Pearl Harbor attack

In the 1960s and 70s the cost of scrap dropped dramatically. One of the reasons people say the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor was that we were starting to put restrictions on the amount of scrap steel we would sell to Japan. We were the consumer of steel for the first half of the 20th century; we were producing the scrap that was coming back after twenty or thirty years of use. We had all the steel scrap compared to most of the rest of the world, and we were withholding it. This wasn't the only reason for Pearl Harbor, but it was one — read the historians. We put restrictions on the amount of scrap they could buy, and that was fueling their industry.

Linked to the embargo case above. Tom emphasizes the strategic miss — the Japanese hoped to destroy American carriers but found only battleships at Pearl.

They were fueled with oil from Long Beach, California. The United States was supplying oil to Japan. We were also supplying scrap iron — they didn't have a huge steel industry back then. We decided to stop this carnage in China by taking away the oil and steel from the Japanese. If you take something away from somebody, what are they going to do? They're going to fight back. From the Japanese point of view, they had no choice. If they were going to keep their military empire going, they had to have oil and steel. So they had to get rid of this nuisance power, the United States. They did a preemptive strike on Pearl Harbor. What were they hoping to do at Pearl Harbor? They knocked out a lot of battleships, but what were they hoping to do that they didn't do? Anybody know that history?