I often see people say that amphibious invasions are very difficult, and that D-Day took everything the western allies had. How then did Japan so easily take the pacific islands, especially the Philippines and Guam, which had huge American forces?
I often see people say that amphibious invasions are very difficult, and that D-Day took everything the western allies had. How then did Japan so easily take the pacific islands, especially the Philippines and Guam, which had huge American forces?
Remember how Pearl Harbor was an unexpected surprise attack? They did a bigger Pearl Harbor on the Phillippines around the same time and that homosexual MacArthur ran away abandoning his men.
Very few of the landings were contested, and as mentioned many of the allied leaders were unprepared and cowardly. Singapore being another prime example.
>Singapore being another prime example.
Elaborate
The bongo in charge surrendered when the japs had only 24 hours of supply left and pulled a massive bluff. Also, the troops consisted mainly of a colonial garrison and a raw division with few support weapons and hardly any aircraft. People take that to mean "hurr durr Japs stronk bongs noob", when the reality is that it was a hammer crushing a peanut. Later on the IJA wasn't quite so hot shit facing real regulars with air support and moderately modern fighters like the Hurricane.
The Japs defeated colonial garrisons meant to keep the natives in line while the Allies were busy dealing with more critical problems in Europe. That's really it. Against regular troops they got wiped.
Those bicycle troops are a symptom of the frickedupidity of the IJA. Most of the bikes were actually looted from civvys. The Japs had relied on intel reports that bikes were common in Malaya and expected to seize those for their use. That's what the IJA always did - expect to live off the land like an 18th century army. That's why they later faced horrible malnutrition or outright starvation across all of their holdings from Burma to Guadalcanal.
Truth is that the IJA was barely a 19th century army, but this fact is hidden behind the flash of their successes. They still relied on the grenade and bayonet, they had no notion of adjusting artillery fire, they flew no CAS but rather tactical bombing raids, and their logistics as described was almost medieval.
A lot of shitty half asses truths about the fall of Malaya here.
>troops mainly consisted of a colonial garrison
Frick no. Singapore was a fortress. Troops were drawn heavily from the UK, Commonwealth and India, and outnumbered the Japanese 2 to 1. Singapore was not a hot spot of guerilla fighters and independence.
>few support weapons and hardly any aircraft
They had several hundred aircraft, including hurricanes, but they were outnumbered heavily by Japanese aircraft.
>stupidity of bicycles
Their intel was spot on, there were a shit ton of bicycles and it let them move materiel over makeshift bridges like nothing.
>19th century army
They employed innovative use of jungle light tanks, naval + air support and artillery to crush the brits. Bayonets were an absolute boon in close quarters jungle and urban company.
>Singapore was a fortress
meme
>Troops were drawn heavily from the UK, Commonwealth and India
mainly raw as has been stated or even convalescent in some cases; the front line at this time was Africa
>They had several hundred aircraft, including hurricanes
not many of the Hurries and too many obsoletes
>Their intel was spot on
I know, but it's a moronic idea still not to bring your own transport, nobody does that nowadays for ample reason
> innovative use of jungle light tanks
all of eight bloody tankettes. the bongs deployed five times more tanks in Burma, which helped cover their retreat to India
>naval + air support and artillery
lol nope
Jap CAS and artillery was primitive. there was no real spotting and fire adjustment, air raids and barrages were almost always pre-planned the day before
>Bayonets were an absolute boon in close quarters jungle and urban company
Everyone else had moved on to machine-guns as the primary weapon of the squad by then. This failure to adapt led to moronic banzai charges in part because the Japs had no other option, being short on machine-guns compared to the Allies
even later in the war MGs were mainly used in fixed defensive emplacements
>mainly raw
So was the Japanese. Most units in a total war are newly formed. The 3rd Tank Division and 56th Infantry Division of the IJA were all new.
>many were obsolete
Yes, it's well known that in the first half of the war British planes were pretty old and shitty.
>moronic idea
If they actually waited to unload the tens of thousands of trucks needed to move troops, along with the millions of gallons of diesel, and waited for the bridges to be repaired to truck bearing weight, they probably would have lost.
