WI: The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Strikes Japan - On Dec 9th, 1941?

At Pearl Harbor the US Pacific Fleet was in ruins. Hours after the attack, the forces of Imperial Japan had struck targets in the Philippines and Malaya. Great Britain declared war, and on December 8th was followed by the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands. The stage was set for a Pacific War between the United States and Japan.

But what if a day later, the 9.1 Tohoku earthquake which struck in our timeline on March 11th, 2011 to devastating effect were to have instead taken place? And to make things even worse, what if it was centered in a location similar to the 1923 Kanto earthquake? Would Japan have been so disrupted that they would have sued for peace? Or would they have continued the war unabated, perhaps even more vigorously and with a tighter timeline?

missedinhistory-podcasts-wp-content-uploads-sites-99-2014-06-kanto-600x350.jpg
 
This goes in ASB, since you're jiggering with the earth's geology.

Not creating a timeline, just a simple what-if question for the members here. An earthquake could strike at any time, and Japan is certainly earthquake prone. The question popped into my head yesterday, what if they had sustained a major earthquake just days after going to war with the United States and Great Britain.
 
This goes in ASB, since you're jiggering with the earth's geology.

Given Japan’s earthquake history, I have to respectfully disagree.
Such an earthquake, however improbable, is possible. Just look at the historical/geological record. In fact, Japan has been hit by earthquakes stronger than either the 1923 or the 2011 ones.
 
Top