Thanks go to Japundit for pointing out a very, very interesting story on the general who commanded the Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima.
Be sure to read it.
MUST READ: ‘The best damn general on this stinking island’
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From what I understand, even if the Japanese won various crucial battles, it would have only won them some time, not given them victory. Truly American industrial potential was huge.
>From what I understand, even if the Japanese won various crucial battles, it would have only >won them some time, not given them victory. Truly American industrial potential was huge.
You are just right. These statistics actually confirms this.
http://www.combinedfleet.com/economic.htm
The Japanese should never started this war with America (and ofcourse the invasion against china, which led to the war with America).
I went on a trip to Iwo Jima a few years ago. Basically, Kuribayashi went against all the previous strategies the Japanese had used at other islands and he made sure the island was heavily fortified and the defense supported by a vast tunnel system (something like 24 miles of tunnels). More importantly, he forbade wasteful banzai charges and tasked his soldiers to each kill 10 Americans.
Really sad part about Iwo Jima was that we initially planned on bypassing the island altogether, but our heavy bomber losses against the Home Islands incurred a requirement for an emergency landing base. Too many bombers that were shot up over Japan had to try to make it all the way to Guam, and many did’nt. Even as fighting was raging on Iwo and the island was far from secure, several bombers made emergency landings there!
I think the final casualty count was 22,000 Japanese and 5,000 American KIA.
Could someone point me to the sources or just tell why exactly Japan attacked China and later on US? There is a ton of information about Pearl Harbour, but not much about reasoning Japan had at the time.
According to exhibits in the Yasukuni Museum, Japan invaded and conquered its Asian neighbors to save them from Western colonialism and was forced into a war with the United States because of an arms embargo and blockade, enacted in response to Japan’s takeover of Manchuria. Below is an excerpt from a display about the attack on Shanghai:
and this about Korea’s ‘liberation’:
A display labelled the Sino-Japanese War Operation Plan goes into the details of the war itself and Japan’s swift victory. When the war was over, there was the Treaty of Shimonoseki:
another interesting read on the museum: http://www.zmag.org/content/sh.....temID=7970
I knew the reputation of the museum and debated the morality of spending 800 Yuan admission, which goes towards the maintenance of this glorification of war, and ended up going in. I can only hope most Japanese visitors see through the lies and distortions.
The Japanese descision to attack was in response to US sanctions against oil and steel embargos. The attack was not in direct retaliation, but, as they reasoned, necessity to strike and seize theior own sources of these valuable materials. These sources of rubber, oil, stell etc. could be found in SEA Asaia.
Militarily, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was a pre-emptive strike to defeat the only real obstacle to Japanese dominance of the Western Pacific ocean. Japan’s reasoning was that once the US 7th fleet was out of the way, the conquest of the Phillipenes, Malaya, Indonesia and Indochina would occur with little resistance.
I think there are some people out there who argue that Japan had no choice but to bomb Pearl Harbor, because it faced US embargoes and sanctions over Manchuria.
These people are idiots.
Right. They could have negotiated it out, over time
– and that would’ve been SO much wiser. If they had
left US interests is alone in the Philippines… i
wonder if the Americans would have let them take China
and Indochina…? Could’ve been a hell of an empire.
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