Mind you that I was baffled when I found out this is a German habbit and not an universal one
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I suppose you haven't heard of this: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/238718/Good-Neighbor-Policy
As far as US Presidents go FDR was one of the least imperialist of the prewar era. Under his administration the occupation of Nicaragua and Haiti were ended, the infamous Platt Amendment was annulled, US government made internal propaganda films to fight American stereotypes of Latin Americans.
FDR also laid the groundwork for the full independence of the Philippines. US government policy was to push the British and French towards ending their colonial empires.
In fact it was really Ike that returned the US into intervention in Latin America.
What about German ambassadors pushing for Japan to declare war on the USSR? This would have kept Zhukov in Siberia, wouldn't it?
I wouldn't know about that, but a second front would keep the Soviets very occupied. Enough for maybe Germany to win against the Soviets.
Doubtful. It would have helped of course but I doubt it would have made a difference.
Japan was struggling to make any advance on the chinese, being stretched extremely thin. There were simply no resources available to launch a major offensive against the Soviets. The last thing Japan needed was fighting a 3-front war.
That depends on the variables. Vladivostok was a very important for Lend-Lease, but if the German's made the same mistakes, it probably wouldn't have mattered too much.
From what I've read, Japan didn't attack the USSR mostly because they had a skirmish facing Zhukov's troops in 1939 and thanks to Zhukov's tactics, he made it seem like The USSR had way more military power than the Imperial Japanese troops did. I think that for the most part, Japan had resources to fight the USSR as the reason why they even had a 2 front war at the time was because the Allies had embargoed them which stopped the exports of raw material etc. from Southeast Asia. Since Japan conquered SE Asia already, the embargo was balanced out with them getting the resources from these seized colonies.
Also, remember that in addition to this, the USSR was fighting a 2-front war and with Zhukov in Siberia, whether he pushed away the Japanese or not, means that the Germans would have way less resistance in Stalingrad and Moscow which just might be enough to take both cities. With Stalingrad gone, USSR is out of oil, and Zhukov at worst is somewhere in China quickly running out of resources himself. Don't forget that the resources in Japanese-conquered China and SE Asia shouldn't be underestimated as well, after all, Japan was still fighting way into 1945 and without the nukes they would have continued to fight way into the 50's. There were enough resources for them to attack the USSR as long as the Germans did their part in the West as well.
Just to note: Zhukov was a chief of general staff in 1941. He was nothing to do with defense of Siberia/Far East at the time. Also USSR kept a million strong army in the Far East throughout all war, so possibility of any gains for japanese are very small.