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Japan should have invested in geologists. They were sitting on enough oil to run much of their military, where today's oil fields produce 3,918 barrels a day. And the Korean Peninsula is predicted to have tons of oil, that Japan could have looked for in the 1930s.But Japan traps itself in loops. To defend and build a military, it needs raw materials. It needs to expand. It needs raw materials to expand and it needs to expand for raw materials.
Spot on! The long view explains a lot.WW2 for the Japanese started in 1853 when Commodore Perry showed up.
This showed 3 things. Japan was vulnerable. The West were bad and gunboat diplomacy worked.
Spot on again, but I would suggest total makeover, rather than destruction, of culture, lifestyle, economy, and industry. Many sinews of the old ways survived the changes and hampered Japan's viability as a world power in the 20th century. The American occupation accomplished a more complete makeover of Japanese society than the Meiji Restoration or industrialization.So if Japan didn't want to be a colony of a Western Power, it had to become a power. So total destruction of Japanese culture, lifestyle, economy and industry. Out goes the Bakufu and the Samurai replaced by battleships and steam trains.
The biggest loop, you didn't mention. Changes from the Meiji Restoration and industrialization led to a massive growth in population, due to the elimination of domestic warfare and improvement in and availability of medical services. This added fuel to the fire of the expansionist imperative, and put all the other motivating forces into overdrive. Eventual collision became inevitable.But Japan traps itself in loops.
The behavior of many( maybe even a majority) although certainly not all Japanese troops is something about the war that I find really disturbing. The culture doesn't seem condusive of such behavior yet it was certainly wide spread, not just a few isolated incidents.I don't mind been proved wrong. Shows your paying attention. And it's only a hypothesis that fits the facts.
I would needs facts to say the Japanese would have disengaged from China willingly. That don't sit right.
Japan did plenty stuff so I not interested in what they said but only what they did.
Actions speak louder than words.
Now a wise man may say that 1853 don't matter. I wasn't alive then so it don't matter. I wasn't there.
And you be wrong. Very very wrong. Nationalists have very long selective memories and dates going back centuries poison their little minds and twist their logic into new cosmic hatreds. And just because they got colour TVs and full bellies don't mean they don't hate.
I was reading about the IJN cruiser Tone which is interesting to me as its a interesting ship. Until I got to the point where they were beheading prisoners. And I was like I don't want to read no more. I am genuinely interested in Japan and the IJN but that just messed up. And maybe you can point to British or American war crimes.
But Japanese sailors on Tone executed its prisoners by beheading. Let that sink in.
That ain't right. Don't care about Geneva conventions. It just ain't right.
The behavior of many( maybe even a majority) although certainly not all Japanese troops is something about the war that I find really disturbing. The culture doesn't seem condusive of such behavior yet it was certainly wide spread, not just a few isolated incidents.
Of course in any such discussion it should be mentioned that one doesn't have to go back too many more years to find similar treatment of" the other" by western cultures durring times of conflict either.
Let's play a little game.
WW2 for the Japanese started in 1853 when Commodore Perry showed up.
This showed 3 things. Japan was vulnerable. The West were bad and gunboat diplomacy worked.
Japan had to be military strong to fight the West and Samurai with sword and bow and arrow were not cutting it. So if Japan didn't want to be a colony of a Western Power, it had to become a power. So total destruction of Japanese culture, lifestyle, economy and industry. Out goes the Bakufu and the Samurai replaced by battleships and steam trains.
I said the Britain sold battleships to Japan. The question was who was the enemy? Asian power? Western Power? Do you need battleships to fight China? Or were western powers the enemy? So the West were happily selling Japan the tools for Japan to fight the West.
But Japan traps itself in loops. To defend and build a military, it needs raw materials. It needs to expand. It needs raw materials to expand and it needs to expand for raw materials. So the more powerful it becomes the more it needs to expand. And the more it expands, the more vulnerable it becomes. So it needs to expand to become more powerful but it is becoming more vulnerable the more powerful it becomes.
