Pearl Harbor was essentially a national suicide mission by the Japanese. And, once entered into the War, it was inevitable that the U. would have the opportunity to rebuild those ships at her leisure. There was never any chance that the Japanese could actually attack the American mainland, which meant that the U. Naval ships in port that day had been destroyed (in fact, only two battleships, one target ship, and two destroyers were permanently lost), what good would that have done Japanese war aims ? At best it might have bought them a very little extra time in which to try to expand, and thus further overextend, their Empire. Even if the bombings had been completely successful and all the U. What makes this event all the more remarkable is how utterly futile it was. Or suppose that Japan had simply declared war before attacking : would the lack of the "sneak" in the attack have made enough of an emotional difference for Americans not to have imprisoned our own Japanese-American population or not to drop the atomic bombs on Japan ? Well, you get the picture we're talkin' big, big deal here. The Cold War would have been avoided and along with it the fifty year long economic displacement that the U. Ultimately, the victorious Axis powers, and/or the Soviets, would have collapsed of their own weight. Meanwhile, Japan would have had a free hand to completely overextend itself in the South Pacific. This in turn would have meant either a bloody stalemate between Nazi Germany and the USSR or victory by one, followed by a debilitating attempt to control the European land mass. But for the attack, it is entirely possible that America would have safely sat out the War. To an extent that Americans no longer seem willing to concede-witness the hysterical reaction to Pat Buchanan's musings on the subject-Pearl Harbor was the proximate cause of the United States' entry into World War II. What If? games are inherently silly, however fascinating, and they can't produce any certain answers, but consider the course that history might have taken had the attack (or another like it) never occurred. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is one of the rare historic events whose significance and continuing ramifications it is probably impossible to overstate.
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