After 1937, could Japan have pursued any other realistic alternatives to war with the USA to preserve its large empire?

If they could somehow convince the US that they'd be better off with a Japanese managed Asia-Pacific. But that's not very likely as American leadership at the time was staunchly anti-colonialist, and Japan was more or less imitating the German colonial models they absorbed post WWI.

That said, they did try to spin their expansionism as "liberating" the Pacific from Western imperialism, especially in the DEI where you have those war crimes committed against German Catholic missionaries, priests, and nuns, but it was always obvious what Japan's true motives were. You don't spend decades recreating the British navy not to use it.

>Also, dig a little deeper in Manchuko. During the Manchuko period, the Japanese dug all over its new territories, but just missed (and by just missed as in ~100 meters) what would (in the PRC period) become the Daqing oil field, China's largest oil field (2.2 billion tons of Petrol total).
They lacked the hardware to drill that oil and the US wasn't gonna give it to them. There's a theory that US oil prospectors were already aware of Daqing's potential but didn't want Japan to profit off of it.

I wonder what would've happened if Japan decided to back its historical alliance with Britain when WW2 breaks out? Japan decides to repeat their WW1 role in assisting Britain and sends a naval task force. Meanwhile they refrain from being aggressive to European colonies in Asia. What then?

>Japan decides to repeat their WW1 role in assisting Britain and sends a naval task force.
Where? Japan took all of Germany's Chinese holdings. Or are you suggesting they send their ships all the way around to Europe? It would be a nice token effort, but it certainly wouldn't sway the Anglo-American alliance; Japan could never provide as much war materiel as quickly to the UK as the USA.

Not to mention IJN ASW was not known for its effectiveness.

What about their carriers? Couldn't that have played a decisive role in the Battle of Britain?

Not him, but carriers of any sort would have been near worthless in the Battle of Britain: That was dominated by land based planes, not CVP.

What makes carrier planes good is that they can project force into places that you can't cover with land based planes. If you're hopping from island to island in the Pacific where each one is hundreds or even a thousand miles away from the nearest base, that's critical.

When you have hundreds of land based (i.e., bigger, faster, better armed) planes mixing it up, the carrier planes just get swatted.

Honestly, if the Japanese did show up and help, they'd probably be more use in the Med. And even that would more be from sending over their land based planes than their carriers.

>What about their carriers?
That's an interesting question, and personally I think that the IJN carriers would only have been useful as an aircraft transport. In the European theater, carriers are always under the threat of land-based bombers and attacks. That's why the British opted for armored decks at the cost of hangar space (unlike the US and Japan, which opted for big, unarmored hangars). In the Mediterranean Illustrious took fifteen dive bombs and was still operable. The Hiryuu took four, Akagi took one, Kaga four and Souryuu three at Midway before succumbing,

Combine poor Japanese damage control, barely-functional Radar (if any), lack of armor, ineffective ASW and poor Anti-aircraft weaponry, and it makes a combination that sounds like they'd be easily taken out by the Germans if they were used in a traditional aircraft carrier role.

Also Japanese planes' advantages were maneuverability and extremely long legs, and they sacrificed a lot in terms of survivability for that. While maneuverability is still useful, long range would be useless in the Battle of Britain (though it would have been useful in the bombing of Germany in escorting strategic bombers).

That's precisely why I think the Med would be the place for them. With those long legs they can accompany bombers on patrol into sealanes or on deeper operational strikes that the British favored at a time where nothing else really could.

The Med is pretty much the only part of the war in Europe early on where that kind of range means something.

Carriers were not seen as incredibly important until the late 30s and late 40s when significant advances in aeronautics allowed larger payloads on carrier borne aircraft. Before then, carriers were part of the support arm of the fleet with battleships being the centre of the fleet.

Against land based planes, carrier borne aircraft were generally worse because they had restraints due to take off space and a carrier cannot carry as much aircraft as an airfield.

britain was getting materiel using cash and carry at this point

>I wonder what would've happened if Japan decided to back its historical alliance with Britain when WW2 breaks out?

Here's an article explaining FDR's refusal to negotiate political and territorial issues during the war, something he was criticized for not doing when the US had more leverage of the Soviets. This policy would have flown directly into the face of Japan's war ambitions.

>Two Roosevelt Decisions: One Debit, One Credit, 1951
mega.nz/#!cYwG2KSI!l_TSu24Cs8-ItnW31Eju_yZArkovEaW-cSfJtAxehyo

The US did not give a rat's ass what they were doing in China. They put an embargo on Japan for forming an alliance with Italy and Germany.

>The US did not give a rat's ass what they were doing in China.

Amazing how easily historical facts are disregarded by this board.

Is that what they taught you in American education?

Continue as normal and take Beijing and also Hainan, but then offer a ceasefire and use Beijing as a bargaining chip and take advantage of Kuomintang political instability to secure Hainan, the border with Liaodong and Manchuria, transport of military supplies through their territory and prevent Kuomintang support of partisans, communists and warlords in central Asia. This will demonstrate Japan's goal was just to secure Manchuria not the unlikely goal of conquering China.

Offer the Kuomintang support in their fight against the communists and hand Beijing to Chiang Kai Shek who is in need of more political power. Beijing is a short distance from the border so basically his balls will be in a vice grip yet he will also have the military strength to maintain his power in the Kuomintang and make sure Japan's interests are catered to. If it does [colapse] it will provide an excuse for Japan to invade and take more territory, they know this though so it is unlikely.

Next divert Japan's military resources towards the swift capture of inner Mongolia and communist held territory, ostensibly alongside a Kuomintang campaign against the communists, really the goal is to capture communist territory. Next will be Xinjiang and anything they can occupy before the Kuomintang arrive. Railroads will have to be promptly built through Japanese territory in inner Mongolia.

Then wait until ww2 kicks off. Sign an alliance with Poland or something so they have an excuse to invade the Soviet Union.

The comintern pact with Germany and Poland will be defensive only, so Japan is not obliged to declare war against the United States (or Germany), only the Soviet Union. The entire Japanese army will be focused on the Soviet Union instead of being bogged down in China.

The end result will be something like this by 1943, in large part due to the Soviet Union being unable to receive supplies from the east and suffering greater losses against Germany.

ok now nitpick and call me a retard

What's stopping America from the oil and steel embargo? The better Japan did, the earlier the embargo, stopping the embargo would have required Japan to withdraw to status quo. Furthermore, it would have been political suicide for Chiang to make peace with Japan after Beijing was taken unless Japan withdraws back to pre-war borders, making the entire thing moot.

Furthermore, even during the battle of Moscow, the reserves were raised from Siberia, not the Far East, making advancing for Japan nearly impossible unless Japan allies with KMT which is nearly impossible as it would have been political suicide for the KMT to do so.