many alternative outcomes were discussed at the time. The world of August 1945 was only one of several that seemed possible in early December 1941. Japan might have attacked the Soviet Union to avenge the defeats of 1938–1939. Russia might have declared war on Japan in solidarity with the Western Allies. Hitler might have backed out of declaring war on the United States.167 Japan could have attacked the British Empire only, and not the Americans. Each of these alternatives, and their permutations, would have produced a substantially different world in 1945.
