Any chance that the Japanese had to "win" the Pacific war hinged entirely on one variable: the will of the American public to resist and fight. As long as we as a nation were determined to win, the Japanese had ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE, for all the reasons that CalBear and the eminent John Parshall have noted numerous times.
Is it possible that a set of circumstances could have occured that would have broken the will of the American public and given the Japanese the negotiated peace they so desperately sought? (BTW, a negotiated peace was the best of any possible outcomes they could have achieved. A total victory is pure ASB) Possible, yes. Plausible, no.
IF the Japanese resisted the temptation to attack Pearl Harbor,
IF the FDR administration caved to public pressure to relieve the Philippines,
IF the War and Navy Departments threw out established policy and immediately sent the fleet west,
IF the Japanese fleet was successful against us in the proverbial Decisive Battle, and most of all
IF the American public decided that this was just too much to bear and threw in the towel, then...
Maybe, just maybe. But not in any reality that I am aware of.
Dave
Is it possible that a set of circumstances could have occured that would have broken the will of the American public and given the Japanese the negotiated peace they so desperately sought? (BTW, a negotiated peace was the best of any possible outcomes they could have achieved. A total victory is pure ASB) Possible, yes. Plausible, no.
IF the Japanese resisted the temptation to attack Pearl Harbor,
IF the FDR administration caved to public pressure to relieve the Philippines,
IF the War and Navy Departments threw out established policy and immediately sent the fleet west,
IF the Japanese fleet was successful against us in the proverbial Decisive Battle, and most of all
IF the American public decided that this was just too much to bear and threw in the towel, then...
Maybe, just maybe. But not in any reality that I am aware of.
Dave