My daughter is working on a school project.
She needs to know what were three things the U.S. did to hinder Japanese expansion.

I figured I would ask our panel of experts to stew on this one and help her out

Thanks

IMHO I would say the biggest were:

Cut off shipments of raw materials to the mainland.Particularly oil and metals. (lack of machinery and fuel for expansion)

Destroy the imperial navy. The Pacific has always been ruled by the nation with the most powerful navy. (thus allowing expansion)

Destroy manpower. Less troops to occupy lands that would be ripe for expanding into. I'm thinking along the lines of firebombings.

Like I said before, these are just my ideas and opinions. There are some guys out here that know a great deal more. I would just take the overall consensus if you can find one and run with that! Tell your daughter to work hard and study and it will pay off.

Its a bit debatable and again whose point of view but the Japanese did themselves in about as much as the Americans did to hinder their expansion. In that sense the US may not have directly hindered their expansion.

The Japanese basically over extended themselves as the area that they held at the end of 1942 was stretching their logistics beyond their max. Furthermore instead of the much touted get ridding of colonial forces that the Japanese claimed to have brought to the Asian region they never got the support of the local populace that was needed. This meant they had to station forces in larger numbers and everywhere as well. Their territory was just 1 huge coastline open to invasion.

As for the US winning the war, firstly for me would be the damage the US Navy did to the Imperial Navy which really hit the Jap logistics hard. Secondly would be the industrial might of the US and the other allies as well. In a war of attrition that makes a bit difference. Thirdly the Japs had no one to turn to with the war turning in favor of the Allies in Europe toward the end. With Germany out of the picture the Allies directed more and more of their assets to fight the Japs.

Thanks gentlemen, she appreciates it very much

Mark

The key point sort of hinted at by the others is the almost total destruction of Japan's merchant Marine by the US submariners. The Japanese needed natural resources like rubber, oil, and iron. In the initial part of the war they had pretty much achieved obtaining those goals by taking over the southeast areas like the Dutch East Indies, Malaysia. The Eastward expansion attempt into Midway ad southerly towards Austrailia were mainly Military based to protect what they had gained. The destruction of the merchant marine meant these vital natural resources wern't able to make it to the home islands. Couple this with the eventual bombing of the home islands and military intervention / victories of the allies in Gaudalcanal and then the Carolie and Marshall islands......to finally Okinawa.

Hey, just wanted to give my thanks. My daughter used a combo of all the information provided, turned it in, and got an A+. The teacher was extremely impressed about the amount of detail provided when other students were trying to get away with short, one or two sentence answers.

Thanks again
Mark

That's us, were better than an encyclopedia. :-)

Agreed, problem now is that she will expect the same thing again because you guys pulled through so quick this time!!! You know how teenage girls are.