>all of 8
Still beat the shit out of the brits
>no real spotting
They made extensive use of balloon and aerial reconnaissance during the seige of Singapore. CAS was extensive, the IJA had special planes just for CAS. In fact it was British artillery that was terrible. Their massive naval guns which, contrary to popular belief, could traverse 360, were almost useless because of poor sighting and communication.
>banzai charges
The Japanese also extensively made use of machine guns. Say whatever you want, every unit from new to experienced, Indian or white, got crushed. Basically the only successful attacks were a handful of ambushes that failed to stop the Japanese in any meaningful way.
>Most units in a total war are newly formed. The 3rd Tank Division and 56th Infantry Division of the IJA were all new.
The Japs had significant institutional experience (FWIW) from the Sino-Japanese War, and the Malayan units had been training specifically for the operation for months if not years. In fact all their jungle-specialist infantry went to Malaya
>If they actually waited to
Therein lies the difference between the Jap amphib landings and other amphib landings such as D-day; Malaya was a highly risky operation with scarce logistical support and wouldn't have worked against an opponent stronger than a bunch of raw under-equipped colonial garrisons and without strategic and tactical surprise. While credit must be given to the Japs for pulling it off, it was a one-off as they could not replicate the feat in future engagements. You're not actually "good" at fighting if you suckerpunch somebody and then get your ass beat
>They made extensive use of balloon and aerial reconnaissance during the seige of Singapore
but that was used for division-level recon, not forward artillery observation which they barely had any of, in Singapore and throughout the war
>CAS was extensive
preplanned raids only
>it was British artillery that was terrible
they didn't actually have much in the way of field artillery, see again: under-equipped
>The Japanese also extensively made use of machine guns
mainly in fixed emplacements as said. they rarely performed fire and manoeuvre with individual MG sections
>Basically the only successful attacks were a handful of ambushes
this describes the Japanese campaign on an operational level
they ambushed the Allies all over, from Wake to Burma, but after that they had nothing
>training for months
And it's a huge fault on the British that they literally occupied millions of square miles of Malayan jungle and couldn't properly form tactics and training in there
>colonial garrisons
This cope again? It was not a colonial garrison, the British had more than twice the men of the entire invasion force. This included experienced units like the 53rd British infantry which fought in WW1, and III corps. The idea that it was a handful of garrisons fighting off an army of japs is hilariously coping. The japs were the one heavily outnumbered
>you're not actually good if you seize the initiative and surprise
You mean like D Day, the landings at Incheon, Midway, and basically the most successful campaigns in military history. You're reaching hilarious levels of cope: it's now a bad thing to achieve surprise. Do you expect your enemy to give you a written advance of its plans?
>forward artillery observation
Which was a slight fault which pales in comparison to the British artillery, who literally had naval guns and were unable to inflict any real damage with them.
the Brits defended Singapore from the sea with coastal guns that only faced outwards.
They didnt defend down the Malay Peninsula as the Japs marched south.
When the 2nd IF Australians were sent there from returning to Oz from North Africa, they headed into the Jungle (even their pogues as an 'Ordnance Infantry Battalion') and ambushed the Japs-on-bicycles and fricked them up, but the Brits were already packing up to surrender everybody.
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gemas
1000 Japs dead to 81 Strayans
>* 2nd AIF
The Brits sent the untrained Indian Division and the few experienced Australian units to stop the Japs on the Peninsula.
As soon as the Indians lost their white officers they were useless.
Same as Kokoda in New Guinea, wherever the Japs actually faced white experienced troops they were routed, at Kokoda initially it was only 2nd-line militia troops but they held until the rest of the 2ndAIF that hadn't been wasted going to Singapore arrived to drive the Japs back.
Th early 'successes' of the IJ were against 'colonial' troops of peacetime coloureds led by detached white officers who were still in peacetime mode.
