Did America pushes Japanese to attack SE asia and Pearl Harbor instead of heading North on USSR ..?
The Japanese wanted to dominate the Pacific and as long as America had an interest there too there would be conflict at some point. The Japanese needed resources due to the embargo and the Dutch and British Indies could not be attacked without American intervention on the Allied behalf. As long as America saw the Japanese as an enemy and the Japanese wanted to militarily expand, there was no way around the conflict. The Japanese tried going North first and were completely defeated at the Battle of Ghalkin Gol in early 1939. At that point the Northern startegy was abandoned, so much so, that when Hitler invaded the USSR, the Japanese still did not take the opportunity to go North again. Instead they went for broke in what can only be called a kamikaze effort and hope that America would give away the Pacific to them.
