But, in a way, I think you're supporting the "War for Resources" argument.

The strategy of going after the oil tankers makes sense.  Modern war runs on oil, to fuel everything from the machines themselves, to the power plants (although I would suspect that most power plants of that time/place ran on coal).  POL, as we all know, are/were one of the critical ways to hit an enemy's war making capabilities.

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'Scuse me - in my thinking, (remember, I work for a power generation equipment manufacturer) for me a power plant is an electricity generating station.  At that time, MOST power plants for the generation of electricity ran on on coal

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I have no doubt there.  No Oil, no means of getting your troops around, and no means of getting your resources to where they had to go!

Also keep in mind that Germany had the same problem with oil though not to the extent Japan did. That was one of the reasons the allies always tried to taget refineries anywhere in occupied europe.

What they did have was vast rescouces of coal with they they refined into gasoline and diesel for their war machine.

They had a technology 60 years ago that China still uses today.

We're talking about the same thing here.

Oil was absolutely essential to Japan to run its war machinery.  Conquering China was a way to get that country's resources for themselves.

The OIL embargo, I agree, was the "drop" that forced the Japanese into executing war plans against the US.  In their mind, this was probably as much an "aggression" against their survival and honour, as a the attack on Pearl Harbor was to the US.

Executing a decisive "divine wind" attack to cripple the US war making capability in the Pacific Ocean would have allowed them to roll up the resource/oil rich Southeast Asia, which they practically did.

Yes, bullets and weapons carry out war, but without the logistics to get them there, they're so much dead weight.

The example of the power plants was given only to EMPHASIZE the necessity of resources, coal in this case, and in a convoluted way, the necessity of OIL to carry the COAL to the mainland.

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Japan attacked China for other reasons.  They weren't thinking in terms of obtaining resources until the imposed embargoes.  The reason for attacking China "The China Incident" had more to do with national martial pride than anything else.  It's a lengthy discussion, I'll condense as much as possible.  Once Japan was forced open by Commodore Perry, they did an absolutely amazing transformation from a midheval/fedel society to a player on the world stage.  Two events emerge as prominent:

The Boxer Rebellion in China - Japan learned that the imperialistic western nations were carving Asia up for themselves.  They decided that they need to get their own piece or else find themselves becoming somebody's posession.  This is the primary motivation for Japan's seizing Manchuria.

The defeat of the Russian navy at the Battle of Tsushina - This thrust Japan onto the world stage as having arrived as a player to be reconed with both in the west's mind and in their own mind.

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As I have previously spoke of, Japan became incensed and their national pride offended when the A, B, and D members of the ABCD nations imposed embargos.  To them, they felt these western imperialistic powers had some nerve imposing sanctions on them for doing what the western nations had been themselves doing.  This was the height of hypocracy.  I happen to agree with this assessment.

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The Divine Wind refers to kamakaze, a reference to the typhoon that destroyed the Mongol fleet as it sought to invade Japan.

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I understand, but i've never read any concern for coal like I've read on numerous ocassions that the Japanese were concerned about oil, and the lack thereof as a result of the embargos, and later the campaign against merchant shipping.