>the Brits defended Singapore from the sea with coastal guns that only faced outwards
Singapore is nowhere near as defensible as Gibraltar anyway
>They didnt defend down the Malay Peninsula as the Japs marched south
they tried, but this
happened
>the Brits were already packing up to surrender everybody
that came later when they had fallen back to Singapore island itself
but frankly the AIF should never have been sent to Malaya, Churchill should have cut his losses then and there
although the existing contingency warplan was to defend Singapore and use it as a forward operating base for the counter-attack, it wasn't meant to be carried out while at the same time fighting a war in Europe against the Axis
>the existing contingency warplan was to defend Singapore and use it as a forward operating base
And they surrendered as soon as the Japs approached because their impregnable sea-fort relied on a water-pipe from the mainland.
30s Brit Colonial military planning was just sipping Gin&Tonics and whipping the Black folk into line*, then expecting them to defend the Empire.
>*not that there's anything wrong with that, but for real fighting they needed white hands on rifles
>they surrendered as soon as the Japs approached because their impregnable sea-fort relied on a water-pipe from the mainland
The mainland was going to be defended as well in prewar planning, but again, the assumptions hard-baked into this plan was that the Empire would have months if not years of advance warning of Jap intentions, and of course not be fighting the Axis, because *obviously* the jerrys had been finished off by Versailles and would now be good and peaceful like the FRG was, amirite lads... anyway, according to the prewar plan, the RN would be assembled and be actively harrassing Jap shipping in the South China Sea, so the question of defending Malaya was in a way moot, as the invasion fleet would never get past the Grand Fleet in the first place.
>guns facing the wrong way
moron, they were capable of 360 traverse. They were used against the IJA, it was just extremely ineffective because of poor reconnaissance and artillery practice by the British
The coastal-facing guns thing is a meme but they did only have armor piercing shells and nothing for infantry.
They pointed the (Naval) guns on the south as they thought the enemy would come through there but they actually came from Above in Malaya. Also Arthur Perceval (The General Defending Singapore) fricking Pussied Out in just ONE FRICKING WEEK and Surrendered even though they have more than twice the Troops. Granted the troops were Low in Supplies and Poorly Trained but so as the fricking Japanese
>so as the fricking Japanese
The Japs sent part of the Imperial Guard and the 5th Division, two of their best units in the whole army. The Guard had acclimatised already to the tropics as it was in Indochina (Vietnam) and the 5th trained for the operation for the best part of a year. Both units were jungle specialists by then. They were backed by two newer divisions but they did most of the work
>acclimatised
And this is the brits fault. Their divisions, even the new ones, were in Malaya for many months before the invasion and they never bothered to acclimatise, or even change to jungle appropriate uniform's.
it's almost as if, yknow, there was a much higher priority war going on at the other end of the world
>they literally occupied millions of square miles of Malayan jungle and couldn't properly form tactics and training in there
Africa/Europe had priority
>53rd British infantry which fought in WW1
how relevant, 22 years later. were all the privates 40 years old as well?
they had already disbanded and were recently reformed, idiot.
>III corps
again, freshly formed literally a year earlier (some in March) mostly from Indian recruits
>You mean like D Day, the landings at Incheon, Midway, and basically the most successful campaigns in military history
might surprise you to know that even Overlord wasn't an assured success until after the breakout. after the initial surprise if the Allies hadn't fought well they could have been thrown back into the sea. but they did and that shows their mettle. in contrast, the Japs sent two elite divisions and won an easy victory over raw recruits (Indian and Aussie) and the Singapore Garrison, but didn't show any further tactical brilliance in their later campaigns
>Which was a slight fault
Wow.
Pre-WW1 artillery tactics from 1941 to 1945, and that's a "slight fault"
Cope.
>yknow, there was a much higher priority war going on at the other end of the world
cope nigel your empire is dust now
nuke yourself
ohwai-
>Anglo now scaling down the list to the priority cope
So it scales down from they caught us by surprise, to they were better trained, to we should've given them more resources, because being twice as numerous as the enemy isn't enough. I mean it wasn't, because the British vastly overestimated themselves.
>didn't show any further brilliance
You can thank China for tying down 90% of the IJA's divisions for that.
