AHC WI Japan loses early and FDR liberates former colonies

Suppose the USA had worked out roughly Japan’s plans. Could there have been a competent defence of the Philippines?


Could Japan have suffered a serious defeat at Hawaii?


I wonder if the militarists might have been discredited in Japan.


Might things have been different in Indo China and Indonesia?
 
The defense of the Philippines could certainly have been a lot more competent than it was! But to build up a sufficient defense would have required a major commitment of men and weapons starting at least a year earlier than in RL.

If the Americans had an exact copy of the Japanese plans for the Pearl Harbor attack, then sure, with a bit of luck they could have smashed the Japanese. Enterprise, Lexington and Saratoga all hitting the Japanese carriers while virtually all their planes are off attacking Pearl Harbor? A delightful image. But almost impossible to arrange.

With the large Japanese carriers all gone, the defense of Indo-China and Indonesia gets a lot easier, too.

Hard to see how any of this could have happened, however.
 
France and the netherlands are not able to say much (being under Nazi rule) That's the point. My guess is that Britain keeps its colonies not needing to be taken back from Japan
 
The defense of the Philippines could certainly have been a lot more competent than it was! But to build up a sufficient defense would have required a major commitment of men and weapons starting at least a year earlier than in RL.

If the Americans had an exact copy of the Japanese plans for the Pearl Harbor attack, then sure, with a bit of luck they could have smashed the Japanese. Enterprise, Lexington and Saratoga all hitting the Japanese carriers while virtually all their planes are off attacking Pearl Harbor? A delightful image. But almost impossible to arrange.

With the large Japanese carriers all gone, the defense of Indo-China and Indonesia gets a lot easier, too.

Hard to see how any of this could have happened, however.
If the code had been broken they could have pulled a Midway.

The Phillipines actually had a very large comparable force. It was a significant portion of total US land and air forces. Unfortunately it was also at the extreme end of a long logistical tail. Had the IJN been badly mauled at Pearl, yes. But that would effectively mean that Japan may have already effectively lost the war.
 
France and the netherlands are not able to say much (being under Nazi rule) That's the point. My guess is that Britain keeps its colonies not needing to be taken back from Japan
Malaya is probably still gone. Same for Hong Kong.

A successful defense of the Philippines requires a bunch of boring logistical changes to be made with multi year lead times. Unless you want to play the amazingly successful submarine trap with working torpedo wipes out the invasion card.


You realize that the US liberating former European colonies is effectively taking someone else's territory, then creating a series of client states totally dependent upon the US. An informal empire if you will. I am sure Europe will totally forget that in the euphoria after the liberation of Europe.
 
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