Cal are you always this much of a smart ass??
The point I was trying to make is this. WHAT IF... in the 1930s, someone in Japan of power and influence had come to the realization that as an Island nation, Japan should have long range, heavy bombers, capable of being launched from the home island or other secure locations.
They did design the Ki-91 and the K100 heavy bombers..DURING the war. The prototype of the Ki-91 was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1945.
The Ki-91 had a range of 2800 miles, if fully loaded, but was capable of 6200 miles with a lighter load.
The K-100 had a range of 3450 miles if fully loaded and much longer if lightly loaded.
The point is, NOT what if they built these during the war, but had done so BEFORE the war started. The idea of operating long range bombers, not from bases close to the enemy, but from your homeland isn't something that was unthinkable. After all, the US Air Force all but called for the elimation of the US Navy in the late fortiesand early fifties, saying that their long range peacekeeper bomber made a navy, as well as allies nonesential in future US wars.
The point is.... Japan did realize they needed such a bomber... only it came too late. They designed and were building these aircraft at a time when factories, materials, skilled labor were streched far too thin. They also had not planned on stationing aircraft of this type or size. WHAT IF... they had built a good number of these large bombers BEFORE the war, and used them in conjunction with Naval attacks... such as Pearl Harbor or Midway, and they had stationed them in positions where attacks against US bases were possible.
Using them against targets in Mainland America would have been suicide.... but give the fact that the Japanese did employ suicide attacks during the war... these were called Kamikaze.... maybe you've heard of them, don't you think that, although usless in military terms, the attacks would have caused the public to demand protection, thus pulling vital resources from the frontlines to an all but usless defensive position on the west coast. Don't you think that the Japanese would have used such attacks to cause a civilian uproar and panic in the US, as well as to try and show their military might. Funny thing is... we did the same thing with the Doolittle raid.... are we the only ones smart enough to think of using one-way bombing missions to frighten the enemies population?
The British and US had no problems about sending out bombers over Germany without long range fighter escort. KNowing how the Japanese did like to plan and plot, It seems likely that if such aircraft had been built, they would have adopted the stragegy of night bombing missions, so as not to need fighter support. And they would have practiced long and hard to insure their bomber crews would ba able to do the job before the war even began.
To answer your question: Pretty much anytime somebody brings ASB quality issues to this part of the board, particularly involving impossible production feats during wartime, there is a decent chance of me responding. If the position posited is as full of holes as the one laid out here, the likely hood of a response that tends to the WTF side of the house is increased.
In other words I am a smart ass when some post or topic crosses the line from "What If" to "What the Hell, so what if it's utterly impossible, I'll throw it at the wall & see what sticks".
I am a huge fan of the ASB forum, and I really believe that items that defy historical fact, reasonable possibility, remote possibility, and even one chance in a billion, belong there.
I would recommend that you review the availability of proper manufacturing facilities, materiel availability, basing potential, Japanese Military doctrine, IJN/IJA rivalry, pilot training difficulties, fuel supply, and the myraid other items that would have made deployment of a reasonable IJN/IJA heavy bomber force remotely possible. At this same time I would suggest a review of the actual production capacity utilization of Japanese aircraft engine and airframe suppliers in the 1940-44 period. I would also suggest a review of aircraft designs from the mid-30's, from ALL nations. The level of perfomance required for the posited Japanese bombers simply did not exist in the mid 30's. B-17B's had to fly stripped from the West Coast to reach Hawaii. It is an ASB level leap of faith to imagine that Japan could have produced a B-29 level aircraft in the 1930s.
I would then suggest a review of Japanese basing & airfield construction techniques, supply issues, and actual base locations in 1941. I would then recommend a review of American & Japanese operations in the Bering Sea & Aleutian Island AO's during the 1941-45 period, as well as USN/USCG flight operation data during the Cold War & post Cold War Era, along with the analysis used by the USAAF in arriving at the decision to base B-29 bombers in CHINA instead of the Aleutians.
Finally I would suggest that any reasonable discussion of this issue requires a review of the logistical support available to both the IJN & IJA fron January 1944 onward with particular emphasis on fuel, including the impact that fuel shortage had in the training of pilots.
Regarding the Japanese usage of kamikaze tactics: Japan did not begin systematric use of suicide attacks until the war was lost. Had the Japanese been able to produce 1st line equipment & fully trained pilots in 1944 & 1945 the Kamikaze would never had reached serious, strategic usage. (Please note that this does not mean that the occasional Japanese pilot would not have chosen to crash his disabled aircraft into a target. This was something done by pilots from ALL nations involved in WW II. THe Marine pilot who had Henderson Field named after him (Major Lofton Henderson) was awarded a Navy Cross for exactly this type of ac`tion during the opening stages of the Battle of Midway.) The Kamikaze, and the reason behind its implementation at the strategic level, is perhaps the best argument AGAINST Japan's ability to create a heavy bomber force.
I apoligize if I personnally offended you, that was not my intention.