Historical Kalisz-type Scenarios

[ChalkLine]

Japan could never have occupied Australia, the Australians barely occupy it. It's huge, and the settlements are spread evenly around the coast. It's one of the great questions on why the Japanese tried to get where they did, they couldn't have achieved much.

The only strategic value would be inhibiting the use of Australian ports by US fleets, but the numeric advantage of the US fleets coupled with their ability to replace and add ships quickly made that impossible. All it would do would be to further lengthen supply lines, spread Japanese troops out more and made the collapse quicker. Japanese troops resorted to cannibalism in New Guinea in well documented cases; in fact some were executed after the war for it. This was a direct result of Japanese flawed strategic thinking; wishful campaigns that ignored logistics.

[Mohoender]

Originally Posted by ChalkLine

Japan could never have occupied Australia, the Australians barely occupy it. It's huge, and the settlements are spread evenly around the coast. It's one of the great questions on why the Japanese tried to get where they did, they couldn't have achieved much.

Yes but you only needed to massacre about 3 million people. (only one fourth of those killed by the hollocaust alone). Then, their intention might have simply been to get Australia out of the war. Oops! that was 7 million (one tenth of the Japanese population at the time).