Bruce Williams and the Japanese invasion of California

Oh my! I was listening to radio host Bruce Williams the other day (December 22, 2009), and he took a caller to task for "a misunderstanding of history". He then backed up this assertion with the claim that immediately following December 7th, the Japanese could have attacked and occupied California, advanced to Mississippi, and killed tens of millions of Americans.

I always thought that Bruce Williams was a good, level headed radio talk show host, but to make statements like this is truly dismaying.

Just venting, thanks

 

What was the topic to begin with?

 

Who is Bruce Williams?

 

Bruce pioneered call in talk radio. I first started listening to him in 1984,
while driving. He had an amazing amount of general knowledge. This was
before web sites like Google. He also helped Rush Limbaugh get his start,
despite the believe Rush's approach would never work.

I have heard stuff like the Japs could have attacked the US mainland too.
A statement like that was made in the 2001 version of Pearl Harbor, it was
probably propaganda of the WW2 era.

Bruce has been on radio for a long time, seems out of touch with today's world.

He is now hard to find him on radio, I sometimes go to his web site at 7:00 PM and listen to his first few mins, see what he has to say.

 

This was brought up during a discussion about the internment of Japanese-Americans. Bruce said "if you don't know how close we came to the Japanese attacking and capturing California"..."by some experts, they could have gone all the way to Mississippi" and "tens of millions of American would have died". He told the caller if he didn't know this, his (the callers) knowledge of history was sadly lacking!

 

I'm thinking that 22 transports do not carry enough troops to occupy 1/2 of the US

 

Steven Spielberg made a very funny movie about the Japanese invasion scare in California, back in 1979. It was titled simply "1941", and had some pretty hilarious moments in it. Some of the actors included Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Treat Williams, Robert Stack, Toshiro Mifune, Slim Pickens, Chrsitopher Lee, and John Candy. It was nominated for three Oscars, but failed to win anything. It's still one of my favorite movies.

 

This is one of them movies you sit down and throw away the remote; so that you do NOT miss any of the good lines....

Holllllyyyyyy wwwwwwwoooooooooooddddddddd........

 

Crewed by Germans...

And had the silohuette of a GATO class US sub.....

 

Hey boy, watch that knife....

 

"Yer gonna bomb John Wayne's house!"

 

The greatest concern on the West Coast was fifth-column activity amongst the ethnic Japanese population. That said there wasn't great concern Japan good project power as far east as Hawaii. After December 7th, it wasn't entirely known how far east Japan could project power, given the opportunity to do so.

Sure advancing to the Mississippi is far-fetched, certainly today but at the time the unknowns were of great concern.

Here's what some others had to say:

After 1 March 1942, the Japanese military leadership decided their war plans had been too conservative and pessimistic. They had expected to suffer a loss of one-fourth of all their forces in their offensives to date. In fact, the losses had been negligible. There offensives had been successful beyond there wildest expectations. Accordingly, Tojo and Yamamoto worked out a compromise agreement to extend the strategic objectives of the war plans to encompass an even larger area for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (Manchester 293-294).

Yamamoto's task was to advance Japan's control of the Pacific onwards to Alaska and Midway..... Yamamoto was to advance from the Aleutian Islands and move down the coast of Alaska through Dutch Harbor and Juneau towards Washington, capture Hawaii, and use Alaska and Hawaii as bases for further raids upon the Pacific Coast from British Columbia to California. (Manchester 293-294; Garfield, 4-8,44, Layton, 383)

Japanese air bases in Alaska would be within three hours bombing distance of the Boeing aircraft plant and Bremerton Naval Shipyard in the Seattle, Washington region. (Garfield, 16)

At the time 60-70% of the total US Military aircraft production was here on the West Coast within 10-100 miles of the coastline.

Japanese submarine-launched scouting type aircraft were sent over Seattle.
(Craven, 277-286)

References:

Manchester William: American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964. Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Co.; 1978. pages 293-294

Garfield Brian: The Thousand-Mile War: World War II In Alaska and the Aleutians, 1st edition. New York; Ballantine; 1969. pages 4-8,16 & 44

Layton Edwen: And I was There, Pearl Harbor and Midway- Breaking the Secrets, page 383

Craven Frank Wesley & Cate James Lea: The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1, pages 277-286

Following their victory at Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral Yamaguchi distributed a blueprint calling for the invasion of Hawaii and subsequently.. "carrying the war to the West Coast hitting the enemy in its homeland and denying it access to overseas supplies"

And Rear Adm. Tanetsugu Soso wrote regarding his plans for attacking the US mainland in the Japan Times and Advertiser just before the Battle of Midway:

"The idea that the US can not be invaded is a myth, much as the Maginot Line, Pearl Harbor and Singapore were impregnable."

The above was taken from the book "Through Japanese Eyes" by Professor John Stephen, University of Hawaii.

According to US Naval Intelligence at the time the Japanese Military had intentions of attacking the West Coast of Canada and the United States during WW II it was proposed as part of a Japanese strategic master plan and I quote:

".......the plan's ambitious third phase called for the "capture of Hawaii and the outlying islands, attack on the United States, Canada, Panama Canal, as well as Central America until the United States loses its fighting spirit and the war can be brought to a conclusion" p383

From: And I was There: Pearl Harbor and Midway-- Breaking the Secrets, by Rear Admiral Edwin Layton USN (ret)

So it's easy to poo-poo Bruce Williams today, but given the chance nobody really knows how far Japan could or would have advanced. Having traveled much of the West I do know there isn't a heck of a lot between the West Coast and The Rockies or The Rockies and the Mississippi.

 

"If there's one thing I can't stand seeing, it's Americans fighting Americans."

 

P.S. It's nice to see they're still debating the West Coast Evacuation on the radio. It's too bad so few people have any real knowledge of the history. Bruce should invite expert guests from both sides of the debate. That'd be a nice change over the one-sided portrayal of this history that people are digesting regularly today.