Word: fleetly
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...bases is distance. Mightily fortified Pearl Harbor in Hawaii is the only U. S. base west of San Diego where the main fleet could be sheltered, fueled, repaired in wartime. The waters where the U. S. would have to fight an offensive war in the Pacific are Japan's waters - 4,500 to 6,000 perilous miles beyond Pearl Harbor. That is too far for the main fleet to go, fight, return: its practicable battle radius (with due allowance for cruising and combat maneuvers) is 2,500 to 2,700 miles from its base.* Such is the elemental, geographic...
...successors venerate both him and his luck, but they know what the rule of Pacific distance means for them. They cannot count on the kind of war for which their fleet is designed: one in which the tremendous line of battleships has a fair chance to meet and crush the enemy...
Another kind of war would be more likely. Cruisers, aircraft, submarines would use the main fleet as a floating base, raid Japan's trade and naval lanes (see map, pp. 14-15}. That would be a long, negative and costly war, would require a stupendous naval effort. If it chose, the U. S. could certainly make the effort, in the end would probably...
Counting the Cost. The political strategy of the U. S. has not been, however, to beat Japan at sea. It has been to keep the fleet in position so that Japan could not risk overseas adventure. Withdraw the fleet to the Atlantic and the U. S. may soon begin to see the conquests that its fleet has hitherto forestalled without fighting. Already the costs of that withdrawal have been counted. The U. S. with its half-based fleet in the Pacific might have to pay the costs anyhow. Japan well knows that with the U. S. Fleet in the Atlantic...
Moving of the U. S. Fleet to the Atlantic means rear-guard tactics have played out. One form of action remains for the U. S.: to invite Japan to a round-table examination of the Pacific problem. Thus the U. S. might lump all its Pacific eggs, bargain on behalf of the Philippines, of The Netherlands East Indies, and even Australia, perhaps win for China better terms than are now in sight. The U. S. has much to offer hard-pressed, sorely drained Japan. The U. S. also has much to gain, including insurance of U. S. supply sources...