Two divergent strategies were proposed in the Pacific. Nimitiz wanted to bypass the Philippines and capture Taiwain/Taipei and then Okinawa. MacArthur wanted the Papua Islands (Makin, Tinian, Peleliu) as a prelude to liberating the Phiiippines. The capture of the latter would cut Japan off from the resources of the South Pacific. FDR called a conference between the two in Hawaii. As a result, the MacArthur strategy prevailed. Taiwan/Taipei was avoided but had the US gone in there, would it have been a bloodbath worse than what MacArthur proposed? Certainly being able to shorten the supply line to the Nationalist Chinese would help the latter (but the Natonalists were a spotty fighting force). Taiwan/Taipei had been under Japanese control for decades and has its share of mountainous terrain which is difficult to fight in. Thoughts?
Nimitz would have needed the Philippines as a springboard for a Formosa invasion, which would have indeed helped with supplying China, but in the end, it was better to go straight to Okinawa. Operation Causeway
..wouldn't they have had to use very significant forces to isolate/neutralize/etc the Philippines if they bypassed them? so, it seems like they would be dissipating their strength ..using it ''twice'''...so they would be using forces to isolate the PI, and forces to attack Taiwan.....instead of using the major strength against ''''one'' objective ...and the PI is a large area = it's not like they are bypassing a small atoll = time and large forces needed to neutralize the PI
No IJN (either surfce or subs). and airplanes, the PI is no threat. But after reading that link, I shudder to think of the casualties had we landed in Taiwan.
Certainly there were, but if they've been neutralized, why worry? BTW, I remember reading about a Japanese PoW on Iwo Jima. He was shocked by alarcrity the Americans finished an airfield. Our SeaBees had heavy equipment. Japanese (meaning a lot of ipressed Koreans) did it by hand and were very slow. Read about an American Marine who was a cook. Post War he got a 25 pound turket that he cleaned in front of the Japanese (civilians). He raised the plucked and cleaned Turkey aloft and announced. "This is why America won the war. Look at our chickens!"
....and you are taking longer jumps....with the PI in US hands you build up airfields and very importantly- supply bases including fuel dumps......it's going to take a lot more fuel --exponentially -- to jump pass the PI.....they would have to fuel ..naval and transports need more fuel--and the oilers will need more fuel...TF 58/38 need more fuel....where is the invasion of Taiwan/etc being staged from? what airfields will support an attack on Taiwan? etc? ..this is like the bypassing the Gilberts/etc thread
Bronk. - I'm no expert and no advocate of the Taiwan/Formosa plan. That was King's & Nimitz's. Suggest you read the link for your answers.
Invading Taiwan certainly would've extended the war in the Pacific if it was carried out. And then possibly invading mainland China afterwards? Not really sure if that would've been such a good idea either. I remember reading somewhere an article about the big meeting in Hawaii with FDR, Mac and Nimitz. I'm sure there were others there too, but these were the big 3 kahunas in the room. Maybe it was in "American Caesar". Great book. Anyway both Mac and Nimitz skillfully argued their case regarding bypassing the Philippines or returning there. One of Mac's reasons for returning to the PI was that the suffering of civilians would dramatically increase once the landings in Taiwan took place. The IJA were constantly earning their image of nasty occupiers since the the US surrender in '42, so Mac reasoned that the Japanese would have seized much of the already short food supplies and everything else they deemed necessary to survive once the supply line to Japan would've been cut. Estimates of civilian deaths to malnutrition and reprisals would've exceeded actual deaths attributed to combat in 44-45. Also, the citizenry of the PI by and large would've done everything possible to support US forces once they landed. Not so in Taiwan. Makes sense if it's put that way.
