You have to wonder if these people are bots from someplace that would benefit from this flavor of revisionist history. They're all using the "forced their hand" verbiage

And fought in the trenches in WW1

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that was war wasnt inevitable, it was completely preventable by the Japanese, and it had a real simple solution:

dont attack the United States.

Man you got it all wrong. I’ll come back tomorrow

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It would have slowed the war by at best a few months.

Japanese industry was basically non-existent, and US industry generated a Naval force that multitudes stronger than Japan's in very short time.

Japan was entirely in over their heads and even if the entirety of the US Navy was lost, the end result would have been the same.

There was Prince Tokugawa Iesato in the late-1930s to early-1940s who warned the US of radical ultra-militarism and fascism, sadly he died in 1940 due to cancer, a year before the 1941 attack. Also, after his death the ultra-militarists took over the government and gained total power at that point. I think he and several other Japanese nobles who were pro-moderates tried to maintain the Anglo-Japanese Alliance to foster greater relationships with the Western Powers to championed a form of moderate representative democracy.

In addition, Prince Fumimaro Konoe (who was wrongfully tried by the [American] Allies after the surrender of Imperial Japan for his failure to exonerate the Emperor for supposed war crimes) and some other Japanese nobles tried to stop the ultra-militarists from taking over Imperial Japan, but to no avail.

Thus, this war costed the Japanese Empire their Imperial government, downsizing of their Imperial family, abolition of their peerage nobility/hereditary aristocracy, and loss of territories.

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And went on to serve for the remainder of WWI if I recall correctly.

How could Japan avoid a war with the US. Their supply of oil was cut off and they had no way to get more without a war with the US. They couldn't just stop the war in China. They were committed and the political and cultural situation made stopping impossible. The Oil embargo was a masterpiece. There were no bad outcomes from Roosevelt's perspective. It allows the US to get into the war with a motivated population. In November 1941 the US population did not want to be a part of the war. Without the US, Britian falls. Without Britian, the are no distractions for a Germany invading russia (North Africa) without those distractions and US lend lease to the USSR and Germany probably wins there.

Every leader knew the US people had to be convinced to join. That meant a brutal but impotent attack on US soil. Thus pearl harbor with all the carriers elsewhere.

Roosevelt did not allow Japan to continue the genocide. That is the point. Stopping the war in China was not really an option for Japan. Technically, they could have, but everyone knew they would not. The actions of Roosevelt resulted in the Pearl harbor attack. That is exactly why it was done, and that is a good thing. Roosevelt wanted in to the war, but the US public was not interested. By forcing Japan to attack Roosevelt could make the US population interested.

The only way to get the US into the war with a motivated population was to make someone punch the US. The only one that would and could hit the US was Japan and their hand could be forced.

I could have the time frame off, but the Japanese military definitely was the tail that wagged the dog during at least part of the war, including launching attacks the civilian administration told them not to.

A navy sails upon its stomach.

Every day underway appreciably depletes your stores. Once upon a time I could probably tell you how many weeks since we did UNREP by what sauces the galley had left. A1 was gone first and by like week three even the ketchup started disappearing. Somehow never the 57 sauce though.

Anyways point being no matter how much you build its got to sail across the Pacific to actually do any good. And the farther you have to go without a friendly harbor to drop into for resupply and repair the more problems you will have. It may not stop you completely but your logistical situation is always paramount.

Not for nothing did the US adopt the strategy of island hopping, instead of just building up a big force to sail into Tokyo Bay like our name was Perry.

>Would it have worked?

No.

As has been said elsewhere, the scale and pace of US military production at the time was just too strong. That "long term" you mention would probably have been very short. Far too short for a "mid term gain" of drawing the US to the negotiating table. The US reaction would have been the same as it was, only probably even more pissed off.

As a senator?

Tibet, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, India, and Soviet Russia.

I think they would have gone to some pretty extreme efforts to not go to war with us.

When you look at most of the basic industries for war, the US had a HUGE lead over the rest of the world. And the US industrial heartland was essentially untouchable. Nobody wanted to go to war with the US.

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Am I going insane…? That is exactly what I wrote in my post…

Retreating would have obviously been the morally right choice (or rather not even starting at all) but nobody in the Japanese high command dared to even entertain that idea after so many losses and also politicians getting murdered for opposing the military… Of course its their fault but that doesnt change the fact that telling an imperialist country to just stop a war and give back most colonial possessions obviously isnt gonna work… And the US didnt try to stop a "genocide" using diplomatic means - thats simply dishonest. The US didnt care a whole lot in the 4 years prior (wouldn’t the Nanjing massacre be a much better reason for an embargo?). They embargoed Japan when the started seizing European colonies and because Roosevelt wanted to get the US active in Europe and Asia to stop the fascist threat to the world - and yes that is a really good motive to go to war for but its different from simply trying to help Chinese civilians… (which the US didnt have as a focus at all during WW2)

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A LOT of Asia was owned by the West back then.