Japanese-American conflict pre-1939 possible?

I know this has been done to death time and time again, but I recently had a very interesting discussion with a friend of mine and we discussed a pre-1939 conflict between the United States and The Empire of Japan. What I wanted to ask is with a POD no earlier than 1915 what would need to happen to lead to an eventual conflict between America and Japan between the late 20's to mid 30's? And what exactly would this POD be? Also what effects would this devent have on world politics and economy? I’m curious to know what the intelligent and learned members of this board have in mind.
 
Isolation will have to be averted somehow for this to occur.

Or a worse Panay Incident. Theodore over at Warships1 posted a timeline of a war starting from the Panay Incident that was done quite well (unfortunately the first twelve chapters are no longer available online thanks to the vagaries of EZboard). I believe the POD revolved around Japan taking a more hardline stance on the incident that culminated in a Japanese Army takeover of the government and attack on the evacuating US Embassy personnel (sinking most of them at sea).
 
If China surrendered in 1938, Japan may decide to make its move on the East Indies oil fields earlier. I don't know if they'll do it pre-39, but with Hitler's success over France in 1940, Japan would be in excellent position to do so.

An invasion of the East Indies could trigger a war with the US, as both Japan and the US were importers of East Indies strategic materials.
 
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