what would have happen if pearl harbor never happened??

Question

need fast results. please give me the long story short, i don't want a 400,000 paragraph answer.

okay okay enough answers! feel free to answer my other pearl harbor question
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Answer 1

~The US was already involved in the Second Sino-Japanese War (which was officially renamed the Pacific Theater of WWII after Pearl) by sending arms, supplies and other aid to the Chinese. Unofficial troops, like the Flying Tigers, were already fighting the Japanese. The US had been, with the Brits, imposing unreasonable trade and military restrictions on Japan since WWI. In November 1941, the US parked 15,000 marines in the Philippines, having already beefed up Subic Bay and Clark Field. US bases in Guam, Wake, Midway and Pearl were a constant threat to Japanese security. The US continued to refuse to negotiate in any meaningful way over the oil and steel embargo. Japan has never had the ability to feed herself from the home islands and she lacked the natural resources to become a 20th century industrial power. The US and UK, among others, wanted to keep their empires in Asia and the Pacific Basin intact and, to do so, could not allow Japan to modernize, grow and prosper.

It was the combination of all of this that led to the strike at Pearl. The Japanese High Command hoped that a quick, decisive victory which disabled the US fleet would not only keep Uncle Sam out of the war, but would lead to a prompt treaty which would untie the trade noose that was hanging around Japan's neck. The Japanese did not want war with the US and had no intention of invading the US. Tojo and Yamamoto both acknowledged before Pearl that Japan could not win a prolonged war against the US, but they also both knew that unless something dramatic happened, such a war was inevitable. Had the carriers been in port and had Yamamoto gone for Subic Bay and Midway on his way home, the strategy might have worked.

What is usually forgotten or ignored is that the Asian war started in 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge incident. Actually, it started in 1931 with the Manchurian invasion. The US wanted to see the break up of the British Empire, so an expansion of the war out of China and into the British Asian and Indonesian colonies would not have been an unpleasant state of affairs. On the other hand, the 'Yellow Peril' was a threat to US imperialist goals in the Pacific, thus the embargo. US policy was to fear a strong Japan and thus, by economic means, try to keep the Rising Sun from rising. The same policy insured that war would be unavoidable at some point. Japan was not going to kow-tow to US demands again as she had done in 1854 to Matthew Perry's Black Ships.

Pearl was pretty much a strategic failure for the Japanese. They didn't get the quick capitulation from Washington that they had hoped for, and they missed the carriers. Expecting an attack at some time, CincPac kept the flattops out of harbor as much as possible. Then, in June '42, luckily for Chester Nimitz, Bull Halsey got his rash and Nimitz put some real Admirals, Fletcher and Spruance, in charge at Midway. Just as the European war was pretty much decided at Stalingrad, the Pacific naval war was pretty well determined at Midway. Meanwhile, the Chinese continued to carry the bulk of the load against Japan in Asia. (3.8 million troop casualties and 16 million civilians)

Sorry, that's probably too involved and detailed for you. Short answer, the Japanese knew there was going to be a war with the US. Instead of fighting a defensive war, they attacked first. Either way, the war was going to happen. The only question was when, and where would it start.

TMess2 is way off base about the war in Europe. The Brits would surely have lost but for Lend Lease aid. However, as Churchill told Hitler, the only force that could take on the Wehrmacht on the continent was the Red Army. That is why the US landed in Africa, against a depleted and second rate army. Yeah, Rommel was good, but the best troops were involved in Operation Barbarossa and supplies and reserves intended for the Afrika Corps had been diverted to the Eastern front. The US eventually included the USSR in the lend lease program, although only about 20% of the total aid went to them, and very little military aid (the Soviets didn't really want US weapons in any case since they were inferior to what the Red Army had in the field) It is not only not unlikely that the US would have given aid to the Soviets, it is elementary fact that such aid was given- although not until after Stalin turned back Barbarossa.

Contrary to the mythology, the Russian winter did not beat the Germans. Superior Soviet tactics, superior Soviet weapons and superior Soviet troops beat the Germans, not the weather. Operation Uranus was highly successful and was launched by generals Vasilyevskiy and Zhukov before the weather set in. Operation Mars started well but failed to meet its goals primarily because the weather set in before the operation was concluded and the weather hampered Soviet logistical support. Operation Saturn, begun by the Red Army in the dead of winter, was far less successful because the ice in the Volga rendered it difficult, and at times impossible, for the Soviets to resupply the troops across the river. Even so, the results of Mars and Saturn contributed greatly to the Soviet victory at Stalingrad and later at Kursk and Smolensk. Gee golly gosh, the weather actually helped the Germans. Had Mars and Saturn been fully successful, the war in Europe would have been over with not later than the fall of 1943. Meanwhile, the first US troops never hit the beaches in Africa until Operation Torch in November, 1942 (about the time of the Soviet Counter-offensive in Stalingrad) and never got to Sicily until Operation Husky was launched in July, '43 - almost 6 months after Paulus surrendered the Sixth Army at Stalingrad. At the same time as the US and the Brits landed in Sicily, the Soviets were knocking out Manstein and Model at Kursk (it was July - no excuse of the Russian winter for this major victory by Zhukov). Although the Soviets lost at the first Battle of Smolensk in July-August '41, the resistance the put up ultimately led to the failure of Operation Barbarossa. Oops, summer, not winter. And in the summer and fall of '43, the Red Army was demolishing what was left of the Wehrmacht in decisive victories at Smolensk and Dneiper (the latter being probably the largest and bloodiest battle in human history).

