For US1, why buy fighters/tacticals?
Even with a J1, you’ve got access to 5 fighters and 1 tactical, enough to fill 3 carriers (without a J1 you get one more fighter). What’s more, Hawaii is a scramble zone, so you don’t need carriers to get full use of the planes.
If Japan didn’t attack the Hawaii fleet on J1, its almost certain much of their fleet went south to take the money islands, Malaya, Hong Kong, and Philippines, so usually you’re safe if you move your fleet to Hawaii on US1. Even if the entire Japanese fleet in sz6 stays in sz6, they can’t win against the starting U.S. Pacific fleet gathered at Hawaii with 3 fighter scrambles.
If Japan’s fleet is at sz6 and sz35 (Philippines), you can’t, but if their southern fleet is down taking the Money Islands or Malaya, taking the Caroline Islands gives the U.S. a lot of great options since it can hit Japan, Philippines, 3 out of the 4 money islands, and any factories on the Chinese coast, with a reminder that a Japanese factory in Chinese territory is destroyed if the Allies capture the territory.
If Russia is interested in massing in Amur on R1, which I kind of like, I think the U.S. needs to be aggressive in the Pacific as well. The whole point of possibly sacrificing the Russians is to delay the Japanese and tie up crucial transports, maybe get lucky and take down a plane or 3. Either way, I might pair that with dropping U.S. troops in Soviet Far East with an eye towards Korea. If Japan is dumb enough to attack Amur on J1, and bring their transports, that delays them 2 full turns (J1 they attack Russia, J2 they go back to Japan, J3 they finally head south, instead of J1).
If Japan attacked Amur J1, I’d have ANZAC and UKPac use their transports to take Java and Sumatra and on their 2nd turns, if possible, drop another pair of infantry on those islands. Anything that slows down Japan’s ability to get income is a huge win. 4 inf on each of those two islands (plus the option of planes) can cost Japan troops on transports they can’t replace easily.