If you were the Japanese emperor during WW2 and wanted to conquer the US how would you so?

Question

If you were the Japanese emperor during WW2 and wanted to conquer the US how would you so?

Answer 1

Offended? No. Incredulous, yes.



Real life is not like Risk, you can't just turn in a set of card and get an army from nowhere, or declare an attack across an ocean.



That's why your plan won't work. Japan did not have a large enough army to do that, nor a navy that could transport them. And really get an invasion force to Hawaii AND the West Coast without being detected?



What are you thinking? A bunch of wishful thoughts. And I haven't even explained why crossing the Rockies would be implausible at best.



If you want to speculate about Japan, try replacing their Kantai Kessen plan with something by Yamamoto.

Answer 2

the japanese warlords,,under hidekei tojo,not the emperor,were the decision makers on the pearl attack, the US fuel,and gasoline embargo was hampering japans conquests in asia,the japanese hoped for a quick victory in the attack,they goofed ,and goofed bad in delivering the ultimatum a half hour after the attack,instead of before,which was the plan. admiral yamamoto recognized that the US was vast,in territory and potential industrial capacity. the japanese would have run out of gas around big bear mtn. also,the japanese did not find the USs 3 carriers,the enterprise,lexington & saratoga in the bombing raid,,the US then was able to quickly strike back in 42 feb at the japanese mainland,launching b25s, the project overseen by doolittle. the pearl fleet stood between japan & our mainland,,their survival meant a roadblock for the japs. had they caught all our assets at pearl,,they would have claimed any remaining fuel, of it did in quantity,,waited @ pearl & ford for reinforcing jap land forces ,tanks,planes,mountains of other supplies,and headed for our west coast. the US would have evacuated w coast residents inland,along with transportable factory & munitions from san diego,maybe disassembling ships,factories,scuttling what had to be left behind,launching delaying attacks from california.The japs would have a rough time advancing,after some initial success,as did the germans in russia.the russians set up factories in siberia & other territories in the north,away from and held by the germans,burning what might be used by the enemy. The japanese at peak,gathered an army of 6,095,000 men,,had they conquered some west coast territory could the US have done what the russians did,doing re arming,while fighting a delaying retreat,possible getting help from canada,mexico? I Ithink so

Answer 3

Japan was about the size of California. There's just no way a country the size of Japan could hope to conquer a country the size of the US. Our economy had to be 10x theirs.



Japan didn't really even intend to fight us. They believed if they destroyed our Navy, we'd be staying out of the war. In fact some historians think FDR might have made a conscious decision to gather our entire Navy together in one place with a big sign on top that said "BOMB ME!"



Japan miscalculated the American will. We didn't discourage that easy. But I am told that there was an enormous gasoline tank on a hill over the Pearl Harbor, and if the Japanese had hit that tank, our Pacific fleet would have been totally disabled.

Answer 4

1- the japs didnt have enough ships let alone money to even be able to hold HW

2- they didnt even have 1,750,000 men avabile.

3- japs had poor altilary

4- japs army and navy had HUGE rivalry they were known to have HUGEEEE fights break out on ships. they were incapeable of working togeather.

5- they didnt even have a heay tank.

6- the japonise general went to harvard he said that to invade the us would be a death sentence there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.(and you wonder why i support the second?)



even if they somehow landed. they wouldnt make it out of cali. you obously dont understand how rugad it is

Answer 5

You can not conquer a people that do not want to be conquered, especial if they are armed.



Isoroku Yamamoto supposedly stated (there is no proof, and some say it is false) "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass".

Answer 6

I would have done absolutely nothing until perhaps 1944. Why? Because of the great depression. The longer Japan waited the worse off Americas economy would get. Lets face it; if America didn't enter the war there was a very good possibility it would have broken into civil war and/or completely collapsed into a third world nation.



Speaking of which, you might want to look out your window and take a look around.

Answer 7

Not possible.



The Japs lost 4 carriers at Midway.



They could not fight an offensive war after that.

Answer 8

Become Hitler.

Answer 9

"I would be have an aerial and artillery shelling on Hawaii for about 2 weeks"



Wouldn't have needed it.

Fact is Pearl Harbour only suffered round one of what was supposed to be a three round event. What happened at Pearl Harbour was bad enough, there was a second air attack set to launch after the first wave returned however Yamamoto fearful of the US carriers not being in harbour opted not to launch that attack figuring the Americans were already reeling choosing discretion instead of valour.



Fact is Pearl Harbour was thrashed after just the one wave, tough to argue considering what did happen and there was no air defense... suppose that 2nd wave happened.

Hawaii could've theoretically been taken. [if the USA could've defended it, that would've happened before the Japanese bombed everything to kingdom come.. everyone knows how tough battles are to win without air supremacy - the US didn't have a hint of that]



"Have an aerial bombardment of Los Angeles and San Diego,(mostly battleships and destroyers shelling L.A., and 3 carriers and some battleships to attack San Diego). And land 1,000,000 men at Santa Barbara to take L.A. and San Diego"



Again, unnecessary.



In the operation against Midway the Japanese led a diversionary attack against continental USA by invading and capturing two islands off Alaska.

Americans aren't going to like this but that caught the USA entirely off guard... they had no road going to alaska, and barring airlift no means of supplying an offensive. [and airlift is pretty dubious considering Alaska climate]. Thinking at the time was the Japanese are going to attack California, via Alaska... come down the panhandle, through the Canadian and American Pacific coast to strike at San Diego.

They already had a mainland base to launch operations from, wouldn't have needed to do the frontal attack as suggested.

[as it happens the Canadian government allowed the US military to build bases on Canadian soil, the two countries built the [whats now called] Alcan Highway completing an overland route to supply Alaska, did so... then later a joint USA-Canada operation recaptured those two islands]



Could Hawaii have been taken, yes. Again you can have all the M4s in the world but without air supremacy all the are - are targets.

Could California have been taken nevermind all of America - not a chance. And not just because of the USA - Canada had already been at war for two years by the time Pearl Harbour rolled around with miltary and air force bases everywhere on the west coast, including crews that had done time hunting UBoats off the eastcoast, very well practiced. The second Pearl Harbour happened and especially after the two Alaskan islands fell the Canadian military set up weapons caches all up and down the west coast with a trained militia used to the forests and climate...

I can only imagine the preperations the US had in store.