In The Man In The Highcastle universe the Japanese conquer the west coast of America & turn it into a colony. During WW2 did Americans really believe the Japanese wanted to, or were capable of doing that?

by grapp

Philip k Dick would have been a young teenager during the war

ResearcherAtLarge

They certainly believed that the Japanese might attack at least, as seen by the network of facilities built near the coast and also inland (such as the Naval Ordnance Plant in Pocatello, Idaho) and "passive defense" camouflage ordered for military and critical civilian facilities in case of air attack.

If there was a serious notion about invasion, the leadership didn't appear to roll it down hill. I've been through the security officer's files for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard near Seattle and there's lots of things about aerial attack, but no plans for invasion.

BaffledPlato

To help bolster OP's question some time ago a thread in /r/MapPorn showed what was supposedly an American anti-war propaganda map from 1937. It shows the US divided very similarly to the situation in Philip K. Dick's book, with the West Coast under Japanese(?) domination.

If this map is real, does anyone know the story behind it?

Direct imgur link to map.

Char_Aznable_Custom

I've never heard of any reasonable expectation of Japanese colonization of the US mainland but the internment of Japanese-Americans/expats gives a strong indication that some sort of 5th column sabotage effort was perceived to be possible.

It also bears mentioning that The Man in the High Castle's setting is supposed to be a deliberately counter-factual parallel to the real world. Rather than America colonizing Japan and Germany the reverse happened in Dick's universe. The practical considerations of the setting were much less important than the thematic value.