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mikebatzel · #11 (**permalink**) April 22nd, 2008, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kai-Petri

I have not been too interested in the Pacific war but lately I have been reading stuff on it.

Just to bring a couple of questions up and keep discussions alive:

1. Was the Japanese tactics after Pearl Harbor correct? It is claimed that it was more like " we attack everywhere " and all the Japanese forces were too widely separated. Jamamoto´s tactics? Any ideas? Could they have been more victorious with other tactics? More ideas?

Jamamoto´s principles I guess:

-Initiate surprise attack on US PACFLT at Pearl Harbor.
-seize all available natural resources in Pacific;
-retire to defensive perimeter behind island barriers;

-await US to sue for peace

2.Until November 26, 1941, Roosevelt had been negotiating with two Japanese diplomats who had come to Washington to try to resolve a crisis with the United States which began in August 1941. At that time, with no warning, the United States embargoed all shipments of oil to Japan. The Japanese were baffled and infuriated by this decision. For three previous years, the United States had supplied fifty percent of Japan's oil, while her army conquered much of China. Why had Roosevelt chosen this moment to cut off the oil?

Instead Roosevelt let Secretary of State Cordell Hull present the Tokyo diplomats with a ten point ultimatum on November 26, 1941.
Tokyo had set November 29 as a deadline for a settlement. After that the Japanese negotiators were told that war would become inevitable.

Maybe the Japanese had underestimated the US but as well it seems the US underestimated the Japanese...

Hello Kia.
Ok I will go in order. Yes I believe the Japanese strategy was adequate. They gained everything that was wanted in declaring war very quickly (something like 4 months). What was needed was to consolidate their gains at this point but instead they chose to make more attacks which began the downward spiral of the Japanese Empire, starting with the carrier battle at Coral Sea. Yes, they spread themselves a little thin early on but where more than capable of reinforcing before the US industrial capacity gave the Americans enough power to go on the offensive.

Yamamoto’s tactics are confusing to me. I don’t currently understand them. He was a huge proponent of carriers but searched for the decisive battle between battleships. Coincidently most people know he threatened to resign if he didn’t get his battle plan approved for the Midway operation but not too many know that this was his second threat of the kind. The first was Pearl Harbor. I forget where I had read it but the initial plan was not an air raid but to position the entire (or most) battleship fleet near pearl and fight the battle between these capital ships. Good thing they didn’t.

The embargo placed on Japan was, IIRC a response to the Japanese gaining the air and naval bases they demanded in French Indochina from the Vichy gov. In the months before the Embargo they increasing demanded rights from the DEI as if the land was already theirs. Unrestricted rights to exploit materials, increased oil shipments, etc. The US was the first to place the embargo but the UK, Australia, Netherlands and China all followed within a day or two. (China being in the list confuses me because they where at war and wouldn’t be conducting trade but hey it was called the ABCD encirclement by Japan so I included them)

Yes the US underestimated Japan. We thought any attack would come in the Philippines. Never Hawaii.
Japan overestimated the US as well. They where of the opinion that any attack against the DEI would bring a declaration of war from both GB and the US. I am not sure of GB but I do not think the US would have joined at this point either. The public was still to isolationist at this point.