Japanese attack on US Mainland

[DDM]

To gain the same effect of forcing the US to hold forces to defend the coast it would have been better to send submarines to surface the night following the attack and bombard Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Panama. Have them move in to smaller cities each night sinking targets of opportunity as they go. Any real damage caused is lagniappe but would hold US forces on the west coast as civilians would be clamoring for it. Only need 6 submarines from the force sent to Pearl Harbor to be diverted.

 

[DougM]

But this is still going to harm Japan more then the US.
First off it is simply easier to protect the West coast for the US than to attack it for Japan because of the distance Involved.
2nd the US can rotate troops to defensive positions while on there way somewhere else. It would be useful to give fresh troops practice before sending them into Combat, also you could use it to “rest” troops.
It is not really very far out of the way for US troops, trains go to most locations or close enough, but Japan has yo use ships and fuel that are in extremely short supply and they have to run the gauntlet of US patrols to live long enough to get to the west coast.
And the big issue is that the US simply has more troops and resources to spare than Japan does. You cant get around that fact. So it will coast a lot smaller percentage of US resources to protect then for Japan to attack. So this is a bad idea from the part of Japan.

 

[DDM]

But this is still going to harm Japan more then the US.
First off it is simply easier to protect the West coast for the US than to attack it for Japan because of the distance Involved.
2nd the US can rotate troops to defensive positions while on there way somewhere else. It would be useful to give fresh troops practice before sending them into Combat, also you could use it to “rest” troops.
It is not really very far out of the way for US troops, trains go to most locations or close enough, but Japan has yo use ships and fuel that are in extremely short supply and they have to run the gauntlet of US patrols to live long enough to get to the west coast.
And the big issue is that the US simply has more troops and resources to spare than Japan does. You cant get around that fact. So it will coast a lot smaller percentage of US resources to protect then for Japan to attack. So this is a bad idea from the part of Japan.

I guess the difference I see is this as a one time attack so the Japanese resources are out of play for roughly a month. The goal is to slow US reaction time. If it means troops that would be moving into the theatre are held back even 2 months it is a victory. As has been said Japan were not trying to conquer all but instead build a perimeter and make it to expensive for the US to attack and try and force a peace. They needed time. We of course know they won't win but they don't so would fit their strategy.