raziel1012 t1_iy25nr2 wrote on November 28, 2022 at 4:11 AM

Reply to comment by TheMormonJosipTito in On April 2, 1941, a Japanese foreign minister asked Pope Pius XII to speak to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, so as to avert "a war of mutual destruction” by marketrent

Their initial strategy was exactly to buy those months and then heavily fortify the islands and have a strong defensive area set up by the time US had built up its navy again. (Aka what you said: make it less worth it for US) They surely would be outgunned in the longer term, but they were hoping to make the mid term gain strong and force US to the negotiating table. Would it have worked? Who knows.

slicerprime t1_iy2c93k wrote on November 28, 2022 at 5:13 AM

>Would it have worked?

No.

As has been said elsewhere, the scale and pace of US military production at the time was just too strong. That "long term" you mention would probably have been very short. Far too short for a "mid term gain" of drawing the US to the negotiating table. The US reaction would have been the same as it was, only probably even more pissed off.

TotallyInOverMyHead t1_iy3yty6 wrote on November 28, 2022 at 4:03 PM

The long term would have included a collapsed Britain and a German Soviet Union, maybe even a Japanse Australia, at least in the minds of the Japanese.