[Pelham]

“There was an embargo. When countries are dependent on each other economically, it is too costly to go to war. When they allow embargoes, protectionism, etc. to reign, hostilities are given a voice.”

“I don’t know much about history” - Sam Cooke, 1958

Rabscuttle is making reference to Commodore Perry compelling Japan to begin trading in 1854. Prior to that Japan was happily isolationist and not threatening anyone. Had they been left to stew in their own juices there might not have been a Pearl Harbor. You can’t embargo someone who is isolationist by choice.

[LifeComesFirst]

"You can’t embargo someone who is isolationist by choice." If you had read the link I provided you would have spared yourself the embarrassment of being wrong: "In 1940 Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to embargo all imports into China, including war supplies purchased from the U.S. This move prompted the United States to embargo all oil exports, leading the Imperial Japanese Navy to estimate that it had less than two years of bunker oil remaining and to support the existing plans to seize oil resources in the Dutch East Indies." They were fighting over resources, rather than trading them.