Posted on Nov 22, 2020
Alternate history: what if Japan hadn't attacked Pearl Harbor?
339
5
4
4
4
0
I've never been a fan of alternative history or "What ifs?" However, I suppose such speculation could help us better understand actual history. I suppose I'll have to rethink my position. I may reach the same conclusion. If not, there's a lot of literature that I've been ignoring that may well occupy my time. What do you think?
Alternate history: what if Japan hadn't attacked Pearl Harbor?
Posted from historyextra.comPosted in these groups: 
American History
American History
Posted 4 y ago
Responses: 3
1
1
0
BLUF: If Japan had not attacked Pearl Harbor, it would have attacked the US at a different place and time instead. US might not have been as successful in alternate timeline since occupation of Asia and Pacific Islands was not as stable early on in original timeline.
The article also mentions that US and Japan still had tense relations in 1930s. Although allies during WW1, an additional reason for the Pearl Harbor attack was over economic sanctions that the US had imposed during the 1930s. Japan was not going to back down from empire building. In personal opinion, war was inevitable regardless of original history of December 7th, 1941.
The article also mentions that US and Japan still had tense relations in 1930s. Although allies during WW1, an additional reason for the Pearl Harbor attack was over economic sanctions that the US had imposed during the 1930s. Japan was not going to back down from empire building. In personal opinion, war was inevitable regardless of original history of December 7th, 1941.
(1)
(0)
SSG(P) (Join to see)
Possibly. However, recall that Admiral Yamamoto cautioned Emperor Hirohito that they had six months worth of POL and other war materiel with which to defeat the U.S. Yamamoto knew early on (after the Battle of Midway) that Japan would not win.
Japan actually invaded and occupied a few of the Aleutian Islands. The U.S. left them there, because they were drawing resources away from Japan's war effort, and eventually Japan realized this too, and withdrew them.
You are right that Japan's empire-building came partially as a result of restrictions placed upon the tonnage of warships they could build, and other economic sanctions. However, even if Japan had not attacked Pearl Harbor when they did, and attacked somewhere else, I don't think that would have affected America's war effort in the Pacific. The Pearl Harbor attack was planned to be a single crippling strike against the carriers and battleships that were all in the same place at the same time. That a couple of carriers were not in Pearl on December 7th put a serious crimp in Japan's plan. The quick refloating of many battleships was also not planned upon by Japan. Those facts drew out the Pacific war, and depleted Japan's ability to effectively wage war in the way they had planned. The Japanese didn't plan to be fighting the U.S. in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor.
If you haven't yet, check out "The Man in the High Castle" on Amazon. It explores an alternate timeline where the U.S. lost WW II, and the U.S. is divided between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. It starts out slow, but is quite interesting.
Japan actually invaded and occupied a few of the Aleutian Islands. The U.S. left them there, because they were drawing resources away from Japan's war effort, and eventually Japan realized this too, and withdrew them.
You are right that Japan's empire-building came partially as a result of restrictions placed upon the tonnage of warships they could build, and other economic sanctions. However, even if Japan had not attacked Pearl Harbor when they did, and attacked somewhere else, I don't think that would have affected America's war effort in the Pacific. The Pearl Harbor attack was planned to be a single crippling strike against the carriers and battleships that were all in the same place at the same time. That a couple of carriers were not in Pearl on December 7th put a serious crimp in Japan's plan. The quick refloating of many battleships was also not planned upon by Japan. Those facts drew out the Pacific war, and depleted Japan's ability to effectively wage war in the way they had planned. The Japanese didn't plan to be fighting the U.S. in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor.
If you haven't yet, check out "The Man in the High Castle" on Amazon. It explores an alternate timeline where the U.S. lost WW II, and the U.S. is divided between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. It starts out slow, but is quite interesting.
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
Roosevelt placed an oil embargo on Japan They only had oil reserves for about a year. Thats why they attacked Pear Harbor when they did. They had to break the embargo or they would have run out of oil for their ships. They attacked all over Asia the same day the bombs fell in Hawaii. Their biggest mistake was they didn't bomb the oil reserves and repair docks at pearl Harbor. We got back into action pretty fast. Also our Carriers were out to sea They wanted to sink them. Our 4 carriers held to a standoff in the coral sea. We lost 1 carrier . At Midway we stopped their advance for good. They lost 4 carriers and a lot of experienced pilots. After Midway they were stopped from advancing. They were on the defense the rest of the war. Semper Fi.
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
Germany may have had the time to defeat Russia, changing the whole European theater.
(0)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google