Posted on 12/13/2021 5:45:09 PM PST by poconopundit
Very cool...I did not know that! Wow!
From everything I've read, it's clear that Yamamoto felt that the only chance Japan had of preventing US interference in their plans for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was to put the US in a position where a negotiated settlement would be preferable to combat, and that the best means to do this would be to inflict a surprise strike in the hopes of crippling the US Pacific Fleet.
Most of those in his circle were telling him that his idea was lunacy; unfortunately, they couldn't propose a better option for engaging the US if the US decided to take on Japan.
I saw another Navy report the Belt armored steel was inferior on latter built Japanese Battleships due to dirt being in the metal.
I think he was pushing pretty hard for this attack, even though he was well aware that Japan stood no realistic chance against the US if he failed.
I think it's popular in American lore to portray the Japanese as either stupid or naive with regard to their decision to attack Pearl Harbor, and there is simply no evidence for this.
Japan's plans for Southeast Asia were simply never going to be accepted by the US, and they were well aware that conflict was almost inevitable. The only question was which approach held the most realistic chance of success.
And yes, Yamamoto had studied in the US; as I pointed out earlier, he also predicted that if we could reach Japan with our bombers, we would simply drop incendiaries on them. (Japan's vulnerability to incendiary bombs was no secret to anyone in the run-up to the Second World War.) He was quite prescient about what the US was capable of, both morally and militarily.
Fast forward to today where Free Traitors gave everything to the Chinese. Blood money.
If today A Chinese Naval officer did the same what would he report back?
All, Here is a great website that documents the IJN:
Yes, good details there — thanks!
It’s a good story, rlmorel. One time when my destroyer, the USS Turner Joy DD-951, was operating in Japanese waters, I got a chance to spend a few days at sea on a Japanese destroyer, who I boarded in Yokosuka.
But I don’t have any remarkable differences. The food was different. Maybe the sailors were more serious. The head (bathroom) was attached to a holding tank, so the smell of that was pretty vile. U.S. warships empty straight into the ocean.
I knew the game of Japanese Go, so I played that a couple times with the ship’s captain — and he showed me I was a mere amateur.
My brother in law is a chief petty officer in the Japanese maritime self-defense force, their Navy. He was a bit different because he was a great marathon runner and ran representing JMSDF.
Great, RandallFlagg. Glad to hear your report.
Love it, SunkenCiv. In the writing business (which I’m in), the “experts” say, “keep it short and to the point.”
But that’s not what the readers want. Readers love it when a writer rambles seemingly off-point to something interesting or humorous. Indeed, the greatest of all American writers, men like H.L. Mencken and Mark Twain would often let go of the steamboat’s helm and drift off course a while. Isn’t this where FR’s true value lies?
NOTE: I’m now reading Mencken’s Notes on Democracy and every page contains gems of insight mixed with his signature rascality.
Actually, FR is much better than a live meeting or Zoom call with the same people it forces each FReeper to spend time “working” their off-the-cuff remarks.
Which is to say, I love your ramblings. Much learned. Don’t know if anybody has written a book about the transformation of America that World War II brought, but it’s one helluva story.
Agree. Toshiro Mifune was better utilized in Red Sun with Charles Bronson and Ursula Andrews.
https://www.google.com/search?q=movie+red+sun+with+bronson+and+mifune&tbm=isch
I am in agreement with poconopundit, SunkenCiv...but I admit, it is because I don’t use things like Twitter that force you to make your point in a hopefully pithy and memorable way. I only really started texting a few years back.
It just doesn’t translate for me, but then again, the limit of my use of acronyms for communication has largely been LOL, IMO, and OMG!
So thanks. I like the detail.
Strunk: Omit needless words! Omit needless words! Omit needless words!
(good advice, but then he said it three times)
:^)
You’re a good writer too pundit... that said I learn from Civ too. interesting folks here...
:)
Thanks GOPJ.
“At Dawn We Slept” was my Dad’s favorite book.
A VP-17 Black-Cat PBY Pilot in the Pacific (with “Enlisted Pilot” Lou Conter in the right seat), he kept this text next to his favorite chair until he died—aged 97.
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