Definitely deal with germany first, they're the bigger threat really. After they're done simply isolate Japan and starve them of rescources until they surrender.

I've seen this film before, I learnt so much German

Germany considering you had to rebuild the pacific fleet

Take out Japan and annex them into the United States. Free sushi for Americans and Pacific dominance. Let Germany conquer Western Europe after negotiating a peace treaty so long as Germany provides sausage and saurkraut free to all Americans. Now no one in America will ever starve. Hunger crisis solved.

Considering the Japanese will fight tooth and nail until they are utterly decimated or outright destroyed (bushido, honor code, for da emprah and all of that), I will focus the main brunt of my forces on Germany and the rest of the axis powers in Europe, while leaving a token force to otherwise stall any Japanese advance and secure what we already have out in the pacific. By eliminating the Axis powers in Europe first I can then recoup any of my losses, regroup and coordinate with my remaining allies on the Japan issue. Then begin the long drawn out fight of island hopping all over the Pacific.

Beat Germany first, then proceed to just nuke the shit out of the japs

ITT: Arm Chair war analysts

wasnt Germany the main enemy in WW2? Take them out first before they form alliances. Drop the atomic bomb on them instead of Japan.

Historical. The way it was done worked out best, even if more could have been done.

Woot! Raptor topic! You didn't specify at what month in 1942 we're talking about precisely but you said... [quote]Now in this time frame Guadalcanal has already been successfully invaded by now as well, the war in North Africa presses on with the British making gains against Rommel in the sands of Northern Africa, the British press you on aiding them their and preparing a possible invasion of Germany as early as late 1942 to a early 1943 time table. [/quote] So Guadalcanal has started and the British are making gains. That puts us after El Alamein, meaning November of 1942. Stalingrad is still up in the air but the German 6th Army got surrounded that month. Things are looking pretty good for the Allies, right? Britain advancing, USA taking the offensive in the Solomons, and the Soviets about to deal a real stinger to the Germans. Not so fast my friend! This war was a dog fight in November of 1942 and was only clearly turning around in hindsight. Guadalcanal was not a sure thing until the Japanese evacuated in early 1943, in fact the campaign was extraordinarily risky and almost turned disastrous a couple of times in late '42. Stalingrad didn't have to be the strategic disaster for Germany that it was. General Paulus begged to be allowed to break out of the Soviet pin and save most of his army but was denied that opportunity by Hitler's pride. While it all worked out in the end, my gut says Japan for a number of reasons. Obviously there was that Pearl Harbor tomfoolery. Plus a chance to deal with Japanese imperialism in the Far East, a problem that the USA had been looking at for 20 years nervously. The Philippines had been ours since the Spanish-American war, and now, the Japanese were sitting on them. Japan had no major force other than the United States to oppose it: Britain had far larger concerns, China was a colossal mess, and Australia didn't have the means to resist a true Japanese push. The major counterpoint to my case is simple logistics. We had Great Britain, world's greatest aircraft carrier/troop barracks/motor pool/staging area sitting spitting distance from Germany. We can hop over there in a jiffy without having to worry about more than a few U-Boats and the whole Royal Navy rolling out the welcome carpet. Do you really want to try to get millions upon millions of GIs and all their gear/food from California to New Guinea and little islands without major ports across the largest ocean on earth? With the Imperial Japanese Navy licking its chops at the prospect? The simple fact is that it was exponentially [i]easier[/i] to project American power against Germany than Japan. And that means I'd probably have to overrule my own gut.

I would have loved to see a nuclear weapon crack open Hitler's bunker in Berlin, but I think bringing Japan to it's knees was more important.

I'd take out Japan first since Russia and Britain were already focusing on the Germans, putting them in an 'I'm screwed sandwich." After I gained an advantage over Japan, I would begin to phase divisions over to the European Front.

Germany, because Hitler was objectively evil.

I would have destroyed Russia before moving on to Natzis.

What exactly is wrong about the historic way? The US got its swift victory anyway with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaski.