Bruce Williams and the Japanese invasion of California

"No you won't!"

 

Also,

The US defense plans if Canada invaded.

Defend everything East of the Mississippi; but let the Canadians roam the Great Plains until they got tired (since all the Buffalo were gone by then).....

 

"This has not been honorable...."

 

Okay, now I remember Bruce Williams. He was the "Talk Night" host.

Here's a link to the show mentioned. The topic discussion starts at 1:40 minutes. Quite frankly, the caller doesn't know what he's talking about.

http://www.radioconetwork.com/rss/bw/122209_BruceWilliams.mp3

 

There is no way that the Japanese could have invaded the West Coast. I have been up and down the coast of California, Oregon and Washington and there are very few beaches that are suitable for a landing. Much of the west coast is rocky shoreline and cliffs with extreme tides and and strong undertow.

The most suitable beaches are those in Southern California from Imperial Beach up to about Point Hueneme near San Luis Obispo. The most suitable of those are located on MCB Camp Pendleton. Then the coast turns to Rocky Bluffs until Monterey / Santa Cruz (Ft. Ord) up through San Francisco and it turns to rocky cliffs again. Cape Mendocino north to Eureka-Trinidad-Orick is pretty do able except for the crazy tide patterns and cold water.

Coos bay and Sand Lake Oregon would be pretty good beaches for an amphibious assault; but, the coast quickly turns to jagged cliffs continuing up to about Alaska.

The other huge obstacle is getting troops off the beach and heading East. The only roads large enough with the ability to handle military equipement were : Hwy 66 in So Cal, Hwy 50 Central Cal and Hwy 299 in Northern California. I think the optimal plan would have necessitated capturing the main west coast rail junctions in Sacramento , Bakersfield and Los Angeles.

The most isolated beaches are in Northern California , Oregon and Washington; but, once you are off the beach they wouold have to cross the Coast Range and then the Sierra Nevadas.

So the only real options were the beaches from San Luis Obispo south.

The west coast, especially the further north you go, was a pretty rugged place in 1941. Even now there are very few direct routes with suitable roads.

Any invasion force never would have made it through the first snow fall.

Brad

 

The pre-WWI German military looked at plans to invade the United States. That was silly too.

They didn't attack Pearl Harbor, either....or conquer the most square mileage in the history of mankind in a matter of months.

 

Any invasion force never would have made it through the first snow fall.

Brad[/QUOTE]

Or across the Pacific.

 

Much of the west coast is rocky shoreline and cliffs with extreme tides and and strong undertow.

Apparently you've never been to the Washington Coast.

The most isolated beaches are in Northern California , Oregon and Washington; but, once you are off the beach they wouold have to cross the Coast Range and then the Sierra Nevadas.

Not the Washington Coast. You can also take the Columbia River through the Gorge. The Japanese invaded plenty of countries with rugged terrain.

Nobody knows because it didn't happen. If the tides of war had turned against the Americans anything could have been possible.

 

Thats a pretty impressive statistic until you ralize they captures a billion Square miles of water!!! Anyone with an MRE spoon and a rowboat can capture and hold the entire Pacific Ocean for month.

 

Or across the Pacific.

Or even Pearl Harbor. Oh, wait a minute....

 

Thats a pretty impressive statistic until you ralize they captures a billion Square miles of water!!! Anyone with an MRE spoon and a rowboat can capture and hold the entire Pacific Ocean for month.

The Japanese couldn't hold it though, could they. Besides ever been to most of the U.S. off the coast? It's an ocean of dirt.

 

Yes I have Bob or else I wouldn't have said that I had.
Google Maps

Google Maps

There is a little area at the mouth of the Columbia River that is referred to as the "Columbia Bar" Columbia Bar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .

It is the most treacherous shipping lane in the Pacific Ocean.

Except for very few areas the Coast Range runs right down to the water along the coast. The Sierra and Northern Cascade Mountain ranges have the highest peaks in the United States.

If the Japanese would have thought invading the West Coast was a tenable idea they would have done it.

Movement east out of California, Oregon or Washington would have been too compartmentalized and easily disrupted.

The Japanese did not occupy or capture Pearl Harbor

 

But my point is that Bruce does not either. You don't chide someone when your knowledge is so poor.

 

Yes I have Bob or else I wouldn't have said that I had.

Have you been from Grayland north to Ocean Shores? We drive on the beaches there for miles.

There is a little area at the mouth of the Columbia River that is referred to as the "Columbia Bar"

Ever hear of the Port of Portland? Ships cross it all the time. Besides, my point was it's not nesessary to cross mountians to reach the east of the Cascades -not that that that would have stopped an invasion anyway.

Except for very few areas the Coast Range runs right down to the water along the coast. The Sierra and Northern Cascade Mountain ranges have the highest peaks in the United States.

Ever hear of the Chehalis gap? There is no coast range from the southern Olympics to Oregon.

If the Japanese would have thought invading the West Coast was a tenable idea they would have done it.

We'll never know because they never got the chance. Having been to the Aleutians I do know nothing around here is as nasty as Attu and Kiska.

 

But my point is that Bruce does not either. You don't chide someone when your knowledge is so poor.

Bruce knew a lot more than the caller did. I only listened once, but sounds like you took his comment about the Mississippi and kind of twisted it - or misheard it. It didn't come across the way your post made it sound.

 

I heard it clearly, and I did not twist it. The caller disagreed with the internment of Japanese-American during the war. This is something that I disagree with also, as does my father who was there at the time.

Bruce attempted to paint the caller as a fool, because he did not realize that the Japanese had the ability to attack and capture California, and to move toward Mississippi (or the Mississippi). If they did, that is news to me, and I do not think that Stimson's War Cabinet thought that the risk of the fall of California was real either.

Bruce also made much ado about German-American and Italian-American internees also, when they were outnumbered by about 10:1 by American of Japanese ancestry.

The simple fact is how could a country which only had the capacity to handle 40% of their sea-freight undertake an invasion which would have demanded the greatest maritime supply train ever constructed.

 

Grayland to Ocean Shores is actually a small percentage of the Washington coast, and is quite remote even today. Bottle up 12 or 6 and you're stuck.

And say you get up the Columbia to the Dalles, then what? Miles of upland range and high desert. What strategic goals can you wrought upon the John Day?

We all know that the Japanese took Dutch, but that doesn't accomplish anything, it's a long way from Alaska to the United States!

 

Hollis P. Wood: "You won't get sh1t out of me. I've been constipated all week!"