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Japanese Plans
Japanese Plan for the Philippines
The initial plan to conquer the Philippines is put forward based on more general plans developed over the last 20 years in October 1941.
The first phase will be the destruction of the primary American airbases at Clark, Nichols, and Nielson, as well as the destruction of the American Navy Yard at Cavite.
The next phase will be the seizure of forward bases at Legaspi, Aparri, Vigan, as well as seizing the Cagayan Valley in Luzon, as well as a landing at Davao to seize that useful harbor and establish airfields there for operations toward the eastern Dutch East Indies and Darwin, which is viewed as a primary goal for the defense of the East Indies and Malaya once they are seized (as well as ensuring they are seized more easily by blocking a major route of Allied reinforcements to the East Indies from Australia).
Once American air and naval power in the Philippines has been crippled, then a two prong landing will be conducted at Lingayen Gulf and Lamon Bay and these two forces will drive to Manila and destroy the bulk of the American troops in a pincer movement. Once that is completed the remaining American troops that retreat to Bataan will be mopped up.
The final phases will be the seizure of the remaining islands, including a siege and assault on the powerful American fortress at Corregidor.
The Japanese War Plan
The entire operation as planned is expected to be completed by the end of January 1942, but some of the forces assigned will be moved to other assignments and replaced by troops from Manchuria as it is clear in October 1941 that the Soviet Union is collapsing in the face of German assaults which frees additional forces needed for the campaigns planned against northern Australia and eastern India.
Once the Southern Resource area has been seized and the vital western and southern perimeters secured, then the eastern perimeter will be seized by the Navy while the Army finishes off the now isolated Chinese Nationalist government which will have only the barest communication with the outside world over the Himalayas or via Sinkiang to Afghanistan and the Soviet Union.
This is the amended plan as revised after the revision of the Navy plan to destroy the American fleet in the Hawaiian Islands (described in "Battle at Dawn") and based on urging by voices in the Army that point out that the Soviets are clearly finished (with the destruction of huge numbers of their troops at Kiev and Vyzama). The final thing that convinces the Army to strip its forces in Manchuria by 50% is the discovery of the arrival of more American Regular Army and National Guard units in Luzon and the reports that far more on the way. This more than anything else makes it clear that the seizure of Darwin is vital, while intelligence reports that the Americans have a covert fighter group training in the Philippines that they plan to send to China, as well as the reports from German and Italian intelligence that British reinforcements are on their way to Singapore means that the British must be driven not only out of Burma but also eastern India to prevent any allied help from reaching China and thus prolonging that bleeding ulcer for the Japanese Army still further.
Once all of the above have been accomplished, the Navy with Army help will hold the eastern and southern borders of the perimeter anchored at Darwin, Rabual (to be seized June 1942) and Midway (to be seized on December 10-11, 1941), while the Army with Navy assistance will hold the western perimeter (eastern India), mop up the Chinese Nationalists, and once those goals are accomplished, the shattered Soviet Union (which the Germans will certainly finish off by 1942 at the latest) will be helpless to stop the Japanese seizure of Siberia in 1943-44.
The Americans and British will then sue for peace after being defeated when they attack the perimeter and Japan will be the dominant power in the Pacific and Asia.
Such is the plan. Only a few question the final assumption, among them Yamamoto, but their voices are drowned out.