Is it true Japan had plans of invading the U.S.?

Question

I mean, Pearl Harbor was a strategic blunder, but invading the U.S.? That would have been suicide. I read that they had plans of invading Mexico and moving up along the coast to California. How could this have possibly been seen as a good idea by the Japanese, if this is even true?

I mean, what could they have gained? The Japanese were already over extended as it was, let alone trying to fight in the U.S. and have to logistically support an army 3000 miles away. (In addition to China and all the other places they were fighting/occupying)

No, Dancer, i guess i isn't well edukated.

Yes, I mean continental U.S.

If what Michael says is true, and I'm assuming it is because everything lines up, how could Japan have realistically occupied the Western United States?

Answer 1

If you mean US held territories (which at the time included Hawaii), yes. If you mean the continental US, no.

Answer 2

Yes. The object was to occupy the west coast up to the Rockies. East of those mountains, they would allow a semi-autonomous vassal United States to exist. The Japanese did not have respect for American backbone in the face of abject defeat. Pearl Harbor was supposed to have been that defeat. Had our carriers been there at the time of the attack, they, too, would have been sunk and there would have been that all-important third wave of attack which would have rendered the island helpless (no onshore defenses and no navy to provide replacements). With Hawaii invaded and gone, the US would have been backed up to the west coast with no effective navy and only shore defenses. We would have been vulnerable to that invasion. When the Japanese admiral realized that the US carriers were somewhere at sea and could attack his force at any time, he withdrew. Those missing carriers provided the fatal blow to the Imperial Navy six months later at Midway. The rest, as they say, is history.

Answer 3

I don't know but I tend not to think so.

During a war, politicians will always demonize the enemy and overstate the enemy's goals--for instance before we invaded Iraq it was common to hear American senators and congressmen say that Al Quaeda wanted to take over the US, or that Iraq wanted to reinstate the Ottoman Empire or whatever. Saddm had WMD and had plans to attack the US with unmanned aircrafet, etc. etc. Nobody says that now because they couldn't get away with it.

The Japanese saw themselves as liberating Asia from western influence. Depite what American politicians might have been saying at the time, their goal was not world domination, only domination of Asia.

My guess is that they bombed Pearl Harbor to prevent our getting involved in Asia, not because they wanted to weaken us so we couldn't resist an invasion. I agree with you that they didn't have nearly the military strength they'd need to do that.

Answer 4

The Japs invaded Alaska, and decided against an air raid against the Panama canal. Early on in 1942 they kept up survailence using submarines off the west coast of America. Supposedly there were a few raids, and shellings; although some of these likely existed only in the minds of civilians thrust into pseudo-military roles like beach defense and air raid personel.

Late in the war they tied bombs to balloons in hopes of starting forest fires. Luckily the war ended before they found a proper way to deliver the chemical and biological agents they were developing.

Never heard of a planned occupation of the continental US though.

Answer 5

I'm not sure about that, but I once saw a special on the History Channel that described a secret Japanese war invention. It was an extremely large submarine that could fit a plane- like a submergible aircraft carrier. It looked like a basic sub with a large aircraft hangar layed on top. The show went on to saw that Japanese scientists had developed a large, dangerous bomb similar to our atomic bomb, and they planned to drop one on San Francisco approximately one to two weeks after August 6, which is when we bombed them.

Answer 6

You must think of the mentality of our countries back then. Japan was clear across the ocean and it took days for the average person to cross. But Hawaii was one of our territories as that time. Japan had a choice if it wanted to invade the US. It could go north to Alaska and bridge the Aleutian Islands to Seward's ice box or south to Hawaii. But make no mistake, they planned to attack the US because only someone who was totally deranged would consider bombing the entire US Navy and not expect retaliation.

Answer 7

Yes, they wanted to open up the market for the sale of Cars, Mototcycles and Cameras.

Seems they suceeded. :)

Answer 8

At that moment, the US banned on export lots of things.
Japan had no natural resources. This is the potential reason.