Japan could not seize southern resources without hitting Allied interests

Could Japan attack the southern resource area without striking US or British bases?

Not realistically; every important route or target brought Japan into conflict with Britain, the United States, or their allies.

Japan could occupy Vichy-aligned French territory with limited immediate resistance, but the major oil and strategic objectives lay elsewhere. The Dutch East Indies belonged to a government already allied with Britain against Germany. The Philippines contained American bases and remained under United States protection. British possessions also sat across the routes and resource zone Japan needed. The geography and alliance system therefore made a clean southern advance without conflict with Britain or the United States unrealistic.