WWII on the US mainland?

The fake quote about Japan not attacking the US because of all the American guns is exactly that: fake. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour brought the US into the war, but that was not in the 48 States. The Japanese had their own version of the Doolittle raid, but they used a submarine instead of using an Aircraft carrier. Unfortunately, the type of plane and navigation system meant that the submarine based raids were more a morale booster for the Japanese than a significant action.

Likewise, There were things like the Bombardment of Ellwood, CA by submarine.  And the Japanese firebomb baloon programme which were also dismal failures. The bottom line was that most WWII bombers did not have the range to attack the mainland US.  The Germans did have their Amerika Bomber programme, which fortunately didn't get anywhere.  Even more fortunately, the German rocket and heavy water programmes never got anywhere either.
So, it was primarily logistics and inability to hit the US mainland which is far more of a reason the US was never attacked.

Still, there was also a sea war off the coast of the US. The period from January to around August 1942 was called the Second Happy Time, or American Shooting Season, by German U-Boat Commanders. US Anti-submarine defense measures were weak and disorganized during
that period The U-boats were able to inflict massive damage with little risk. During this period, Axis submarines sank 609 ships totaling 3.1 million tons and the loss of thousands of lives, mainly those of merchant mariners, against a loss of only 22 U-boats. This was roughly one quarter of all shipping sunk by U-boats during the entire Second World War.

  The German submarine U-869 was found off the coast of New Jersey in 1991. The U-550 was found off the Coast of Massachusetts in 2012.  The latest find is in North Carolina.  Unlike the other two U-boats I mentioned, this one also has one of its victims nearby.

A research team using sonar found the wrecks of U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields on 30 August in waters off Cape Hatteras, just 240 yards apart. The U-boat had attacked the Bluefields, which was operating under the flag of Nicaragua and was part of a convoy of 19 merchant ships.

There are at least another 19 of these German submarines lying off the US Coast.

The reality is that North America was attacked during WWII, but most of those have been forgotten due to the ineffectiveness and relative insignificance of the attacks on the US Mainland.  The reality was that it wasn't guns that kept the US from being attacked as much as other strategic considerations which made a large scale attack, like that at Pearl Harbour, unlikely.


See also:

• Misquoting Yamamoto
  
• Japanese Bomb the Continental U. S. West Coast
• Japanese bombing of the US West Coast in WWII
• Attacks on North American in WWII
• BBC News - WW2 U-boat found with ship it sank off North Carolina
• Wreck of German U-boat and ship it sank found off North Carolina coast | US news | theguardian.com 
• US Coastal Defences WWII

Tojo never made it to Darwin

Do you really think it was guns that kept the Japanese from Invading the Continental US?

Are you people really that ignorant?

The range of a heavy bomber during WWII was around 3000 miles.  That means that whatever mission the plane flew it would have to be able to get back home (or are you silly enough to think the bombers would have landed on enemy territory and said "hey, could you fill 'er up--we need to get home?").

Germany would have been the more likely candidate to bomb the US, and even had a bomber on the drawing boards which could have done that.  Fortunately, Hitler was a terrible military mind and went into battle without being properly prepared.

Das ist eine gute Sache, denn dieses wäre in deutscher Sprache abzufassen hatten sie den Krieg gewonnen (unter anderem).

Anyway, Japan is roughly 10,000 miles from the US mainland.  As you may know (but you are probably too ignorant) that Gen. Doolittle had to launch his raid on Tokyo via aircraft carrier (as was also the case with the Pearl Harbour raid) since most planes couldn't have made the distance across the Pacific Ocean (oe even the Atlantic).

But, I hate to break it to you--the Japanese DID bomb the US mainland, but due to the size of the aircraft (among other things), this event is not too well known:

Most Americans probably believe that continental United States has never been bombed. The relative isolation of America, plus the defensive strengths of its Air Force and Navy, have supposedly eliminated such a threat. But is that really true? The answer is no–America has been bombed from the air, not once but twice. These little-publicized events took place in September 1942, and the attacker was an aircraft launched from a submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN).

The IJN began experimenting with aircraft-carrying submarines in 1925. By the time of Pearl Harbor, 11 of its submarines were equipped to carry, launch, and recover one specially configured floatplane. Most of those early boats were classified as scouting submarines, B1 Type, of the I-15 class. They displaced 2,584 tons submerged and had a length of 356 feet. Powered by twin diesel engines and electric motors driving two propeller shafts, the B1 type boats had a cruising range of more than 14,000 miles. The crews were comprised of 97 officers and enlisted men, including the pilot and crewman for the single floatplane. Although the B1 type submarines carried an aircraft for reconnaissance purposes, they were also formidable attack boats, armed with 17 torpedoes and a 5.5.-inch thick deck gun.

Yes, the Japanese bombed and shelled the US mainland.  Of course, it was with little effect due to the weaponry not being powerful.  Not to mention there were a lot of other reasons Japan wasn't going to bother with the US mainland (hint--you would have had a lot more to fear from Germany, but that's another post).

And while gun loons like to say that Japan was deterred from attacking the US because of civilian guns and use a bogus quote to back that up: the reality is that civilian guns weren't a deterrent.

It was the practicality and necessity of attacking the US mainland that was the real deterrent from any SIGNIFICANT attack on the US mainland: not civilian guns.

See also:

• Misquoting Yamamoto
• Japanese Bombing of the US West Coast in WWII 
• Japanese Vengenance Balloon Bombs of World War II - J. David Rogers
• Oregon Responds to World War II: Bombs Fall on Oregon: Japanese Attacks on the State 
• When the Japanese Attacked Santa Barbara (1940s)
• Air Raids on Australia 1942-43

And while we're at it--a song about the Japanese bombing Australia: