cliff99 t1_j7m7imu wrote on February 7, 2023 at 8:30 PM

Reply to comment by MrMoogyMan in Would the Allies have kept fighting if the axis powers stopped? by Techno-87

Plus attacking the Soviet Union wouldn't have done anything for one of their major problems, which was getting a reliable source of oil.

[deleted] t1_j7mb9yu wrote on February 7, 2023 at 8:54 PM

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MisterBadGuy159 t1_j7moygu wrote on February 7, 2023 at 10:22 PM

There's an account that Admiral Yamamoto, who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, told his higher-ups that he could guarantee six months where he could actually take home victories, and if the war went on past that, they were screwed. Six months to the day after Pearl Harbor, Japan lost four fleet carriers at the battle of Midway.

treetown1 t1_j7mp0ip wrote on February 7, 2023 at 10:22 PM

They were working off of the Russo-Japanese war experience - where Tsarist Russia stopped fighting after Mukden and Tsushima.

MrMoogyMan t1_j7mbl83 wrote on February 7, 2023 at 8:56 PM

I agree. There are oil fields in eastern Russia but they weren't well developed then. They would have never been able to sustain an occupation of the territory in the USSR while holding the rest of their gains in China and SW Asia against the Allies. Maybe the US may have just entered the war on its own at that point. Roosevelt was certainly convinced that war was on the way, and prepared as well as he could for it. Pearl Harbor was basically a gift to the US government for public support against Japan.