The Japanese would invade the U.S. during World War 2

I think around 45, Japan only had really small subs left, like midget subs. And those were mainly use for the defense of Japan.

I don't think it's plausible at all, not even subs included, to invade the CONUS by '45.

Early 45, then. But if it's by Summer, yeah, Japan probably couldn't get to Okinawa by sub, let alone CONTUS.
 
Early 45, then. But if it's by Summer, yeah, Japan probably couldn't get to Okinawa by sub, let alone CONTUS.
Ehhhhhh. Even early '45 is stretching it. By then, Japan was pretty much surrounded and under siege by British and American war ships.

I don't think even the fanatical Japanese government was stupid enough to waste precious remaining subs to do something completely pointless. And I don't think the sub would've made it through the blockade and the thousands of American warships in the Pacific.

AT BEST they would be able to stage a low key raid in Hawaii. But even then, it wouldn't make a difference.
 

nbcman

Donor
Ehhhhhh. Even early '45 is stretching it. By then, Japan was pretty much surrounded and under siege by British and American war ships.

I don't think even the fanatical Japanese government was stupid enough to waste precious remaining subs to do something completely pointless. And I don't think the sub would've made it through the blockade and the thousands of American warships in the Pacific.

AT BEST they would be able to stage a low key raid in Hawaii. But even then, it wouldn't make a difference.

Not exactly. The IJN planned to use their aircraft carrying subs (I-400 Class) to either attack the USN base at Ulithi atoll where up to 15 USN Carriers were anchored prior to making attacks on Japan or the Panama Canal locks. The planning for attacking the locks was suspended in June of 1945. There were two subs which were in transit to their attack positions against Ulithi; one of which was sunk enroute and the other sub did not get in position before Japan surrendered. Never underestimate the level of crazy that was Imperial Japan.
 
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Not exactly. The IJN planned to use their aircraft carrying subs (I-400 Class) to either attack the USN base at Ulithi atoll where up to 15 USN Carriers were anchored prior to making attacks on Japan or the Panama Canal locks. The planning for attacking the locks was suspended in June of 1945. There were two subs which were in transit to their attack positions against Ulithi; one of which was sunk enroute and the other sub did not get in position before Japan surrendered. Never underestimate the level of crazy that was Imperial Japan.

Unit 731's "Doctor" Shiro Ishii also concocted a plan to use five of said submarines (there were only three built by war's end) to launch a bubonic plague attack on Los Angeles called 'Operation: Cherry Blossoms at Night.' In a desperate attempt to counter US strategic bombing (and as a response to the relative success of previous, smaller scale raids), the Japanese also planned to launch what they called 'Operation Ken-Go' over the period of August 19-23, 1945. Ken-Go was essentially a suicide mission to be undertaken by 900 elite Giretsu commandos flying in 60 long range transport aircraft. The goal was to surprise the American airfields on Saipan and destroy the B-29s on the ground. Naturally the Japanese surrender on August 15 made both this and Cherry Blossoms a moot point.
 

jahenders

Banned
By late in the war it was an utter impossibility. However, Japan DID invade US territory (the Aleutians) and could potentially have landed some forces in Hawaii (though not enough to do much other than sabotage).

Japan could never have gotten cargo/passenger ships to the West Coast of the US alive. Even if the US fleet was somehow miraculously wiped out, the ships would be detected far out and land based aircraft would annihilate the ships as they got in range.

The Japanese would have invaded the U.S. during World War II if the bombs were never dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Is this possible?
 
Circa 2015, a team of tree-huggers team up with salmon-huggers whale-huggers, climate change huggers, etc. to protest the cutting of the "last virgin rain forest" on the West Coast of Canada.
British Columbia Forest Service replies:"Boilerplate! That fjord was clear-cut back in 1941. Provincial archives show that we granted logging permits to the ABC Logging Company. Here are receipts for stump age fees paid to the province, receipts from the saw mill, ships' logs, etc."
A muck-raking film-crew visits the fjord in question and finds a mysterious "Rising Sun" chiselled into a cliff. The cliff over-looks rotted, rusting moorings for a floating logging camp. No other traces of the logging barges can be found. Core samples confirm that the largest trees are hundreds of years old.
Meanwhile searches of Imperial Japanese Navy archives hint at missions to set up radio relay stations along the west coast of Canada.
 
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