Kevin,
FWIW you might want to check out Yamamoto's writings about war with America. The Japanese were sophisticated and smart and knew exactly what to expect. I'll leave it to you to supply a reason why they went ahead and attacked, and whether anything the US did/might have done/not done could have prevented it.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
