SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Pacific war What-ifs

Torplexed · 01-17-08, 09:24 PM

One thing Japan could have done to change the equation a bit was to dispense with the initial Pearl Harbor attack. The surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet goaded and united Americans as never before. If Japan had declined to declare war on the US in December 1941 and had instead bypassed the Phillipines and other US possessions to attack the resource-rich British and Dutch colonies in the Far East that they desired, they probably would have still found themselves at war with the US as we were bound to come to Britain's aid. But without the surprise attack element it would have taken out a lot of the sting the American public felt on December 7th, 1941. We would have found ourselves going to war not to avenge Pearl Harbor or Bataan or Wake Island but to protect British and Dutch colonial interests in Asia. Not as much of a rallying point for a staunchily isolationist nation. America was fairly oil independent at the time so Japan taking oil-rich Sumatra and Borneo wouldn't have been a matter of life and death. Of course without the surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor the US would have gone ahead with Plan Orange. Sending a vast fleet of battleships and carrier across the Pacific to protect or relieve the Phillipines. Well...that was the battle the IJN had been preparing for for many years. They had more carriers at that point and excellent pilots. Not to mention a lot of land based air enroute. Battleships sunk in the mid-Pacific couldn't be raised from the bottom like the ones on Battleship Row.

Japan probably still would have lost. But it might have been a longer contest. Certainly a what if scenario. :hmm:

01-17-08, 09:24 PM	#5
Torplexed Let's Sink Sumptin' ! Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 5,823 Downloads: 43 Uploads: 0	One thing Japan could have done to change the equation a bit was to dispense with the initial Pearl Harbor attack. The surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet goaded and united Americans as never before. If Japan had declined to declare war on the US in December 1941 and had instead bypassed the Phillipines and other US possessions to attack the resource-rich British and Dutch colonies in the Far East that they desired, they probably would have still found themselves at war with the US as we were bound to come to Britain's aid. But without the surprise attack element it would have taken out a lot of the sting the American public felt on December 7th, 1941. We would have found ourselves going to war not to avenge Pearl Harbor or Bataan or Wake Island but to protect British and Dutch colonial interests in Asia. Not as much of a rallying point for a staunchily isolationist nation. America was fairly oil independent at the time so Japan taking oil-rich Sumatra and Borneo wouldn't have been a matter of life and death. Of course without the surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor the US would have gone ahead with Plan Orange. Sending a vast fleet of battleships and carrier across the Pacific to protect or relieve the Phillipines. Well...that was the battle the IJN had been preparing for for many years. They had more carriers at that point and excellent pilots. Not to mention a lot of land based air enroute. Battleships sunk in the mid-Pacific couldn't be raised from the bottom like the ones on Battleship Row. Japan probably still would have lost. But it might have been a longer contest. Certainly a what if scenario. :hmm: __________________ --Mobilis in Mobili-- Last edited by Torplexed; 01-17-08 at 09:35 PM.