ACTUALLY .... the scrap iron and steel embargo was placed on the Empire after the J's moved into northern French Indochina following France's capitulation in June of 1940. The U.S. had no "real" interest in Indochina and froze the metals as a poke in the eye to the expansionist J's. When Hitler attacked Russia in June 1941, Japan moved into southern French Indochina and the Roosevelt administration "froze" all Japanese assets in the U.S.
It was a scrap iron embargo placed by Roosevelt in late 1940 that "forced" the Empire to "procure" raw materials from European-colonial South East Asia. Japan went to war (short, simple version, I know) because of trade dependence.....
Roosevelt supposedly did NOT want to ban oil exports to Japan, as the administration felt this would definitely "force" the J's to attack the Dutch East Indies to secure a source of oil for their military and industrial machine. He said this to his cabinet in a meeting on July 18, 1941.
But Dean Acheson (then a State Department lawyer) drew up a set of regulations on further oil exports to Japan that effectively blocked any further purchases of U.S. oil by the island empire. This greatly escalated the crisis with Japan. By the time Roosevelt was appraised of the ramifications of this "new policy" ... he decided NOT to back down by changing the policy.
Japan figured they had a 6 month supply of oil. 5 months later, give or take a few days ... Japan attacked the U.S. at Pearl Harbor and moved south in force to complete their "southern strategy", the conquest of the Dutch East Indies ... and secure their supply of oil, tin, and rubber, amongst other raw materials.
And I've always maintained the U.S. State Department has been more instrumental than any other entity of our government in the loss of lives of USGI's over the past 100 years .....
..... and Dean Acheson??? He played a principal part in the Bretton Woods Conference and was an Under Secretary of State and then Secretary of State during the Cold War. He was "on watch" when the Communists took over mainland China. That brought about his downfall and return to private life in 1952.