[quote=@Dinh AaronMk] There's really no one stopping anyone from doing anything with the US dead in the water. And really, I'd argue that the Pacific States wouldn't be in any condition to deploy a naval response force to a Japanese invasion. A lot of what the US Navy had to offer was set up or an fit for a nation with as large an infrastructure as it had. Large battle-tubs like Battleships are only really major sea-power platforms, as well as aircraft carriers. Their intensive resource and manpower demands means that they'd be all too expensive for any US rump-state to use. Not to mention the Republican Party at the time was a very much anti-military party and advocated a small army, and at the time after the First World War, with the War to End all Wars having been fought, the incentive for the US to have an army would have shrunk and all that's left of any military infrastructure is skeletal. And it'd be hard for any rump-state to validate any sort of military expansion under present conditions. [/quote] Oh I'm not trying to imply otherwise, I'm well aware of the accute shortage of industry and manpower needed to build up and sustain anything the size of the American Navy. And I'm for certain having no plans for meeting the Japanese Imperial Navy head-on (exactly why I'd like them as an ally rather than an enemy). I'm simply saying that if push comes to shove, I can't see me just letting Japan take Hawaii without me putting up a fight.