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This might belong in ASB, but I'm putting in post-1900 just in case.

After some time fiddling with maps, I noticed that looking down from the North Pole, Japan and North America aren't very distant from one another. One can draw a rather straight and direct line from Seattle to Sendai that hovers over the coastline of Alaska and Kamchatka. So this gave me an idea.

What if US leaders decided that they wanted to go directly for Japan by using a Northern Route, bypassing all the islands of the Pacific?

I know that this would be a much worse strategy than the one taken in OTL.

OTL, the southern route went through Micronesia to the Philippines, cutting off Japan's resource extraction from their industry, strangling their economy and war production. This was very cost effective in terms of the lives of Allied soldiers. Therefore, even in defeat, Japan's sudden surrender allowed it to avoid being invaded and conquered.

What if the US approached Japan like how the Soviets approached Germany? Instead of relying on blockade and strategic bombing, what if US leaders were convinced that the most effective strategy would be through the use of American elan in a frontal assault?

Using Seattle and Anchorage as major supply ports, an invasion force could easily snatch up the Kuril islands and make island bases there. After that, Hokkaido would be the East Asian equivalent of Sicily. Once secured, the Japanese mainland is only a skip away. Eventually, the US would make landings to the north of Tokyo, where the Decisive Battle would occur. The US would win, and the Japanese, having lost the final pitched battle they planned and seeing their capital occupied, would agree to surrender.

What does the AH.com community make of this?

Map of the world at time of V-J day
DBN_1945-late.png

DBN_1945-late.png
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