Mike Irwin
Member
I forget who wrote the book, but it came out about 8 to 10 years ago. It made a VERY persuasive case for it being impossible for the Japanese to invade Hawaii with any hope of using it effectively as a base of operations.
They simply were stretched too thin.
Had they invaded, yes, the Japanese would have gained a nice protective position for Japan, but I think it's pretty evident that the Americans wouldn't have been as foolish as the Japanese were... Those tank farms, unless taken by surprise by paratroopers, never would have been taken complete.
The Japanese would have had to have performed massive infrastructure repairs before Hawaii became fully operational. The channel to Pearl Harbor would have been thoroughly blocked with sunken ships and mined, the Naval facilities would have been heavily damaged or destroyed...
It's doubtful that Hawaii would have been of much military use at all for quite some time.
They simply were stretched too thin.
Had they invaded, yes, the Japanese would have gained a nice protective position for Japan, but I think it's pretty evident that the Americans wouldn't have been as foolish as the Japanese were... Those tank farms, unless taken by surprise by paratroopers, never would have been taken complete.
The Japanese would have had to have performed massive infrastructure repairs before Hawaii became fully operational. The channel to Pearl Harbor would have been thoroughly blocked with sunken ships and mined, the Naval facilities would have been heavily damaged or destroyed...
It's doubtful that Hawaii would have been of much military use at all for quite some time.