On the issue of the Pacific. It has been my experience that Japan tends to concentrate its efforts on the far East, leaving what resources it started with just “floating around” the Pacific. While it is understandable why Japan must commit to the far east in order to put pressure on Russia, it has been my practice to use the USA and it’s economic power to create and deploy a Pacific fleet in order to put enormous pressure on Japan by first conquering all the lightly defended islands and then assembling a huge landing party for the Japanese mainland. The Japanese are forced to pay attention and allocate resources in their defence. This will inevitably stall their far east efforts. If Japan ignores the USA buildup for too long, they will be in big trouble. If they commit naval resources, they will not have full force in their eastern operations. In any case, the USA will be effective in tying up the Japanese thus relieving the Russians from fighting a two war front, which they simply cannot afford.
…in summation, I always have lots of action in the Pacific when playing the USA. It works more often then not…with any luck. Like any “plan”, not always perfect.