to use money in the U.S. it meant they could not buy oil. (What would happen in the U.S. if we ran out of oil? No trucks, cars, planes, trains, no military, etc.) The Japanese faced the same problem. They determine how long they could last without oil, and felt they could survive until about October, perhaps a bit longer. If they could not make a deal with the U.S. by that time they had to attack.

Why? The Japanese could get oil from the "Dutch East Indies," now called "Indonesia." They intended to take over that area, but if America objected to their taking over China, we would surly try to stop them from taking the "East Indies." The American Colony of the Philippines was located between Japan and the "East Indies." From there our bombers, submarines, fighters, and surface ships could attack Japanese shipping to and from Japan to the "East Indies." The Japanese felt they HAD to remove the threat from the Philippines. If they attacked the Philippines surely America would send their navy out to fight the Japanese. The only way to prevent this was to remove the threat by sinking the main strength of the American Navy in Hawaii. As a result the Japanese felt THEY HAD to attack Pearl Harbor.