asdf9988776655 t1_iy3p259 wrote
Reply to comment by TotallyInOverMyHead 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
No. The attack, even if successful beyond the Japanese wildest dreams, would have only delayed America's offensive across the Pacific.
The only way to win a total war against a major power is to destroy their ability to wage war. Japan did not have the capability to damage America's ability to wage war (since America's resource and industrial base were in the continental US, out of reach of Japan's striking power), so at best the could fight a delaying action.
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>kill/sink all U.S. Carriers (4x) in their berths,
This would have delayed the US by about a year. It would have given Japan a great opportunity to consolidate their holdings in the Pacific and SE Asia and made it a harder slog for America, but it would not have stopped them.
>have the carrier strike group include an invasion force and take Hawaii
The US had 30,000 troops on Hawaii; this means it would take roughly 120,000 troops for the Japanese to launch a successful invasion. This is about the size of the D-day landing in Normandy in 1944; Japan simply did not have the ability to land and supply that size of an invasion across thousands of miles of sea.
>destroy the Fuel Depots on Hawaii
This would have delayed the US by several months as they rebuilt their logistic network, but it wouldn't have damaged America's ability to actually wage war, since their fuel production facilities were all on the mainland, safe from attack.
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