Wartime fear did not match the force structure required for a trans-Pacific invasion. Britain and France had drawn modern ships away from the Far East to fight the active European war, helping Japan exploit temporary regional advantages. A mainland invasion would have required decisions beginning decades earlier, including public-health and nutrition programmes capable of supporting a much larger population. Japan would also have needed the shipbuilding base, transport fleet, and logistical system to carry and sustain that force across the Pacific. The Aleutians provide the realistic case: remote American territory could be occupied, but the mainland could not be reached on the same terms.
Notable Point · 42:28-46:54
Pacific force allocation and invasion reality
Dramatic Japanese victories did not make a mainland American invasion logistically plausible, as the limited Aleutian occupation shows.