Most people know about the German U-boats and how they tried to strangle England.
Very few know about our submarine fleet, and how they DID strangle Japan. By the end of the war, the Japanese basically had no transport shipping left, it had all been sunk, largely by U.S. submarines.
Most people know about the German U-boats and how they tried to strangle England.
And England’s Naval Blockade tried to strangle Germany.
All’s fair in war.
> By the end of the war, the Japanese basically had no transport shipping left, it had all been sunk <
Here’s a chart showing Japanese merchant ship losses by year. Notice how the tonnage really dropped off in 1945. It wasn’t because our submarines were slacking. As you noted, it was because there were only few Japanese merchant ships left to target.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_successful_American_submarines_in_World_War_II
Most people know about the German Enigma cipher, and how the British at Bletchley Park successfully cracked it, greatly aiding in winning the war ...
Very few know about the Japanese Naval (JN25) and Diplomatic (”Purple”) ciphers and how the American Navy and Army codebreakers successfully cracked it, greatly aiding in winning the war ...
[snip] Yeah, the coauthor of "The Shattered Sword" (I don't remember names well, and am too lazy to look it up) noted that, as the War Dep't only awarded sinkings if there was third party or other verification, so the US sinkings of Japanese shipping (by air, surface ships, or subs) added up to 8 million tons. The Japanese figure is 11 million tons. As you noted above, it became difficult to find anything to sink by early 1944.
US sub fleet in late 1941 wasn't large, seems like the figure is in the low dozens, with some of the vessels 20 years old. By the end of the war, even after battle losses, the US sub fleet was something like 250 strong, and the subs were better, newer, and more advanced. Oh, the torpedo problems got solved around the end of 1943.
The Japanese took the Dutch East Indies, including Borneo, which had rubber, oil, coal, and iron ore (if memory serves), but the US never put boots on the ground there. It was just a matter of keeping the J merchant marine from moving the raw materials to Japanese factories and shipbuilding.
I repeat myself (as I often do) -- the Japanese attack on the US on Dec 7 '41 was the biggest military blunder of all time, and probably in the top five of blunders of any kind.
Imagine if you will, the Japanese wrap up their campaign in the Solomons (including Port Moresby) and take over Australia before (or instead of) attacking the US. Ouch.
And just a few months into our involvement, the tactically insignificant Doolittle's Raid took place. It was a massive humiliation, and must have sobered them up in Tokyo -- "uh, all our cities are on the coasts..." [/snip]