You might be right.
I think it would be smart on our part to treat Japan the same way as we treat Britain because they are in the same kind of geographic position as Britain.
I think one of the things that FDR mis-managed was our relationship with Japan prior to WW2. They were our allies previously, including WW1, and the Brits were the ones that taught them to build ships.
I'm hardly a fan of FDR, but he did allow US aerospace firms (they were called aircraft companies in those days) to transfer immense amounts of technology to Japan. The Japanese built an exact copy of our DC 3, which was cutting edge at the time. Most of their propellers were a copy/variant of the Hamilton Standard Props, again the technology transfered with his approval. There are many who post on this site who would endorse his actions all in the name of "free trade".