Chapter 5 1.2 The U.S. War Plan against Japan (Plan Orange)

In the Russo-Japanese War, which started with a surprise attack on Lushunkou, our army launched continuous attacks on land and sea.By January 1 of the following year (1905), the world-famous fortress Lushun Fortress was captured.The Russian fortress fleet was destroyed along with the fortress.On March 10, the Japanese army defeated the Russian Army in the wilderness of Fengtian.Then, in the Battle of the Sea of ​​Japan on May 27, the Baltic Fleet, which traveled 18,000 nautical miles to the Far East, was wiped out, achieving an unprecedented victory in the history of naval warfare. In September of the same year, under the mediation of then U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, Japan and Russia concluded a peace treaty at Portsmouth on the east coast of the United States, ending the war.

Just when our people stopped Russia, which threatened Japan's security from the mainland, and drank the wine of victory, the United States had already secretly formulated a plan to go to war with Japan in an attempt to replace Russia's expansion of power in the Far East. Only two months after the Russo-Japanese war broke out, that is, in April 1904, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General Adonna R. Generals meeting four) recommended the formulation of a series of unified action plans that require the coordination of the army and navy in the event of extraordinary events.Starting from this, the United States formulated a series of combat plans including the war against Japan.Regarding the reasons for developing these plans, the published history of the war of the United States Army makes the following explanation:

Each plan in this series of operational plans is formulated to deal with specific extraordinary situations that have occurred in those countries included in the plan. The code names of these countries are represented by different colors: red for Britain and black for Germany , green for Mexico and orange for Japan.Based on this war plan, the field commanders of the army and navy drew up the battle plan.In some cases, early war planning amounted to abstract training with little to do with actual events.However, on the issue of Japan, the Orange Plan was often re-studied and revised repeatedly in order to adapt to changes in the international situation.

This publicly released war history also narrates the research on the "Orange Project" dealing with Japan-US relations and the situation in the Far East, as well as the strategic value of the Pearl Harbor base to Japan and the defense of the Philippines: It was in the summer of 1907 that the various plans for resisting the Japanese attack were seriously studied for the first time.Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War, and the tension between Japan and the United States in 1906 over racial discrimination among schoolchildren in San Francisco, were reminders that war could happen.Everyone felt that war was imminent.Defending U.S. interests in the Far East, especially the newly acquired Philippines in the Spanish-American War of 1898, has become a major issue.

On June 18, 1907, in response to President Roosevelt's question, the Joint Conference of the Army, Adviser and Army made a suggestion that the U.S. fleet should be sent to the Far East as soon as possible, and the U.S. Army and Navy troops stationed in the Philippines must be strengthened so that they can defend The extent of the naval base at Subic Bay (outside Manila Bay).In this proposal, the Joint Conference held that, in view of Japan's combat capabilities, the United States would have to take a defensive position in the Pacific and would have to continue this attitude until reinforcements could be dispatched.This idea, adopted as a last resort in 1907, was the basic policy of the U.S. Pacific strategy, and even the general basis of the war against Japan.

Although the 1907 crisis survived, it clearly revealed two weaknesses in the US position in the Pacific: first, the need for large naval bases in the Pacific; A strong force, otherwise the Philippines cannot be kept. Regarding these two issues, the U.S. Army’s publicly released war history has the following records: Regarding the naval base.First, should the United States choose the Philippines or Hawaii as its major naval base in the Pacific Ocean?Second, if you choose the Philippines, is it in Subic Bay or Manila Bay?Although the Army strongly advocated setting up a major base in the Philippines, in January 1908 it was still decided to use Pearl Harbor as the base.This base is not only to defend the Hawaiian Islands, but also to serve as a buffer zone to defend the entire Pacific coast, which is the basis for the U.S. Navy's dominance in the Pacific.

Although Hawaii has been chosen as a base in the Pacific, the problem of defending the Philippines, which is 5,000 miles away, remains unresolved.Therefore, it was decided to build a naval repair facility and a Class B naval fleet base in the Philippines.The U.S. Navy originally wanted the base to be located in Subic Bay, but the Army decided that Cavite in Mara Bay was appropriate on the grounds that the site could not defend against attacks from land, and concentrated its defense in Manila Bay and its surrounding areas.The plan was to fortify Corregidor Island at the mouth of Manila Bay to shield the naval base and the city of Manila.

However, the defense of Manila Bay and the fortification of Corregidor Island alone cannot guarantee the defense of the Philippines.An absolutely necessary condition is to have a strong fleet stationed in the Philippine base, because once the command of the sea is lost, the enemy's ground forces will attack aggressively, and it is not known how long it can last only by relying on the fleet westward from Pearl Harbor However, since the United States occupied the Philippines through the Spanish-American War and until the middle of the Taisho Era, Japan did not attempt to capture the Philippines.However, the United States believes that Japan has such an attempt, so it promotes its Pacific strategy.In the final analysis, it is the United States that regards Japan as the number one imaginary enemy country.The reason for this is that the United States is trying to use the Philippines, which is 7,000 miles away from its mainland, to carry out a policy of expansion to the Far East, especially to China, but the military power centered on the Philippines is extremely weak. The United States is worried about this situation It will only end up providing hostages to Japan.