>it scales down from
I'd already listed those reasons above, not my fault you didn't read
>we should've given them more resources, because being twice as numerous as the enemy isn't enough
Yes, because that's what happens when you only have small arms and year-old recruits, and the enemy has the full array of combined arms at their disposal and at least uses some of it effectively
>You can thank China
Chang, the chinks were even worse equipped and worse trained than the Japs. One Jap division was worth literally three or four Chink divisions. In 1945 it was not the Chinese who counter-attacked the Japs and threw them back out of Burma.
So by chinko standards
>because being twice as numerous as the enemy isn't enough
no, they had to be four times as numerous to even reach parity with the Japs.
>You can thank China for tying down 90% of the IJA's divisions for that.
As if the japs could supply that many men in the Pacific.
Peasant take on Singapore.
Reality is that the bong army in Singapore was largely second rate garrison troops, a small cadre of competent indian troops, and a load of barely trained aussies. The best of the british army was in North Africa.
Before Singapore there was a long campaign in Malaysia. Their best formations got fricking mauled in the Malaysia campaign and were combat ineffective by the time the Battle for Singapore started.
The Bongs retreated to Singapore to make a last stand. The Bongs misread the terrain and set up for a battle that the Japs sidestepped. The Japs, having established themselves in Singapore ripped through the bong lines, bongs tried to counter-attack and got stopped dead. The Aussies completely fell apart and started looting Singapore and starting fires. The Japs captured all the strategic terrain and the Bong commander, a WW1 veteran, realized that the battle was lost and that to hold on any longer would result in senseless death.
Its far more complex than "dey didnt defend da fort".
>The Aussies completely fell apart and started looting Singapore and starting fires
Based
>The Aussies completely fell apart and started looting Singapore and starting fires
70 years on and the british still push their propaganda.
The Aussies were the only veteran troops the Bongs had - they came back from having done North Africa in Alamain and Tobruk, then Greece/Crete and had taken Syria against the Vichy French.
They were supposed to be coming back to defend Oz in New Guinea as per the deal when they went to NA but Churchill lied and diverted them to Singapore and Dutch East Indies where they were the first (white) force to actually smash the Japs but the Brit HQ in Singapore and the Dutch Governor in Batavia both surrendered without putting up a defence.
>The Aussies completely fell apart and started looting Singapore and starting fires.
homie they got fricking mauled in the jungle with the indians while the bongs sat back, watched, then surrendered when their time came to hold the fricking line.
>Its far more complex than "dey didnt defend da fort".
Your explanation is "dey were incompetent at defending da fort" which is hardly more complex.
The thing about MacArthur and the Philippines was that he (this is from memory) he had about 3-4 hours between the bombing of Pearl Harbor (or, well, when the American government realized what it was and worked it through the chain of command, so perhaps +15-45 minutes) to when the Japanese started bombing the Philippines. He was ordered, not told, not suggested, ORDERED to scramble all aircraft immediately and begin both counter attacks and recon operations. He didn't.
I forget what his excuse was but in the end he was directly ordered to do it and he didn't so it's irrelevant. As a result, most of the air power in under his command was destroyed a few hours later by raids.
I wouldn't call him "cowardly" but he was guilty of dereliction of duty and should have been sacked immediately afterwards. I have no clue why the Americans decided to give him continued employment, much less allow him to later argue with Nimitz over literally anything concerning the Navy or the Pacific in general.
Pic related is what the Japanese would have encountered if MacArthur actually launched the raids.
It was entirely political. He was popular and the US government didn't want to look weak. Admitting that he had just pissed away the Philippines was politically problematic when US voters were hopping mad. I've heard he didn't issue many orders to anybody during the time frame you're talking about but I don't know much about that.
The point is, the government was willing to order him off the island right in front of the soldiers, basically abandoning them, just to make the government look good back home.
Yeah looking through the actual timeline now it was more like 8-10 hours. It happened at about 2 AM his time, the proper order to counterattack came in at about 5:30 AM (at this point the Japanese had wrapped up and were heading home I think), and it took him until 10 AM to give the order to strike. At that point the place he was going to bomb had already had an air raid dispatched from it, about half an hour earlier, so at that point it was too late. The strike was detected at 11:30 and arrived at 12:30.
