Post by abbey1227 on Jul 17, 2021 12:39:52 GMT
Thank God these 'Fact Checkers' are here to save us all.............
USA TODAY
Fact Check: Armed citizens are not what stopped Japan from invading after Pearl HarborNayeli Lomeli, USA TODAY Fri, July 16, 2021, 10:18 PM
On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan staged an attack on Pearl Harbor, severely damaging the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Pushing back against U.S. attempts to limit Japan's aggressive expansion, Japan launched a surprise attack on the nation's westernmost outpost. Though the air attack inflicted heavy losses, the Japanese military did not advance to the U.S. mainland.
A lengthy Facebook post claims fear over private gun ownership in the states is what stopped that invasion.
"After the Japanese decimated our fleet in Pearl Harbor Dec 7, 1941, they could have sent their troop ships and carriers directly to California to finish what they started," says a June 28, 2020, Facebook post that has found renewed life online a year later. "After the war, the remaining Japanese generals and admirals were asked that question. Their answer....they know that almost every home had guns and the Americans knew how to use them."
The post drew more than 650 likes and was shared more than 1,900 times since it was posted.
But it's wrong. According to historians, armed citizens were not among the key reasons Japan opted not to invade the continental U.S.
USA TODAY reached out to the user for comment.
Japan hoped that its attack on Pearl Harbor could delay American intervention and give it time to solidify its Asian empire, according to PBS. Japan hoped a decisive victory could force the U.S to negotiate a peace that left Japan's government in power.
It had nothing to do with America's level of private gun ownership, said Sheldon Garon, a professor at Princeton University that specializes in Japanese history.
"It's preposterous (to say) that the main reason Japan didn't invade the U.S. was because of armed citizens," Garon said. "The main reason was because Japan was badly overextended in early 1942 as it was."
Japan at that point occupied the central and south Pacific, as well as Southeast Asia and parts of China, he said.
"They lacked the firepower and manpower to invade the United States, or even Australia or nearby Siberia," said Garon.
He said there were contingency plans to occupy Hawaii, but few naval commanders expected that to happen.
"That would have only been in the event of the Japanese navy successfully taking Midway Island in mid-1942, which they definitely did not," said Garon.
He said the closest they got to the U.S. was in occupying some of the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.
"But that was largely a diversion and possibly to discourage eventual air raids from Alaska, and not intended as a launching point for a ground invasion of Alaska, much less California," said Garon.
Our rating: False
The claim that the Japanese didn't invade the mainland U.S. after Pearl Harbor because they feared armed Americans is FALSE, based on our research. The main reason was because Japan was overextended and did not have the firepower or manpower needed to invade the U.S., historians say.
National WWII Museum, July 7, 2017, The Pacific Strategy, 1941-1944
PBS, July 23, 2018, Japan's Plan
Encyclopedia Britannica, Nov. 30, 2020, Pearl Harbor attack
PolitiFact, Jan. 14, 2020, After Pearl Harbor, Japanese didn't invade US because they feared armed citizens?
Sheldon Garon, July 13, email exchange with USA TODAY
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