#4: cover up of/by high ups. H. Smith; Master of Semphill. This ahistorical conspiracy merits a rebuttal, just to stop it flying by default.

Japan had sunk Czarist Russia in 1905. We did 2 and tried for 3 Naval Treaties with Japan, 1926-36, hoping she would sink Bolshevik Russia and repel Red hordes on the Manchukuo border with Siberia. It was legal to trade with Japan. USA initiated (as the League had not) sanctions from 1938, culminating in 1941 with causing the exiled Dutch Govt. to cease to sell E.Indies oil. That was the proximate cause of the Pacific War…but it was an unintended consequence. FDR was not seeking GI/Navy megadeath: he was trying to put the upstart invader of China back into its home islands.