Effect on the African and Europe front of the Pacific War going biochemical

Suppose the IJA used gas against against U.S. troops in the Philippines in 1941, the U.S. responds by building up it's gas stockpile and using it in the Dolittle Raid followed by Japan launching balloons with weaponized plague-infected fleas in the West coast.

How would it effect the war in Europe? Do you believe it would increase or decrease the odds of being used in North Africa and Europe and also does it increase the chance America is forced due to political and military reasons to focus much more heavily on the Pacific?
 

Wendigo

Banned
Suppose the IJA used gas against against U.S. troops in the Philippines in 1941, the U.S. responds by building up it's gas stockpile and using it in the Dolittle Raid followed by Japan launching balloons with weaponized plague-infected fleas in the West coast.

How would it effect the war in Europe? Do you believe it would increase or decrease the odds of being used in North Africa and Europe and also does it increase the chance America is forced due to political and military reasons to focus much more heavily on the Pacific?

The Nazis would still most likely avoid using chemical weapons, seeing how it would have worse consequences for Germany than the Allies.

If Germany does use chemical weapons Britain has thousands of tons of anthrax to respond with.

If Germany doesn't use chemical weapons then there's really no reason why the Allies would be the first ones to break them out in Europe.
 

ben0628

Banned
I believe Japan only has mustard gas for its chemical weapon supply. It was already used against the Chinese during WW2 so I wouldn't be surprised if they used it on the Americans. Island fighting would be much,MUCH harder (mustard gas attacks the skin, making gas masks pointless. US will have a hard time using gas to fight back since the Japanese can hide in their bunkers). Expect the Pacific Theater to take longer and have more US casualties.
 
Furthermore, there will likely be greater support/acceptance of the usage of nuclear weapons at the end of WOrld War II. AFter all the Japanese were the first to begin using WMDs.
 

Deleted member 1487

Germany would nope out of that immediately. Meanwhile the US now can douse islands with mustard gas and probably be able to avoid the worst of the OTL island hopping campaigns. Then they gas Japanese cities and the US post-war looks quite monstrous, worse than anything the A-bomb did to our reputation. I can't think of a single advantage Japan would gain by initiating chemical or bioweapon warfare in the island campaigns, because their logistics made it impossible to really even use, while it gives the US carte blanch to use it's huge stockpiles. In fact the Japanese learned the hard way in China that bioweapons are really hazardous to use, as at one point their own troops got infected and IIRC thousands died after which they were very restricted in their use of bioweapons.
 
followed by Japan launching balloons with weaponized plague-infected fleas in the West coast.
You do realize that plague is endemic in the US southwest (in ground squirrels) and that 1) it doesn't spread to people much, and 2) the health authorities have a pretty good response record when it does.

Those balloons simply can't be targeted at cities, you target them 'at the West Coast'. So, squirrels in Oregon now have plague. Ho, hum.

US will have a hard time using gas to fight back since the Japanese can hide in their bunkers)
??? Soldiers in the bunkers don't need to breathe? Just saturate the island with gas, and wait. Try a probe, if there are any effectives left, rinse and repeat.

The US can provide their people with full body ABC suits, and replacement filters for gas masks. The Japanese can't.

If Japan tries it, they die even more horribly than OTL. Gas on cities after they've burned out. Defoliants on farms. etc. etc.
Japan's population will be about 10 million at the end of the war in this scenario.
 
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