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Old 27th Apr 2017, 09:39
  #10513 (permalink)  
Chugalug2
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: West Sussex
Age: 82
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FED, purely on the basis that the whole point of this thread is one of friendly discussion, I'll bite if I may. I agree that if Japan had invaded the USSR while it was also being invaded by Germany in the west, then a Soviet collapse would have been the likely outcome.

However, Japan's strategic needs and ambitions were being thwarted by Washington rather than Moscow. It needed the raw materials that it was denied by US sanctions and saw that the only way to get them was by force. The US Pacific Fleet stood in the way and hence had to be eliminated, thus Pearl Harbour. That it didn't get the most vital part of the Pacific Fleet, the carriers, was what Macmillan famously called, "Events, dear boy, events!". So I don't think that your scenario of no Pearl Harbour is a likely one, and mounting both an attack on the USSR and seizing the "The Greater East Asia Co Prosperity Sphere" was probably seen as taking on too much too soon for the Empire of Japan. Just as well that they didn't do so for us of course, as it would have been the end of the British Empire not to its indigenous populations but to its enemies, as well as leading to the subjugation of the United Kingdom itself as you rightly point out.

As to the final world order of three global empires living in mutual tranquillity, I very much doubt it. Mankind's history is one of war. When we finally go where no man has been before we will take our weapons with us and won't hesitate to use them. That is our way, so aliens beware!

Care to bite on my what if?
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