why didn't Japan invade the US?
According to people, I was informed that Japan never invaded the US because they knew US citizens were armed. Is this true? Any support?
According to people, I was informed that Japan never invaded the US because they knew US citizens were armed. Is this true? Any support?
Lomax
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Japan didn't invade the USA because they lacked the resources to do so. They were already hideously over-stretched in 1941 with their war against China. Picking a fight with the USA was, frankly, the most stupid thing they could have done.
caspian88
If you magically made every single gun in the United States in 1941 disappear, except those owned by the government, that would not have made a Japanese invasion even 1% more likely. Civilian-owned firearms were NOT, in any way, a factor in Japan's decision not to try and invade the United States - Japan's army would simply have killed any civilian they found, using machine guns, tanks, artillery, and bombs, had anyone shot back.
Japan didn't invade the United States because Japan didn't have ten million soldiers available, plus millions of tons of supplies, thousands of airplanes, and the thousands of ships needed to transport and protect all of that across thousands of miles of ocean. Japan was a small country with little industry (compared to the giant industry of the United States).
DON W
Japan never planned an invasion of the US mainland. Their attack on Pearl Harbor was intended to make the US leave them alone while they conquered Asia.
The availability of weapons in the US played no role in their decision.
The person should have used Switzerland as an example of their argument. The Swiss in 1940 required (and still do) that every adult male be part of a highly-trained and mobile nationwide militia, and keep a government-supplied firearm in their home. Knowing that the people were trained to defend Switzerland, and the difficulty of the terrain, were major reasons why Germany and Italy never invaded Switzerland in World War II. That's the "well-regulated militia" that the writers of the Constitution probably had in mind when they wrote the 2nd Amendment. There's some similarity to Israel, where everyone must attend military training when they are a young adult, and be subject to rapid call-up if there's a need.
John C
Japan did not invade mainland USA in WW2 because they had no need to do so. They did invade American territories, including the Aleutians. The idea that the did not invade because Americans were armed is nonsense. Most Americans were not armed. The few that were would not have stopped the Imperial Japanese army, any more than armed civilians in Europe stopped the Germans.
Steven
Isoruku Yamamoto was a government attache' in Wash,DC before ww2,he traveled the North Eastern United States and viewed the US production capability,he also attended Harvard.Yamamoto kept Tokyo up to speed on what he seen on his travels,he reported that each state was like a standing army in its self with the number of hunters and armed civilians.His advice to Tokyo was to scrap any notion of invading main land America.Japan's resources were at a premium and Yamamoto knew he would lose a war of attrition.Yamamoto's correspondence with Tokyo is available to anybody to read,Yamamoto was against war with the US but still took the helm of the Imperial Japanese Fleet,knowing he would enjoy victory for only a short period of time.Resources were a item that Japan had to take if they could not purchase them,scrap iron,oil,rubber,tin and ore just to name a few.Yamamoto mentioned his fondness of the American people and respect he had for many that he met through his government service and travels,hope this helps you.