[brazzaville]

Good morning.
"They conclude, rightly in my view, that even if the U.S. had lost at Midway, the war in the Pacific only would have lasted one more year"

The two Japanese authors were wrong about Japan's ability to continue fighting.

The battle of Midway took place in 1942. Even with the crushing victory we inflicted on the Japanese at Midway, those brave Marines had to take Iwo Jima and we had to drop the Bomb to end it in 1945.

Michael Frazier

[LS]

A) They aren't "Japanese." They are Americans totally immersed in IJN culture and know it intimately.

B) Yes, we had to drop the bomb. But what I said was that Japan couldn't win, even if they had won at Midway. Their resources were such that they only built one more fleet carrier in four years (we built 17).

It was a matter of "when," not "if" we beat them, and Yamamoto, among others, knew it.