Singapore and the problem of American neutrality

Singapore offered few fleet targets and would not directly enrage the United States, but that weakness could become a strategic advantage. A six-carrier, four-capital-ship attack on the two British capital ships there would also recast Force Z's loss as the result of overwhelming fleet action rather than land-based aviation alone. Japan might attack British, Dutch, and French possessions while avoiding American territory, leaving Congress without an immediate cause for war. Hitler would also lack Pearl Harbor's prompt for an immediate German declaration of war on the United States. The 1942 midterm elections would become an important political deadline, and American entry might slip to mid-1942 or even mid-1943. That delay could let Japan seize and fortify Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, encircle the Philippines, begin extracting resources, and postpone American submarine operations against its new perimeter.