Which was one of the reasons I never believed FDR knew an attack was coming at Pearl Harbor and let it happen.
If the Japanese pulled off their original plan we’d have been up a creek trying to fight the war from San Francisco.
The higher ups had strong suspicions about and attack coming but exactly where they did not know. I think they all thought it would happen in the Philippines.
That alone would have been enough to pull us into the war.
An attack on the Philippines would probably have been enough to pull us in but as divided as the country was I doubt it would’ve been enough to generate the unified maximum response PH did. Many in the US didn’t think we had any business having colonies, much less defending them.