DBWI: If the US hadn't declared war on Japan in 1942

When Japan attacked British and Dutch possessions in December 1941 they were scrupulous about respecting US neutrality. What if the SS President Adams with all those doctors and nurses wasn't sunk by that submarine in August 42? Would the British been able to divert enough resources to Europe to prevent the Soviets domination of Europe? And would it have prevented the bloody Indian revolt?
 
Hard to know...

Of course, the interesting question is what if Japan hadn't respected American neutrality. OTL, the losses suffered in the Pacific were enough that the Allies didn't press for an unconditional surrender from Japan - a return to pre-WWI borders was what America ended up taking, over British objections, plus naval limitations (effectively abandoned after the 1960s - the IJN today is the fourth naval power in the world) and reparations to both the Allies and China. If Japan had opened with a direct attack on America, the public might have been sufficiently angered to go along with fighting to the bitter end.
 
I wouldn't have been terribly hard Halsey Nimitz and King was screaming for the continuation of the war what with the new Essex class carriers and fast battleships coming off the slipways.
 
I wouldn't have been terribly hard Halsey Nimitz and King was screaming for the continuation of the war what with the new Essex class carriers and fast battleships coming off the slipways.

True. OTOH, it worked out - Japan was a key element in containing Communism.*

* For the geopolitical situation that is - Japanese corporations have a death-grip on the economies of several Asian nations, so from a human standpoint...
 
I think if the US did not declare war in 1942, they would have soon afterwards over some other cassus belli. America was already at war with Germany (after Hitler's dastardly and unprovoked declaration of war on December 27th 1941--a day that will live in infamy in FDR's words). They were literally just begging the Japanese to shoot, heck, the SS President Adams was in Japanese territorial waters.

So, any sort of delay might make it where Japan wins the war in the East. Operation Ichi Go pretty much cowed the Chinese and the Indian revolt made it look like that Japan was going to knock the British out of the war in Asia. All of those technology transfers from Nazi Germany to Japan were starting to pay dividends by the end of 1945. Remember how the Enola Gay was shot down in March 1946 over Nagasaki by a Japanese Nakajima Ki-201? Sure, we got a Nuke in here or there, but most of Japan's industrial capacity was in the countryside, Korea, and Manchuria to begin with. The war was a pretty close thing as is if it were not for the fact that the blockade was starving them all to death. Delay the way a few months and Japan wins in Persia, the USSR is defeated in Manchuria (they were close to defeat anyway when the Japanese did make their formal surrender) and Japan pretty much has no more fronts other than the home front. Once enough Ki-201s hit the skies the atomic threat may be neutralized.
 
The fact that that Taiwan is 60% Chinese and 40% Japanese (there are four major prefectures on that island in 2017 and is still part of Japan) tells me the Japanese government DID heed the advice of IJN Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto in avoiding any confrontation with the Americans when they went on the campaign attack southwest, who very well knew it was national suicide for the Japanese to get into a war with the USA given what Yamamoto saw of American industrial capacity when he was naval attaché at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, DC in the early 1920's. The Japanese went out of their way to avoid any confrontation with the Americans, especially after the near-sinking of the SS President Adams (the captain of IJN submarine I-10 nearly sank the ship, but the only reason why he stopped was seeing the American flag flying on the flagpole the back of the ship).

Yes, General MacArthur was itching for a fight from the Philippines, but the continued neutrality between Japan and the USA put a kibosh to that idea. MacArthur was considered a bit too impulsive by the War Department and he never got the chance to command troops in battle in Europe. Small wonder why they decided to "demote" him after the war to Commandant at West Point until his passing in 1964.
 

Loghain

Banned
If you want Usa To Enter War earlier You need to alter some factors,
For Example if japanese Commit warcrimes that might make it Easier, If the japanese treated their puppets less like Subordinates to Japan with decent treatment(throught You would stil have to do whatever japan said they were in some cases better than colonial powers, throught still arrogant as hell) and more likes slaves. Essentially if you were able to paint japenese as some sort of vile barbarism you might be able to get racism powered swing in public opinion (you want japenese to last into 1946 you need them to be less stupid)
 
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