But yeah I can see how having the same person in command (ignoring their frickups) would have been a better choice than firing the dude and trying to find a replacement. But still holy frick.
>Scramble a bunch of P-26s and P-40s to fight a bunch of Zeros who can out climb and maneuver you.
Only a handful were launched and none of the ones that were launched could actually engage the enemies and were shot down.
Sending more would have just killed more people.
Much better to have all your bombers get caught on the ground?
Listen, I love McArthur loads, but his blundering of the Phillipines is indefensible
>Much better to have all your bombers get caught on the ground
Much better to have all your bombers uselessly shot down with their crews inside? It was a surprise attack on an outnumbered, outskilled, and older airforce not geared for war, there wasn't going to be an effective air resistance
P-40 at low altitude was more than a match for the Zero. Guess where jap pilots liked to fight? Low altitude. MacArthur completely botched the defense of the Philippines, the bomber issues were just the start.
>he doesn't know about Claire Chennault styling on Japanese fighters with P-40s
Speaking of which, firing him before the war was another horrendous decision by senior command
The P-40s on the Philippines that managed to survive the first strike still managed to kick some jap ass before the island fell. Even the Filipino Peashooters managed to scrape a positive k/d ratio.
He was also told "hey this volcanic peninsula would make a pretty defensible location, you should probably fortify it and move your supplies there so you can last until we can relieve you in the event of a war" and refused to do that insisting he'd hold the whole Philippines until way too late, tried to retreat there because it was really defensible, as he'd been told, but it was too late to lay in supplies or build fortifications there.
He was also supposed to fortify the islands but didn't because ??? frick you lib commie Roosevelt
>MacArthur
crazy that this guy wanted to nuke china
how the frick did they let this nutter be general?
The forces in the Philippines didn't really fight tooth and nail. When the Japanese showed up with planes to bomb US airbases, they found all planes still on the ground. Stuff like that. As for Guam, the governor of the island just surrendered.
phillipenya and guambabwe
>As for Guam, the governor of the island just surrendered.
That went well for everyone, right?
It went better than getting shelled by a Battleship with a limp dick in your hand, but still sucked and had plenty of atrocities. Fun fact Uncle Sam blocked all Chamorros from filing for war reparations from Japan until the 90s (right after most of the occupied Chamorros died). That being said the locals were experimented on, tortured, marched, raped and killed
>t. Halfa who's grandparents got mystery shots, marched around, and witnessed their family getting murdered
>Forces on the Philippines didn't fight tooth and nail
Yeah is that why the Filipinos defended in Bataan for months? But then the Americans surrendered leaving them no choice but to continue resistance using guerilla warfare.
The prewar plan for defending the Philippines involved the creation of several large supply bases (think modern day FOBs or LSAs) in central Luzon that could quickly vector troops and supplies out to the landing beaches. If the Japs ended up making a foothold, then a delaying retreat would be made back to Bataan where the military would hole up and wait for reinforcements from the US.
The problem was that with the FEAF destroyed on the ground, the Japs had total air superiority and cancelled out the allies' ability to conduct an orderly withdrawal. This also meant that the logistics bases couldn't be evacuated because of the vulnerability of motor convoys, so all of the supplies needed to conduct protracted warfare were abandoned. In Bataan the average American on the line was eating about 300 calories a day, and the Filipinos had it even worse. Definitely not a fun time to be in the Army.
MacArthur was a politician posing as a general.
He was recalled out of retirement and sent to the Philippines. The US also didn't fully commit to defending the Philippines from invasion.
MacArthur did better nation-building in Japan and reorganizing Jap society than he ever did as a general.
The Incheon landing was pretty frickin neat tho
It is difficult, the IJN was very cappable in the early stages of the war. the japs had an amazing navy and were an industrial powerhouse . People usually point at them like they were a middle point between the best in the axis (the krauts) and the worst (the italians) i disagree. In my opinion, despise some idiotic leadership , the equipment and training of the IJN was top 3 in the world. Neither germ or italy had such a projection capability. Later they took some moronic decisions, and obviusly lost against the much more powerful US navy. but they were no joke.
