The exercise limits carrier targets to roughly Pearl Harbor's operating radius or to routes with practicable refueling. San Francisco, Anchorage, the Philippines, Singapore, and Sydney offer different mixtures of military value and political shock. Each option is judged by whether it could provoke an advance into waters favorable to Japanese attrition, not simply by the damage available at the target. A sixth option - declaring war without launching an attack - tests whether Japan could make the United States assume the operational burden.
Chapter · 32:02-35:25
Criteria for an alternative opening strike
An alternative target had to be reachable, politically provocative, and capable of drawing enemy forces toward Japanese ambushes.