WI: Japanese Alaska Invasion at Last Minute?

Dorozhand

Banned
What if, after the US had broken the Japanese code and realized that the Aleutian Islands invasion was a diversion, the Japanese decided at the last minute to save Midway for later and shift all the forces for an unopposed suprise invasion of Alaska?
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
What if, after the US had broken the Japanese code and realized that the Aleutian Islands invasion was a diversion, the Japanese decided at the last minute to save Midway for later and shift all the forces for an unopposed suprise invasion of Alaska?

This makes no sense at all. In what way could an invasion of Alaska serve Japanese strategic purposes?
 

Flubber

Banned
What if, after the US had broken the Japanese code and realized that the Aleutian Islands invasion was a diversion, the Japanese decided at the last minute to save Midway for later and shift all the forces for an unopposed suprise invasion of Alaska?

The Japanese were crazy, not stupid.

Combine the ~5000 men they were going to invade Midway with, a force smaller than the US garrison by the way, with the ~2400 men they landed on Attu and Kiska and what have you got? Roughly 7500 men who are going to starve before they can tackle the 45000 men the US has in Alaska proper.
 
The American and Canadian contingents in the region slaughter the invading force with ease, given that the Japanese have no air bases or air support to help them and no chance of getting any.
 
If you're planning to invade a tundra with little strategic value and completely exposed to superior enemy forces with no logistics whatsoever, you're going to need to plan a little bit further than 'at the last minute'. The Americans and Canadians would be surprised but they'd spend longer laughing.
 
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GoGo

Banned
The Japanese were not stupid enough to shift all of their forces into a foolhardy invasion of Alaska. I believe this goes in the ASB section?
 
If you're planning to invade a tundra with little strategic value and completely exposed to superior enemy forces with no logistics whatsoever, you're going to need to plan a littl bit further than 'at the last minute'. The Americans and Canadians would be surprised but they'd spend longer laughing.
:):Dquite.
 
What if, after the US had broken the Japanese code and realized that the Aleutian Islands invasion was a diversion, the Japanese decided at the last minute to save Midway for later and shift all the forces for an unopposed suprise invasion of Alaska?

Invading mainland Alaska would be lunacy; they don't have the means to defeat the defenders or even keep their force supplied. Their OTL garrisons on Attu and Kiska were constantly running short of basic supplies and the IJN ran itself ragged trying to maintain them.

What might make sense is a seizure of Unalaska Island to eliminate the US naval and air bases there (Dutch Harbor). That would push our forces back to Anchorage and Kodiak Island. On the negative side a garrison on Unalaska would even more difficult to maintain and would probably be evacuated or overrun within six months. In the long run it would make little difference in the outcome of the war; the whole theater is a sideshow anyway.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
I think the problem is that the distance between Kiska (which was the closest to the mainland of the two islands) is sometimes under appreciated. It was better than 700 MILES from Kiska to the far end of the Alaska panhandle, over 900 to the actual mainland (where, btw, there is literally nothing).

Midway is actually closer to Pearl Harbor than Kiska is to the Alaskan mainland (or Kyushu is to Luzon).
 
This makes no sense at all. In what way could an invasion of Alaska serve Japanese strategic purposes?

It could serve a purpose, but I don't think the Japanese had the resources available to properly develop places like Dutch Harbor into useful bases. If they had the Fugaku ready and eager to go, they could reach industrial targets on the West Coast. I think it's planned range was over 10,000 km, so it might hit even further.
 
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