It does seem the Japanese lost heart when their objectives and a victory were close.
Does seem strange from a culture that puts honour and therefore failure above all other things: suicide was an option.  Perhaps succeeding too well is seen as wrong! Or did they believe after all their careful planning(Pearl and the other lightning victories) that they could not really have won so easily and that somehow things would change? Did they believe in Khama?

Back to your question: I like the idea that they could capture Australia( A&A does that to you!)
At heart I am a defensive player, so I will go with my heart. 
Your suggestion of cosolidating on the Solomons at Rabaul and supporting the fleet with ground based fighters makes most sense, as we know they could not replace and, therefore, rely on their superb carrier units.

The US opted for imperialism.

USSR was the lesser of three evils between Germany and Japan, the only reason America backed USSR.  Also Japan and Germany threatened US imperialism and the US had to wait until an event like pearl harbor to appear to be the good guy.

USA opted for atrocities instead of invasion or truce in regards to Japan. The logic was, “make Japan surrender, take away their right to military, then try to offer them a right to a military when they are pro american.”

Problem is, Japan became isolationist after WWII, so US imperialism failed military in Japan, but economically it turned out pretty good.

Russia is a huge wrench in US imperialism, but not as bad as Germany would have been if in control of Europe (or Japan in Asia).

It is kind of sad the axis lost WWII, post war SEA would have been liberated while China would be oppressed… possibly liberated later. Europe would eventually collapse into nation-states again.

Yes. Thank you.

The second Italian Facist regime : la Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI) was set up today, with its capital, not in Rome, but Salo, a small town in Lombardy on Lake Garda,  Northern Italy, where the RSI had his Foreign Office.  
Mussolini was its head, but it was nothing more than a German puppet, dependent on its military and financial support.
Mussolini had been rescued from captivity in a daring raid by a soon to be famous German SS Colonel, Otto Skorzeny on September 12th.
Italy had  surrendered on the 8th and the Allies had  landed at Salerno on the 9th and were fighting the Germans in the south of Italy at this time, though they had not yet captured the city port of Naples.

Thanks Clyde. Really was a big event and the town getting involved too, is great.  Working WW2 vehicles and the noise makes for a realistic experience.
Suppose you could visit Gettysburg afterwards!

For me “turning point” means when Japan lost its momentum to launch attacks and past the point where they had any hope of winning the war. Though midway certainly slowed Japan down significantly they still had like three carriers by 1942. After the battle of Santa Cruz America had one heavily damaged Enterprise up against Japan’s 3 fleet carriers, and after Savo Island we had to pull out all our cargo ships attacking Guadalcanal and left the marines to fend for themselves for months before they were reinforced. Through most of the Guadalcanal campaign Japan had logistical superiority and had the means and resources to supply and arm men putting 35,000 men into the islands. By this time Japan was still quite capable of matching America in in terms of ships and manpower but after the 6 month Guadalcanal campaign Japan had lost most of its experienced air crews and more importantly, America held off Japan for their industry to be capable of outmatching Japan. If Japan had better soldiers and tactics and had won Guadalcanal the war would have continued for much longer and would have been far from defeated and the war would have dragged on.

Bottom line US doesn’t achieve an uncontested superiority over the Japanese in production and ships until after they defeated Japan at Guadalcanal because they kept loosing carriers in the battles of Coral Sea, Midway and Santa Cruz and did not replace these losses until after the battle.

You were not convinced by the overweight tabby then?
As long as it stays in Essex, no real harm can be done.

People who own land do not own the stuff like oil underneath.  There is alot of natural gas around here and I know people who have gas wells.  But big gas companies can set up shop next door and drill at an angle to get the gas under your property.  Again, property owners own the surface, not mineral rights underneath.

I agree with you 100% Garg on the refining/price of gasoline issue.

Oil consumption link peeps might find interesting:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2174rank.html

The US consumes a little over 19 mega barrels per day

On the production side:
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS2&f=A

So the US production is going up slowly but still below 6 mega barrels per day.

The US strategic oil reserve holds about 727 mega barrels a day according to a few sites I checked:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve_(United_States)
http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/spr/spr-facts.html

So with domestic production the US would last about 55 days with their reserves.  If you include Canadian exports then the US would last about 77 days.

Garg  totally right on the refinery side.  In fact, Canada is getting screwed by about $30 a barrel for oil it sends to the US due to supply gluts and lack of refining capacity due to inability to get the oil to the Gulf Coast.  I wonder if Obama’s blocking of the Keystone pipeline is some Machiavellian plan to get cheap Canadian Oil?  Those Americans can be cunningly evil in their genius!

Why Canada just pumps out cheap oil….
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/04/20/oil-refining-canada.html

Garg, I am somewhat skeptical about the additives to petroleum to make it unable to be stored.

The Soviet didn’t have capability to invade Japan, they just had claims to Sakhalin Islands and possibly Korea which they lost in the 1905 war. The A-bomb created a huge vacuum for Stalin to mop up demoralized Kwangtung Army units in Manchukuo.

Okinawa could not be bypassed, a further invasion of Southern Japan could not take place without this logistical island. You need a good staging area and Okinawa and Iwo Jima are both necessary to that end.

Mainland China would not be good because Japan still had credible army units within reach, but had zero naval capabilities…so it was a safe choice to use the islands to stage invasion.

@pfc_pander:

I enjoy reading anything I can about Saipan in the Mariana Islands.  My grandfather was a BAR man apart of the marines 2nd division.  He died when I was about 10 and he never liked to talk much about it.  So anytime I can learn something about Saipan I jump at the chance.  If anyone has any recommendations for any books about the 2nd marines on Saipan I would greatly appreciate it.

This movie…

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284200/

…includes colour footage of the Battle of Saipan (wartime Kodachrome footage, not computer-colorized black and white footage).

Grazie Noll. Guillet was a remarkable man: a modern day knight,  with all the qualities you would associate with one. A man of honour in a changing, racist world. Charging British tanks: I can just imagine their reaction! Thank you for bringing him to our attention.

It is early yet Garg.
The Civil War was lost in the West, starting with Nashville and Vicksburg was a greater loss than Nashville.  I agree that a Southern victory at Gettysburg would not have equated to the fall of Washington or an armistice, despite Lee’s hopes for one.

There’s a scene in the movie Across the Pacific in which Sydney Greenstreet shows his pistol (I think it’s a 38-caliber gun) to Humphrey Bogart, who puts his Colt 45 pistol alongside Greenstreet’s and comments, “Mine’s bigger than yours.”

Veltro !!! unfortunately it came 2 years too late.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2182638/WWII-veteran-stunned-bumping-comrade-thought-died-battle-fought-side-68-years-ago.html

@CWO:

@wittman:

  Nice Pirate. I love submarine stories and films and admire those that could endure the life. I would go mad!

As compensation, the food on modern ballistic missile subs is probably the best military chow in any branch of any service.Â

I would have to agree with that (3 years on one), although when I was out of Italy, had choice of 6 different types of ice cream on the sub tender….

@Gargantua:

Of course he could, even if his brain was slow… he would have had THE REST OF TIME!

Probably TIME to let this discussion REST!

Thanks for sharing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwrel&NR=1&v=GZiH5wMad1Q

Actual footage.