Brad De Long wrote:
> >
> >One of the judges in the Tokyo War Crimes Trial after World War II,
> >Radhabinod Pal, dissented from the general verdicts against Japanese
> >officials and argued that the United States had clearly provoked the war
> >with Japan and expected Japan to act. Richard Minear (Victors' Justice)
> >sums up Pal's view of the embargoes on scrap iron and oil, that "these
> >measures were a clear and potent threat to Japan's very existence."
>
> For Roosevelt and Acheson to say "we won't keep selling you the oil
> you need to conquer China" is a "clear and potent threat to Japan's
> very existence"?
>
> No. To say "we won't keep selling you the oil you need to conquer
> China" is not to threaten Japan's very existence: it is to try to
> limit Japan's power to conquer China.
>
> Brad DeLong
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu