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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]HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)34. The U.S. was on the defensive for about a year.
We were short of carriers, and had inferior fighter planes. But we fought a war of attrition. Japan simply didn't have the industrial capacity to replace lost ships and aircraft, and losing experienced pilots was particularly damaging.
They still had a chance to cut their losses, and stabilize their situation until the battle for the Marianas Islands. Japan lost nearly all their carriers, hundreds of planes and pilots, and the U.S. gained islands from which long-range bombing commenced which could reach Japan and start hitting their industries. It was all over then. Japan just dragged it out another 10 months.
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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