And no, im not a jap simp, they had moronic admirals and leaders, and deserved to lose. but i feel like they are often the underestimated partner in the axis.
It's crazy that Italy and Germany had 20+ years to watch the IJN get off the ground and still didnt take their navies as seriously.
Germany was never going to be a maritime power. They tried, but it was always the redheaded step child. You hear about uboats, but they basically stopped mattering after the midwar.
Italy already was a maritime power and has been consistently. The Regina Marina remained a fighting force planning an executing operations up to the Italian surrender.
>The Regina Marina remained a fighting force planning an executing operations up to the Italian surrender.
with what ships lol
The Italian Navy was decent for the type of naval war it was fighting, the dream of a German Navy died during World War I.
Italian Navy was decently succesful they sunk 170 allied ships while Japan sung 450
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/1fe3381b1bdd43c78c9e02f33859c55a
Besides Yamato's ego getting in the way of in the planning stages of Midway the IJN was well lead. Better than the USN for the most part and definitely better than the rest of the allies. The issue was the war went exactly as they expected if Pearl Harbor didn't work.
Actually the big problem is they thought the US would act like other countries up to that point, by taking the L and suing for a 'peace' that gave Japan all the islands it nabbed before they could respond. They legitimately didn't expect that being attacked made all the disparate american factions draw together and get angry rather than dissolving into in-fighting like the colonial powers did.
They also didn't expect the pacific fleet to stick itself together with gum and hope just enough to scrounge extra carrier groups up.
>Actually the big problem is they thought the US would act like other countries up to that point
Can you americans stop stroking your wieners so much, it's embarrassing. When the frick did another country get attacked and just go "oh well rip me I guess haha I surrender"
>When the frick did another country get attacked and just go "oh well rip me I guess haha I surrender"
France and Denmark for starters.
France I'll give you, but Denmark did all they could in face of overwhelming odds (which was next to nothing, but still). So we have one (1) country that is generalized to "other countries", implying surrendering immediately is the norm.
Britain would have surrendered if it wasn’t for American support
>That picture
Surely, it's not.....is it?
What is wrong anon?
N-nothing! Nothing's wrong with me, I'm just looking at a picture of, uh...of...of some ice cream!... Right?
Yes, a very nice picture. Here, have a cool painting.
Happy halloween anon
WHY DO YOU HAVE SO MANY OF THEM!?
why not?
I recognize that gay blowjob :^)
The ice cream. That's what's wrong. It looks like melted plastic
This is the version told to lionise the US. The reality is much different and not taught in history textbooks
>Japan, under the Konoye government, unironically wanted a peace deal in 1941 because China was bleeding them dry and they wanted to avoid war. Japan offered to withdraw from most of China, Indochina and make peace with the KMT in exchange for lifted sanctions
>Roosevelt rejects this
>The Konoye government collapses
>the "Hull note" is proposed, complete withdrawal of Japan from everywhere in Asia back into Japan, and rejected
>Japan top brass correctly anticipate the US was going to ramp up production of ships, arms and war production
>decide the optimal time to strike is now
They were actually largely correct in their predictions. If the American aircraft carriers were at Pearl Harbour and even two of them were sunk or put out of action, Coral Sea and Midway would have been disasters. Or if they struck the fuel depots, it would be many dozens of months before the US could contest the IJN in the Eastern Pacific.
was innocent tbh, very small. Ignore many rapes and invasions!
It's almost like telling the Japanese to stop raping and murdering their neighbors(many of them US allies) is something a sane person does. Also we know the emperor accepted the plans for Pearl Harbor days before the Hull Note was even proposed. I fricking hate you revisionist weebs.
>accepted
Accepted is not execute. There are huge amounts of war plans right now that have been accepted, probably between allies.
>revisionist
Revisionist? It's the truth. Hell it comes from American sources. Are you so naive to think the stuff in your text book is unbiased truth?
