When I wrote my earlier post I had a thought running around in my head that hadn't quite gelled. I have re-read these posts and finally realized what it was.
Without a doubt, the Japanese could have pissed us off more than they did. But the real question is, would it have made a difference? Would an angrier America produce more, fight harder, or conduct the war any differently than they did?
The American public gave up meat on certain days, new tires for their cars (hell, no new cars at all!), accepted gasoline rationing, etc., etc. Young men flooded recruiting offices by the tens of thousands, eager to fight and kill Japs and that eagerness manifested itself in legendary battles like Bloody Ridge and Midway. Our industry worked three shifts 365 days a year producing amounts of war materiel that is simply beyond comprehension (check out John Parshall's economics article on
www.combinedfleet.com). We even undertook the most massive scientific endeavor in history which produced the most powerful weapon known to man and used that weapon against the Japanese.
In the OTL, we fought the Japanese with a cold, deliberate fury and buried them under an astronomical amount of materiel. In December, 1941 we were on the ropes with a samurai sword to our collective throats and in just
three and a half years we delivered the most total crushing defeat in the history of modern warfare. ITTL with all other factors being the same at the beginning of the war, could we have fought any harder in the battles (smarter, yes. Harder, no, but that is another story), and would a half dozen more carriers or battleships and a thousand more planes over and above what we already had in 1944 or 45 make a significant difference in how the war turned out? How much more of an ass-whooping could we have realistically delivered that we already didn't?
I don't think being angrier at the start would have made a big difference, at least not until the end of the war. MacArthur may have been forced by politics to take a heavier and stricter hand with Japan during the occupation. But war weariness and a desire to put the war behind us would have tempered any desire for revenge.
Dave
www.pigboats.com
