Dickey, the fact is that the major media chains in the USA are owned by a few enormous corporate entities, and that what gets on the news and how it is covered is determined by a few powerful men in the management of those corporate entities. When you consider that your government itself is controlled by a consortium of major corporate entities (among whom are those ones who own the main medio chains) then you do have what amounts to a controlled media...and a controlled government. It's not a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" anymore...if it ever was. It's a government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, for the billionaires, and there isn't a darned thing you or I can do about that.

This doesn't mean that every single writer or media person in America is controlled. It just means that most of them are at any given time. Most of them is enough to do easily the job of manipulating the public down any path the controllers desire, mainly through the tactics of appealing to fear, greed, and consumption.

I don't see an embargo as a military action either, but I do see it as the kind of action that can definitely bring on a war...under certain circumstances. Roosevelt knew exactly what he was doing. He was putting the Japanese in a position where they would go to war, because he wanted the USA to get involved in WWII as soon as possible, and that was the most expeditious way of doing it. He HAD to have a genuine outside attack on some part of America. He couldn't find a practical or feasible way to provoke Germany into attacking the USA, but he could do it with the Japanese, so he did. The rest fell into place perfectly. I think FDR's only miscalculation was his failure to realize how effective the Japanese Navy and its aircraft were...so the initial situation proved much tougher than what he had expected up until the Battle of Midway evened the balance. After that, the Japanese were doomed to lose by steady attrition and lack of resources.

My point, in any case, was that ordinary Japanese people during the war had absolutely no idea their country was in the wrong. In this respect they were just like most ordinary people in other countries that commit aggression on someone. The natural reaction is to assume your country is in the right and rally round the flag to defend it. That is what every citizen's entire upbringing from the time they are a small child prepares them to do. Why should it be surprising that they fall into line so easily?