Why Invading Taiwan Is So Incredibly Difficult, Explained

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In 1944, at the height of the Second World War, the United States military was preparing for an invasion of Taiwan. Its code name was Operation Causeway and Formosa, as the island was called at the time, was an important outpost of the Japanese imperial army.

The U.S. at the time had a standing force of more than 10 million soldiers, it had successfully pulled off the Normandy landing, the largest amphibious invasion in history and it had numerical and technological superiority over the Japanese.

But in the end, they decided to call off the invasion. Why? Because the world's most powerful military decided that it was just too difficult.

Today, we often talk about the Chinese invasion of Taiwan, whether they'll do it and what it might look like, but we often forget that doing so would mean pulling off one of the most difficult military operations in history. One that even the U.S. didn't want to go through and one that would be much much more complicated today, than it was back then.

So, why is it so hard?