[Dilbert San Diego]

The way things are now, World War II would have played out completely differently than it did then.

We would not have committed to total victory after Pearl Harbor.

We would not have gotten involved in Europe at all, because the European Axis powers had not attacked us. We would have been limited to actions against Japan only. And we would not have set the goal of total victory.

[okie01]

We would not have gotten involved in Europe at all, because the European Axis powers had not attacked us.

However, the Axis powers had declared war against us -- which makes it hard to avoid declaring war against them.

[Jim Noble]

“We would not have committed to total victory after Pearl Harbor”

We would have sent special forces to arrest Fuchida and put him on trial in a civilian court in California, with special care to allow him to continue Shinto worship in custody.

[TexasFreeper2009]

Heck, today they would have apologized to Japan for whatever angered them so much to attack us! And then made every school child take Japanese appreciation classes! Created a national Japanese Month, and had the president go over in person to apologize for our insensitivity.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

We would not have committed to total victory after Pearl Harbor.

We would not have gotten involved in Europe at all, because the European Axis powers had not attacked us. We would have been limited to actions against Japan only. And we would not have set the goal of total victory.

You don’t understand. After the fall of France in May, 1940, the Establishment was more terrified of Hitler than it is of Donald Trump now.

You know that Britain was terrified of Hitler by then, because that is when Britain sent over a pallet load of secrets to America. An Army officer was sent to pick up what was assumed to be a briefcase of secrets, and found himself seriously embarrassed for lack of manpower to secure and transport a pallet load of paper and exhibits documenting British military technology. FDR was afraid of the possible fall of Britain resulting in the takeover of the Royal Navy by Hitler. So FDR was not waiting for Pearl Harbor to begin preparations for entering the war.

Freedom's Forge:

How American Business Produced Victory in World War II
Arthur Herman

goes into the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the US military buildup prior to Pearl Harbor. You will object that the US was woefully unprepared when it entered WWII, and you will be absolutely right - and dead wrong. True, the US did not have the inventory of military equipment it sorely needed. But what it did have is the physical plant and modern machinery in place to produce them. And that was not because it had been in place in 1939, but because FDR had gone around Congress to get that plant and equipment built. WWII ended the Depression, and it did so before Pearl Harbor.

That plant and equipment was already busy producing, and ramping up production rates, before Pearl Harbor. The reason we had scant military resources in being in America was that we were already sending them to Britain as fast as we could. So the cupboard was pretty much bare, but that was strictly a temporary situation. US production exceeded that of all Axis powers during the war.

So in a sense, Hitler’s mistake was to delay declaring war on the US until after Pearl Harbor; the US was functioning as best it could to help his enemies, including the USSR, before Pearl Harbor. FDR knew he needed 18 months to ramp up production; he was far from wanting to fight before that 18 months was up. Which just happened, if you believe in coincidences, to coincide with December 1941 . . .

[QualityMan]

all true, but for the sake of historical accuracy, Hitler and Germany DID declare war on the United States.

So, we would have been compelled to fight, regardless.

I think...