>in having their new territories accepted
Yes, which constituted a small part of China.
>bankrolling them
You mean lifting sanctions and resuming normal trade
>broke their codes so they were it wasn't genuine
No, it was genuine. In fact to this day it is recognised as a genuine offer from the top levels of government. They broke their codes so they knew there was going to be a second proposal, they declined the first one to see what it was. Hell, even the US ambassador in Japan urged Roosevelt to meet Konoye. But Roosevelt wanted an agreement before a meeting.
>Japan was a good boy, he dindu nuffin
>Yes
at least the jigger is honest about being a nasty little raping scumbag
>No, it was genuine. In fact to this day it is recognised as a genuine offer from the top levels of government
Except it wasn't you dumb weeb. The decision to attack pearls harbor was decided weeks before those proposals were even offered. Frick you you revisionist jap apologist.
>Japan offered to withdraw from most of China, Indochina and make peace with the KMT in exchange for lifted sanctions
This is wrong though. First they offered to withdraw from the parts of China they were still fighting the chinese over, in return for having all their new territories accepted. Then they re-offered to remove their forces from some parts of the west indies and china in return for the US bankrolling their ability to re-arm for round two, including specifically demanding tons and tons of oil and help raping their newly conquered territories of natural resources. The US broke their codes and knew they were planning some sort of attack anyway so they dropped trying to negotiate.
>If the American aircraft carriers were at Pearl Harbour and even two of them were sunk or put out of action, Coral Sea and Midway would have been disasters. Or if they struck the fuel depots, it would be many dozens of months before the US could contest the IJN in the Eastern Pacific.
And what would that have changed about the outcome of the Pacific war except for prolonging the inevitable?
Sinking the 3 american carriers would have bought the Japs another 12 months.
Google 1943 US carrier production and its insane how many ships US was laying down
Only one USA carrier would have been in Pearl Harbor if she didn't run into a storm. It's pretty clear Japan wasn't doing a good job at breaking USA codes or finding out the positions of USA carriers.
japanese also did not consider the carriers a priority target
ironic, considering they were pioneers of carrier superiority in the mid-war, but they considered the battleships the main target of the pearl harbor raid and whether or not the carriers were in port on that day was simply not considered important information
>Japan offered to withdraw from most of China
>most of China
My, how magnanimous of them, wink-wink pinky swear promising only to occupy/annex a somewhat smaller portion of the country against which they launched a brutal, unprovoked invasion than what they had initially planned to grab.
>make peace with the KMT in exchange for lifted sanctions
Meaning; we'll temporarily freeze the conflict to appease the baka gaijin and get access to their goodies again in order to catch our breath and build up our military/economic power again until we feel it's the right time to engineer another "incident" as a casus belli to restart our invasion of (the rest of) China. I'm definitely no fan of FDR, but I think it's likely he saw right through all of this.
The funny thing is, I'm actually willing to give Konoe the benefit of the doubt and consider that he as an individual genuinely wanted some kind of lasting peace, but the problem was that this was the exact time period that the Japanese civilian government was becoming increasingly toothless and ineffectual in the face of the rising power of the military over Japan. Hell, one of the main reasons all of these Japanese invasions in continental Asia happened in the first place is because the civilian government was less and less able to control the military and prevent it from just doing whatever the frick it wanted.
Japan literally spent +80% of Goverment spending on their military.
It’s the reason the Japanese public is so pacifist today.
They don’t want to go back to that.
They had owerwhelming naval (Pearl Harbor and those Brit BBs near Malaya) and air (Zeroes vs some horrendous crap) superiority in Western Pacific. They isolated invasion areas and prevented alloes from getting reeinforcements of any kind, yet Wake landing turned out to be a shitshow.
Also
Peak japanese performance in the war.
Those bicycle troops are no joke, damn.
>tfw the japs bring 3000 lorries against your 1800+ trucks
People today talk about American air and naval dominance, how facing such a thing almost seems pointless at times. In the early stages of the Pacific war, Japan found itself in a similar position, from a combination of decent equipment, decently experienced personnel, and their enemies lacking leadership and initiative. As the war progressed, Japanese equipment relative to the Allies greatly worsened (USA getting it's shit together), experienced personnel died without training replacements, and enemy leadership improved.
