Personally speaking i don't think Japan would have attacked either America or British colonies if they had not been preoccupied else where. Lets face it most of the the recent major military victories came about by attacking the opposition before declaring a war

Originally Posted by LeEnfield

Lets face it most of the the recent major military victories came about by attacking the opposition before declaring a war

Just recent ones?

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

There would have been another world war after WW1, Hitler or no Hitler. Hitler was a sign of the times, not a cause of it.

I'm not so sure. Hitler was insane enough to start war with almost entire world. If no Hitler, there maybe could be some local-scale war in Europe, but most likely no WW2.

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

If Hitler hadn't been around there was still Josef Stalin to contend with.

Right, Stalin was more pragmatic. If there was no Hitler and Germany with expansion politics, Stalin alone would not launch attack on Western world. Even Winter War was carried out in moment, when there were no significant threats to Finland become wide supported by western democracies since those were in war with Hitler and they did not need another enemy. If there was no war in West, although in form of `phony war`, Stalin most likely wouldn't be decided to attack Finland. He need a appropriate moment do it. And such moment could not occure if there was no Hitler.

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

Hitler, in a sense, was born in the wrong time. Had he been born in 300BC, 400AD or 1200AD, we'd be reading about the 'great conquerer' Adolf Hitler in our history books, instead of the inhuman monster he is known as today. He did nothing worse than what his predecessors did - the main difference was the scale.

Agree.

Originally Posted by perseus

Perhaps the European war, what about the Pacific theatre? It has been said that either would have happened without the other.

I think war in Pacific could happen, but without European Allies and theatre of war the Pacific war could be just large-scale local war, not World War. Something like Folklend War, just in bigger scale.