An invasion to any coast in the USofA is completely and utterly impossible for a multitude of reasons. Everyone with a brain knew that.
Do you realize how few troops we had on the west coast and how long it would have taken us to get what troops we did have out there?
Leas second book, The Valor of Ignorance, examined American defense and in part prophesied a war between America and Japan. It created controversy and instantly elevated his reputation as a credible geo-political spokesman. Two retired U.S. Army generals, including former Army Chief-of-Staff Adna R. Chaffee, wrote glowing introductions to the book, which also contained a striking frontispiece photograph of Lea in his lieutenant generals uniform. The book contained maps of a hypothetical Japanese invasion of California and the Philippines and was very popular among American military officers, particularly those stationed in the Philippines over the next generation. General Douglas MacArthur and his staff, for example, paid close attention to the book in planning the defense of the Philippines. The Japanese military also paid close attention to the book, which was translated into Japanese.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Lea
Japan had been in war in Asia since around 1931 - basically if they had consolidated Phillipines and gotten a hold of the oil deposits there and around China they could have waited a few years more and taken us out. One main problem was we kept our carriers.
I always find it interesting how most people, articles and films will focus on Hitler as being just out of this world insane and bloodthirsty. The name Hitler is elevated to some unreal status...but not a lot has been said about Japan ' s activities. Hitler killed 6 million Jews and maybe 20 million Russians and others.Hirohito and Japan killed something like 30 million...mostly Chinese and did some unreal things to prisoners of war. Germany and Hitler really weren't the only or possibly not even the worst evil that was out there on the playing field.
The Japanese committed terrible crimes, but not sure where you got that 30 million figure from. Also Hirohito does not have anywhere near the personal responsibility of Hitler.
Well they were at war 1931-1945, that's an awfully long time. What was the death toll then?
I think it's somewhere between 3 and 10 million. That's no small number! But it's not 30.
The Japanese military during the 1930s and 1940s is often compared to the military of
Nazi Germany during 1933–45 because of the sheer scale of suffering. Much of the controversy regarding Japan's role in World War II revolves around the death rates of prisoners of war and civilians under Japanese occupation. Historian
Chalmers Johnson has written that:
It may be pointless to try to establish which World War Two
Axis aggressor, Germany or Japan, was the more brutal to the peoples it
victimised. The Germans killed six million
Jews and 20 million Russians (i.e.
Soviet citizens); the Japanese slaughtered as many as 30 million
Filipinos,
Malays,
Vietnamese,
Cambodians,
Indonesians and
Burmese, at least 23 million of them
ethnic Chinese. Both nations looted the countries they conquered on a monumental scale, though Japan plundered more, over a longer period, than the Nazis. Both conquerors enslaved millions and exploited them as
forced labourers—and, in the case of the Japanese, as
(forced) prostitutes for front-line troops. If you were a Nazi prisoner of war from
Britain,
America,
Australia,
New Zealand or
Canada (but not the Soviet Union) you faced a 4% chance of not surviving the war; (by comparison) the death rate for Allied POWs held by the Japanese was nearly 30%.
[39]
According to the findings of the Tokyo Tribunal, the death rate among POWs from Asian countries, held by Japan was 27.1%.
[40] The death rate of Chinese POWs was much higher because—under a directive ratified on August 5, 1937 by Emperor
Hirohito—the constraints of international law on treatment of those prisoners was removed.
[41] Only 56 Chinese POWs were released after the
surrender of Japan.
[42] After March 20, 1943, the Japanese Navy was under orders to execute all prisoners taken at sea.
[43]
