Quote:
Originally Posted by RN7
Coral Sea was a turning point in the Pacific War for a number of reasons. Firstly it was the first time that the Japanese navy was effectively challenged in the Pacific. Secondly it demonstrated to Japan that Allied resistance or/and offensives would be better organised and more formidable than they previously had been. Thirdly it confirmed to Japan that New Guinea was the absolute outer limit of what it could hope to conquer, and that an invasion of Australia was beyond its capabilities. The fact that Japan actually invaded New Guinea has always puzzled me as it it had few exploitable resources at that time, and only limited logistical capabilities from which to attack Australia. It has always seemed to me to have been a waste of Japanese resources, and I can only think that they went there to disrupt and delay any build up of Allied forces in Australia which would threaten their forces in South East Asia and the Pacific.
I think the sinking of the Lusitania was legally justified, but not morally.
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Japan's goals in the New Guinea campaign have always had people scratching their heads in confusion. The only thing that I have ever heard that made any sense was that they wanted to capture Port Moresby for use as an air/naval base for a possible future attack on Australia.
The IJA/IJN were at loggerheads about the need to invade Australia. The IJA's veiwpoint was that it would require too much in terms of troop commitments and logistical support. Okay, makes sense, the IJA was hard pressed to provide more than a dozen divisions for the Pacific and certainly Australia would have required a lot more than dozen divisions to conquer/pacify. Logistical wise, the Japanese simply didn't have the merchant shipping to support operations. The IJN on the other hand, favored an invasion of Australia in order the deny the US any safe area to build up forces for a counter-offensive.
With the Port Moresby invasion force turned back, the IJA/IJN now needed to capture the airfield in order to deny its use to the Allies, as well as acquiring a defensive position on the southern shore of New Guinea.