USA early entry to War.

[alspug]

What i am wondering is the possibility of for example UNIT 731 actions to include dropping plague and other nasty's over for example Shanghai international Settlments and repeat the Panay incident at the same time. Idea is for mid 1940. Great Britain is preoccupied but Japan does not have sufficent gear to start a war but are now at war. The USA is in worse condition with numerous obsolete and frankly useless aircraft.

What I want to know is would the deaths of 10,000 civilians in one incident be sufficent to go to war. Literally have newsreels filmed by dieing people and public opinion being twice as strong.

 

[Driftless]

It would probably need to be a cascade of targeted events specifically against US citizens and military to alter the mood of the country in those days. i.e. the events noted above and maybe sinking of a passenger ship or two and shooting up the survivors. Those types of heinous attacks would be required, I think. Even then, I think there would be a ton of home resistance.

Mid 1940, the US Army and US Army Air Corps would be very small in useful numbers and spread across the world. The equipment was behind the world curve for the most part. Even the famed M-1 Garand was in early days of deployment.

The US Navy was in better shape, but not anywhere near large enough, nor equipped yet for a prolonged war half the world away.

 

[Hugh Third of Five]

If you want earlier American entry, I would include a worse USS Panay incident.

 

[nbcman]

What i am wondering is the possibility of for example UNIT 731 actions to include dropping plague and other nasty's over for example Shanghai international Settlments and repeat the Panay incident at the same time. Idea is for mid 1940. Great Britain is preoccupied but Japan does not have sufficent gear to start a war but are now at war. The USA is in worse condition with numerous obsolete and frankly useless aircraft.

What I want to know is would the deaths of 10,000 civilians in one incident be sufficent to go to war. Literally have newsreels filmed by dieing people and public opinion being twice as strong.

If the deaths of 50-200k at Nanjing wasn't enough, a 1940 incident isn't enough. And why would Unit 731 be dropping plague over Shanghai which has been occupied by Japanese forces since 1937? Keep in mind that when the Japanese attacked Changde with cholera in 1941, the Japanese forces had 10,000 casualties and 1700 deaths. So Japanese forces weren't well prepared to protect themselves from the bio agents when they were exposed either.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

 

[Cryhavoc101]

It would probably need to be a cascade of targeted events specifically against US citizens and military to alter the mood of the country in those days. i.e. the events noted above and maybe sinking of a passenger ship or two and shooting up the survivors. Those types of heinous attacks would be required, I think. Even then, I think there would be a ton of home resistance.

Mid 1940, the US Army and US Army Air Corps would be very small in useful numbers and spread across the world. The equipment was behind the world curve for the most part. Even the famed M-1 Garand was in early days of deployment.

The US Navy was in better shape, but not anywhere near large enough, nor equipped yet for a prolonged war half the world away.

What ever the cause of an earlier US DOW it would result in an earlier Congress pulling their collective fingers out and funding the rearmament of the US Military establishment earlier.

Having this happen a year earlier results (more or less) with an earlier maturing of US Industry which did not happen OTL till 1943 is massive

Japan is not any more ready to take on the USA in 1940 than the USA was ready to take on Japan.

While the M1 was a great weapon wars are won by lots of Artillery, Tanks, aircraft, trucks, bombs bullets and butter and in WW2s case practical reliable radios.

The US Army could have continued to be armed with the M1903 Springfield throughout WW2 and it would not have changed the outcome of a single battle.

But it did not have to!

 

[Driftless]

What ever the cause of an earlier US DOW it would result in an earlier Congress pulling their collective fingers out and funding the rearmament of the US Military establishment earlier.

Having this happen a year earlier results (more or less) with an earlier maturing of US Industry which did not happen OTL till 1943 is massive

Japan is not any more ready to take on the USA in 1940 than the USA was ready to take on Japan.

While the M1 was a great weapon wars are won by lots of Artillery, Tanks, aircraft, trucks, bombs bullets and butter and in WW2s case practical reliable radios.

The US Army could have continued to be armed with the M1903 Springfield throughout WW2 and it would not have changed the outcome of a single battle.

But it did not have to!

Oh, certainly. I only threw in the reference to the Garand as a marker of how early on in the build up cycle the US was in mid 1940. More than a decade in development, but just entering useful production and deployment numbers.

Agreed on the relative state of the Japanese military. The one decided advantage for them - then - is that any fighting is right in their backyard, but for the US, it's the other side of the world - minus the ramped up production and logistical ability of 1943 and later, as you note

 

[Hugh Third of Five]

What ever the cause of an earlier US DOW it would result in an earlier Congress pulling their collective fingers out and funding the rearmament of the US Military establishment earlier.

Having this happen a year earlier results (more or less) with an earlier maturing of US Industry which did not happen OTL till 1943 is massive

Also earlier American entry into the Asia-Pacific War stands a good chance of bringing about a Nationalist victory in the Chinese Civil War.