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In reply to the discussion: What if we beat the rest of the Axis powers like we did, but lost to Japan? [View all]Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)30. Wouldn't Japan have also..
... fortified strategic positions on Islands east of the main land making the Island Hopping tactics of the Americans much less effective?
If we assume that air bases on the islands were more established, then the advances made by US carriers might not have been as effective. Without the carriers, and the air dominance they provided, the entire war would play out differently. For instance, Kamikaze attacks might never have happened.
Without the A bombs, and without sustained bombing of the mainland. Plus resupply from Russia, Japan could have held out indefinitely.
We would have eventually sued for some type of peace and given up the interests in the Pacific that Japan wanted in the first place.
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What if we beat the rest of the Axis powers like we did, but lost to Japan? [View all]
Reter
Aug 2015
OP
If the US didn't have "the bomb" it could have just continued the process of firebombing Japan into
PoliticAverse
Aug 2015
#2
I laid it out above, if they couldn't use a ground invasion, they'd literally starve Japan.
geek tragedy
Aug 2015
#14
How exactly would we lose to Japan? I know this is all hypothetical, but where do we start?
Rex
Aug 2015
#12
I think they would have been at war with the USSR and the US and in very bad shape.
Rex
Aug 2015
#20
I wouldn't say we had inferior planes, we just had different goals with our planes.
NutmegYankee
Aug 2015
#35
The P-40 was inferior, but they developed effective tactics against the Zeros.
HooptieWagon
Aug 2015
#36