Overlord and the Normandy invasion was a walk in the park compared to what was going on on the Eastern front. Don't let anybody kid you, the Red Army won the war in Europe. Had Britain fallen and the US stayed home, the Red Army would have marched to the French beaches. Maybe that's why the Soviets lost 10 million troops (and 15 million civilians) in the war as compared to the 380 thousand or so from the US and about as few from the Brits (that's the total from both theaters).

After Berlin fell, Stalin honored the commitment he made at Tehran and the Soviets declared war on Japan. Of course, Japan had been sending out peace feelers since late '43, and were discussing surrender in earnest in May and June '45 (well before Hiroshima and Nagasaki) so the Soviets didn't have that much to do with the defeat of Japan. On the other hand, Soviet interests dictated that after beating the Germans, they would have to take on Japan. Had the US not been involved, Japan would have lost in the long run. Her navy would have been useless against the Soviets in a land war. The Chinese were more or less holding their own against the Chinese and the addition of the Red Army into the fray would have sounded the death knell for Tokyo.

Answer 2

Most likely scenario is that the US would have entered WWII at an even later date. This late entry into the War most likely would have resulted in the defeat of the soviet union or at the very least crippled them so terribly that they would not have been able to counter attack. Moscow most definately would have fallen. This would have resulted in a bloodier clonflict in North Africa since the Nazis would have had more resources and men to field in North Africa. Eventually however the Allies would have forced them out. From their Italy would fall to the Allies since Hitler placed too much confidence in Mousolluni's troops. However again the battle for Northern Italy would have been more brutal. Finally the liberation for France would have been the most bloodiest battle of all. Hitlers would not have to have split his forces between an Eastern and Western front and would have been able to poor more defenses into France. Most likely the Allies would have invaded Spain which although was neutral had a government which leaned toward Germany, was considerably less defended than France and had a Northern resistance which was Pro-Allies. In the end the Allied liberate france, belgium, and much of the Western countries but I believe the cost is so terrible the Allies are hesitant to push on Germany and accept a truce with the Axis in which Japan returns the Phillipines, Guam, and several other islands but holds china, as well as Germany retaining Eastern European nations. This is provided that the Allies do not learn of the Genocide. In that event the war with Germany continues until the Nazis are defeated or the German Army revolts and forces the Nazis from power.

Answer 3

One small thing that Americans tend to ignore is that Pearl Harbor was just one target that the Japanese hit in December of 1941.

If Japan had somehow decided not to attack American interests entirely (very unlikely for strategic reasons), it would have been very unlikely that the U.S. would have gotten involved. Without U.S. involvement, either the Japanese would have successfully conquered Indonesia and Australia or the British would have had to take troops out of Europe and Africa to defend their interests in Asia. In either case, the war in Europe would have stretched out longer. If we had aided the Soviet Union (debatable if we were not in the war), the Soviet Union would probably have taken over all of Europe. If we had not, Nazi Germany would ultimately have beaten the Soviet Union and then returned its attention to the United Kingdom.

If Japan had attacked other U.S. interests in the Pacific (e.g. the Philippines) as they did in the real history, the U.S. would likely have won in the Pacific much quicker than we did. While most of the aircraft carriers were not at Pearl Harbor on the day of attack (bad intelligence on the part of the Japanese), most of the rest of our Pacific Fleet was and got demolished. If we had the rest of our Pacific Fleet in early 1942, we would have been in much better shape to fight the Japanese in the first 10 months of the war.

Answer 4

The United States would not have had Public Support to go into WWII, that led to the U.S. involvement in the European Conflict and Hitler. Its possible the Russians and the Siberian winter would have still taken Hitler because he insisted on fighting two fronts, but it may have dragged on longer. We would not have enjoyed the Spoils of war that gave us our global leadership position and the aura of :human Rights and Democracy" that we held up until a couple of years ago. It was WWII that catapulted us to one of the Great Powers of the world, without our involvement we would just be a major industrial country

Answer 5

If that was to happen, we would have not gotten into the war for a few more years, which I think just means that it would have taken a few more years to defeat the axis powers. The attack 'woke the sleeping giant' which I think was inevitable, mainly because we were still trying to get out of the depression. So either way, we were going to join the war, and we used our country's rescources to fight the war, and get out of the depression. I don't think Germany would have built the A- bomb in time to use it, even years later.

Answer 6

Hawaii's tourist business would have sucked. I would have saved the admission fee to view it when I was in Oahu and would have spent it on some other meaningless souvinear or I might have had a different daddy! lol The longer version would have been the 400,000 political paragraph:)

Answer 7

In all probability the United States would have never entered the war. We were already supporting Great Britain's efforts , but we were not yet actively fighting in the war. Beyond that is pure speculation and there are as many answers as there are people willing to give them.

Answer 8

Well America would probably never become involved in the war, thus leaving Britain to continue fighting a losing battle, which most likely would have resulted in the invasion of mainland Britain and The Nazi's winning the war.

Answer 9

The USA would of been forced into World War II in some other way, possibly a German attack on the East Coast.

The lend lease program was frustrating Hitler and the Third Reich. They wanted to engage with us.

Answer 10

Sounds like a homework question. Obviously the Second World War would have taken on a different character. I suspect that things would have turned out the same however, at something of a later date with most likely even more people dead.

~

Answer 11

The attack on the United States by Japan was one of economic necessity. Their government felt that we were responsible for cutting off their import of strategic materials like metals, petroleum, and other products . Their attack on Pearl was to destroy the US naval fleet which was one major obstacle to their domination of Asian resources. They figured right except aircraft carriers escaped the attack and were the foundation on which our military buildup was based. Somewhere, conflict would have developed.