Yikes! It has to defend its new territory which is why we get the Russo Japanese war in 1905.
However, as long as western colonies exist is Asia, the Western threat still continues.
The change of colonial power from Spain to USA in the Philippines is one example of where Japanese expansion is being thwarted by Western expansion. Spain was very weak while America was a world power.
So, with all the resources of Asia at Japan's disposal, the Western colonies in Asia done away with and a vast military industrial complex and powerful army and navy, 1853 is not going to happen again. Ever. Japan is the conquerer not the conquered. And the threat of Western imperialism is gone.
And so a bunker mentally exists of Japan as the victim and so it justifies all means and all ends to meet the goals of Asian domination. To secure Japan from any and all invasion threats.
Its why they went nuts over the Doolittle Raids even if it caused little damage.
If you have extreme goals using extreme logic then genocide is simply another means to the end.
So I invade China because the very survival of Japan is at stake. What happens to China is of no consequence compared to the survival of Japan. So that gives total and absolute justification to do what i want.
Hey Schweik,
re your post#242: Very well put. Although the morals of war have changed some with time, the Hague Conventions and the Geneva Conventions of the late-1800s and early-1900s subsequently became the international basis for (among many other things) the treatment of civilians in time of war.
What would you have done, honorable Captain? You don't even have enough provisions for your own crew, since personnel attrition is figured into the provisioning bill. And your prisoners are devoid of honor, having allowed themselves to be captured, thus are subhuman and not worthy of being accorded the honor of seppuku. Not even worth the ammunition to shoot them. Besides, many of your junior officers are lacking in proficiency with the Samurai swords that are part of their uniform, and need the practice. Forget Geneva and its conventions! That is a western colonialist invention and has no place in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Asia for the Asians! Tennoheika Banzai!But Japanese sailors on Tone executed its prisoners by beheading. Let that sink in.
That ain't right. Don't care about Geneva conventions. It just ain't right.
I wonder if the IJA had beheaded and brutalized the Germans at Tsingtao if Hitler would have been so keen to choose supporting Japan instead of Germany's usual 1930s support to China. KMT could have used some Bf 109s.What would you have done, honorable Captain? You don't even have enough provisions for your own crew, since personnel attrition is figured into the provisioning bill. And your prisoners are devoid of honor, having allowed themselves to be captured, thus are subhuman and not worthy of being accorded the honor of seppuku. Not even worth the ammunition to shoot them. Besides, many of your junior officers are lacking in proficiency with the Samurai swords that are part of their uniform, and need the practice. Forget Geneva and its conventions! That is a western colonialist invention and has no place in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Asia for the Asians! Tennoheika Banzai!
No cheers,
Wes
Too many "ifs". The Japanese may have been a touch fanatic, but they weren't totally stupid. Of all the potential allies they might have had, the Germans (another warrior culture) were far and away the best option: disciplined, efficient, technologically advanced, and most important, FAR AWAY, and not a likely rival.I wonder if the IJA had beheaded and brutalized the Germans at Tsingtao if Hitler would have been so keen to choose supporting Japan instead of Germany's usual 1930s support to China. KMT could have used some Bf 109s.
Japanese were impressed with the Bf 109.And I'm not so sure of the effectiveness of BF109s against Claudes, Nates, Oscars and Zekes. With its relatively high wing loading it might find those "bouncy" fighters a tough nut to crack. It would take another Chennault to make that work.
Cheers,
Wes
So was USAAF. I saw an old copy of a CONFIDENTIAL air intelligence magazine from late 1943 that had an analysis of a captured 109F. The authors were all gaga about its design and engineering for ease of manufacture and maintenance. Quick Engine Change Assemblies, access panels held on by Dzus fasteners rather than screws, quick disconnect fittings, and wings that could be removed while the plane sat on its landing gear were all apparently new ideas to these intelligence specialists. They were so absorbed in the engineering that they devoted very little of their article to the comparative performance of the plane to US types.