Around the Tokyo Station
From Tsushima to Pearl Harbor
After the Empire of Japan defeated the Russian Empire invading Manchuria, Northern China, and the Korean border, some elites of the US Government started to regard the Empire of Japan as a future enemy.
Strangely, when the Empire of Japan was fighting a desperate war with the Russian Empire, the U.K. was on the Japanese side. Even the U.S. and Germany did not want Russian victory. France was a reluctant friend of Russia. Italy even sold a naval ship to the Empire of Japan. And, all the peoples colonized by Western Powers hoped that the Empire of Japan would give Russians any big blow. The world was pushing the Empire of Japan to victory, no matter how narrow margin its victory was by.
(This victory of an Asian nation over a European nation really encouraged many Asian people dreaming of their independence from the Western Powers.)
After the Japanese-Russo War (1904-1905), the Imperial Navy of Japan had no matching enemy in East Asia. The British Navy (with 6 aircraft carriers) could not keep a majority of its fleets in East Asia only to check the Empire of Japan. The U.S. had to split its naval forces into the Atlantic theater and the Pacific theater. France and the Netherlands (which colonized oil-producing Indonesia) could not compete with the Empire with their fleets. China had virtually no navy. So, the Empire of Japan had no threatening enemy in the Western Pacific.
However, it was apparent that if the US had put its national resources for real into building up its navy, it could have doubled or multiplied several times its naval capability. Then, the Imperial fleets of Japan would have been forced to take a defensive side. And actually, after the Japanese-Russo War, the Imperial Navy took a strategy to wait for advancement of US troops and fleets, in case, and take on them like the case of the Battle of Tsushima. Hence, the Imperial Navy did not plan to invade Hawaii, the East Pacific Ocean, and California. It was prepared for waiting, hitting, and destroying invading US fleets in case, like in the great naval Battle of Tsushima.
So, after the Japanese-Russo War, some elites of the US started to prepare for a future military collision with the Empire of Japan for the hegemony over the Pacific Ocean, East Asia, and especially China. On the other hand, the Empire of Japan also continued to strengthen its military forces with an unfavorable expectation of any armed clash in the Pacific Ocean with the US. (At the time, the US colonized the Philippines and the Empire of Japan controlled, occupied, and governed Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria.)
The most important point is that the Empire of Japan had no plan or strategy to advance to the east, namely, to Hawaii, the East Pacific, and California to occupy any American territories. Its fleets were not formed and organized for a long-distance attack and a long-term expedition, such as the Pearl Harbor Attack which was actually carried out in December 1941.
Nonetheless, the Imperial Navy had built and operated 10 aircraft carriers as of December 1941 while the US had only 8 aircraft carriers at the time. In addition, the Empire was building 3 more aircraft carriers while the US was making 5 more. However, as the US had GDP 10 times more than that of the Empire of Japan at the time, it was also apparent that this balance of the numbers of aircraft carriers was just provisional. The US would have manufactured 100 more aircraft carriers in a short period of time if a war had started. So, if the provisional balance of the numbers of aircraft carriers was in favor of the Empire as of 1941, it was still a defensive measure for the Empire of Japan against industrially 10-times larger America.
So, in this context, it is unthinkable that the Empire of Japan would first pull the trigger to start a war against the US. If the Empire had had such an intention, it must have been based on a well formulated and polished plan (which the Empire did not have actually).
But, an unthinkable thing happened. The Imperial Navy attacked US military bases on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 1941, mobilizing 6 aircraft carriers. This is an opposite strategy to that for the Battle of Tsushima against the Imperial Navy of Russia. The Imperial Navy started to sail into a long voyage with ever decreasing fuel oil but without any support from the world except almost nominal Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy.
(The real beneficiaries of the advancement of the Imperial military into South East Asia after Pearl Harbor were South East Asians who achieved independence from Western Powers after WWII, since Japanese troops had already defeated and drove Western forces out of South East Asia during WWII, though they tried to reestablish their colonial rule in the region after WWII in vain.)
(to be continued...)
*** *** *** ***
Luk 12:28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?