Was Churchill Behind the U.S.-Japan War?

Recently declassified documents from the U.K. have raised new questions and brought new information to light regarding the part played by British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific. These documents show that Churchill was made aware ahead of time by British intelligence that the Imperial Japanese military was moving in to parts of Vietnam (French Indochina) to establish bases. This was done as part of the on-going, undeclared war with the Republic of China because of the vast amounts of supplies and war materials being sent to Chiang Kai-shek through Indochina. However, it made Churchill nervous about the vulnerability of British colonies in the region such as Malaysia and Singapore because British strength was focused on fighting the Germans in the skies over Britain, in the Atlantic and in North Africa. He was afraid that if Japan expanded further in Southeast Asia or if subject peoples tried to rise up against their British colonial rulers in the expectation of having Japanese support, he would be unable to take action to maintain British rule. So, what did he do?

It seems from these reports that Churchill obtained some documents from a low-level Japanese officer serving in China about the possibility of Japanese expansion into Southeast Asia. Now, it must be kept firmly in mind, that this was one report from one officer in the field and not a statement of official policy or an official plan from the Imperial Japanese Army or the government in Tokyo. However, it seems that Prime Minister Churchill took this report and passed it on to American President Roosevelt as if it were an official policy statement of Japan in regards to what the Empire of Japan was planning for southeast Asia. As a result of this, so the line of thinking goes, Roosevelt began to put more pressure on Japan, diplomatically and economically, to totally reverse Japanese foreign policy and so began the provocation to the outbreak of war between the United States and Japan. Of course, given what is known about Roosevelt and his administration, it can be wondered just how much prompting he would have needed as it seems he was anxious to involve the United States in the war in Europe and simply used Japan as a means to that end. However, it seems all the more tragic if this is true because it would mean that Churchill provoked a war out of fear of losing British colonies when Japan had no intention of any further expansion at all and only occupied parts of Indochina in the pursuit of the on-going war with republican China. It will be interesting to see if any more information is released concerning this period of history although, based on past experience, few people will pay attention or allow the facts to influence their already established misconceptions about the outbreak of World War II in the Asia-Pacific area.