Guadalcanal being an excellent example of weeding out certain American officers.
The United States armed the Philippines far too late and all of their supplies got bombed in Pearl Harbor. They were using WW1 and interwar equipment against an experienced and well equipped Japanese invaders.
The Philippine Army Air Corps only had garbage Peashooters and they were up against Hayabusas and Zeros who just bombed Pearl Harbor. Even the US garrison had garbage equipment compared to the dudes sent into Europe.
Still the defenders held out as long as they could and many Pinoys refused to surrender even if the Americans did. From 1942-1943 all the Pinoys did was wage a bitter gorilla warfare against the Nips even at the cost of their own towns and villages.
>break out burger prisoners
Nips gangraped the entire town
>ambush Jap patrols
Nips would bomb entire villages
>sabotage Jap supply lines and infrastructure
Nips commit more warcrimes and atrocities
Japanese had it easy early in the war. Often contested landings or minimal resistance.
US Forces in the Phillipines were still in their peacetime barracks doing routine army shit while McArthur was taking his mommy to fancy parties.
The Japs arrived on uncontested beaches, set up a beach-head then marched on Manila.
The only hold-out was the concrete-ship because it was permanently isolated anyway.
>amphibious invasions are very difficult,
They are
>and that D-Day took everything the western allies had.
It didn't, which is why there was fighting and amphibious landings going on elsewhere in Europe and other theatres at the same time.
>How then did Japan so easily take the pacific islands, especially the Philippines and Guam, which had huge American forces?
Surprise
The imperial Japanese navy was very talented at Naval warfare. They blitz way way more and longer than the Germans and they had no allies.
>invasion of an island is the same as invading well supplied mainland
>itt Anglos pretending Singapore wasn't a humiliating defeat
Yeah this is pretty much a massive Anglo seethe
>but they caught us by surprise! Why didn't they warn us!
>but we were just a tiny colonial garrison which outnumbered the Japanese 2 to 1! Fair play rules say it should be 4 to 1! They cheated!
>but they bothered to train their units in the territory in which they were fighting! That's totes unfair!
Lets be honest here guys, the Japs were much better than the Germans. They btfo everyone and lost only because the Emperor pussied out
You do realize the army still lost their battles after the civilian government surrendered right?
Nazi incel scums like you are pathetic
Japan attacked small islands with small, unprepared garrison forces without warning on the first day of declaring war. Allies invaded an entire continent that had four years to prepare for it.
Japan gave the US their biggest defeats in history
No, that's definitely the bongs.
pic
When did Japan reach the United States Capital and blockade them?
>Philippines and Guam, which had huge American forces
LOL no they fricking didn't. The garrisons were tiny, unsupported, and equipped mostly with bolt action Springfields.
The real answer about why the D-Day landings took as you say, "everything the allies have", it isn't the Saving Private Ryan parts that took all the resources, it's the supplying a million-man army to invade the whole of Europe part that came afterword. D-Day wasn't just the preparations for landing on those beaches on June 6th 44, it was stockpiling and preparing to supply everything for the whole campaign. The logistics needed for a European invasion against millions of dug in German troops was so much greater both in terms of opposition and landmass than islands with under equipped colonials cut off from reinforcement and resupply.
Japan fought China, Soviets, Brits, Indians, Malays, Indos, Aussies, Dutch, and the US. They had no allies too.
>China
Had a civil war going on.
>Soviets, Brits, Aussies, Dutch, and the US
Focused on Germany
Chinks received lend lease from the allies too, and tens of millions of manpower is no joke. They are like soviets but more people and barely existent industry
Literally just because of surprise. The Americans surrendered 70k troops on phillines out of fear. If they dug in they could have fricked Japan's shit up
Also Japan NEVER took new guinea
Correct me if I’m wrong, anons, but didn’t the Washington naval treaty put pretty harsh limitations on naval forts and infrastructure in the pacific? Japan playing the long game there.