| The Aleutians were always a diversion (that didn't work), but the perceived threat was always higher in the American psyche than the reality.
I don't think the Japanese ever intended a major invasion of the US - why enter the hornets nest? But the deployment of troops as to make it look like an attack/invasion was a possibility was a tactical master-stroke as it diverted many resources away from the real front-line. It's just that Japanese (except Yamamoto) never really grasped that even these diverted resources were only a small fraction of America's potential, and so didn't make much of a difference to the overall outcome.
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