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Old 2012-08-24, 18:39   Link #72
Ithekro
Gamilas Falls
 
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
Even so pon the subject of the battleships, Yamato entered Japanese service within a week of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Musashi was finished and in service less than a year later. By that point it would be more wasteful to scrap them or convert them as they were so close to completion regardless of what lessons were learned.

The third of them, Shinano, was converted into an armored deck aircraft carrier that was suppose to be used to extend the operational range of other carriers by being a nearly unsinkable platform to refuel aircraft from the rest of the carrier fleet, which could sit comfortably outside American carrier aircraft range. It however was sunk before it was completed becaues it was moved from one yard to another to get her final fitting...which included water-tight doors.

The fourth battleship was scrapped at 30% complete and its materials used for other things. The fifth was never laid down.

You can't learn a lesson before that lesson is given.


The Japanese high command believe the Americans had no stomach and would be unwilling to fight over a long period of time if defeated and demoralized early on. Some knew better and advised against it entirely (Admiral Osami Nagano). Others knew better but were honor bound to do what they could to defeat the Americans (Admiral Yamamoto). Only the most extreme had visions of actually invading California.

I've heard talk of if things had been different at Pearl Harbor. Like if the American carriers had been in port for instance. Or if the Japanese had attacked the oil supplies or submarine base. However I have heard that there was never a plan for a third wave. They didn't even have the fuel to mount a third attack wave even if they wanted to mount one. The Japanese show an old fashioned sense of honor in their combat preformance. Particularly in their choice of targets. They tended to attack military warships, aircraft, and other objects. They tended not to attack the infrustructire attacted to those items. They tended not to attack cargo vessels. They would mount terror attacks from time to time, as they did send submarines to shell the coast of California early on as well and their ill advised jet stream assisted ballon bombing of North America late in the war. Also their planned submarine attack on the Panama Canal using the I-400 class floatplane equipped submarines.

It was suggested that their best chances were a successful campaign against Midway and a followup of using that airbase against Hawaii and eventually trying to cutoff Hawaii from the Allies and thus the United States from a lot of things since there is nothing between Hawaii and California but 2,000 miles of ocean. The other would be to knock the Australians and British our of the war locally by invading Australia and pushing through India to Persia and possibly link up with the German Army around there. A full trade route from Germany to Japan via India would likely cripple the Allies. It would also open several possible avenues of attack for Germany should they manage to move units to say Manchuria and hit the Soviets in their less protected flank with superior technology than what the Japanese could muster.

There best option would be not to go to war in the first place, but that was decied in 1931 with the invasion of Manchuria and again when the Japanese invaded China. The US didn't stop importing oil until China was invaded. And this was in a time when the US was in a position like Saudi Arabia is now....just with a whole lot more people and indusry to back up any embargos.
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