> yet Toyota saw value in manufacturing in North America.

I think manufactoring in the US was necessary or they would have had high tarriffs applied and been shut out of the US market. Here is one example:

Since then, Toyota has Americanized itself at a rapid pace, which accelerated last year after a nasty trade dispute in which the Clinton Administration threatened to slap a 100% tariff on luxury cars like Toyota's Lexus. Shortly afterward, Toyota executives swooped into Indiana to pick a site for the T100 truck plant and sped up the timetable for the new West Virginia factory. Says senior vice president Jim Olson, a 16-year Ford veteran who joined Toyota in 1985: "It will now be very difficult for the Big Three to attack us as the enemy at the border. We're across the border and we're here."

http://www.time.com/time/international/1996/961007/autos.html