All the time, I hear "it's really difficult to invade islands using weapons." But Japan invaded like every island in the Pacific except Hawaii and Australia, and obviously succeeded just fine, and the US later did the same to Italy. Why was this the case?
No resistance at the beach
>>64656095>Why was this the case?A massive overwhelming difference in power.
>>64656095Due to the treaty the Japanese didn't have to worry too much about defenses with few exceptions. As for Italy see>>64656117
>>64656095>really difficult to invade islands using weaponsEven more difficult to invade without weapons
>>64656095It turns out it's much easier to invade islands before they've had literally years of fortifications built on them.
>>64656095Depends who is on the island>A bunch of tribals with spears while you have a modern military>trivial>People with the ability to actually sink a ship>Significantly harder
Japan struck fast against undefended or otherwise poorly defended colonial outposts using light infantry. But this wasn't easy and they still ended up with mass starvation due to bad logistics. People just underestimate Japan in WW2 when they clearly had a huge 'tism buff that allowed them to execute complex plans so long as there's no variables at work.>US later did the same to ItalyThe Italians were done with Mussolini with the fall of North Africa and the south in particular was never all that loyal to what was a regime centred around Milan.
>>64656095the role of the navy is virtually left out of all these discussionsJapan dedicated their main battle fleet to invading lightly-garrisoned and virtually unfortified colonial backwaters with minimal naval and air force presence.besides, the Allies didn't do that "fighting to the last man" shit. you might argue that this resulted in fewer Japanese casualties, but it also means that 150,000 Allied personnel could be repatriated after WW2 who would otherwise be KIA. And don't forget that this number could have been at least 110,000 more if the Japs weren't brutal murdering bastards
