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The "Empire Mania" experience comes fully equipped, complete with blinders and ample Samurai Spirits! Step right up! Get your tickets here! Banzai!
If the IJN were in charge rather than IJA, a more sober-sided approach MIGHT have prevailed. The trouble is, such an extreme atmosphere had been whipped up that sober-sidedness could easily become a fatal disease.
Probably not nuclear, but how do you propose to keep the west out of it?As long as it's not nuclear or involves the west, let them fight it out.
A topic for another thread, so I concede.Probably not nuclear, but how do you propose to keep the west out of it?
What about the diplomats who died, or escaped death through luck? To the trigger-happy set, diplomacy was just another word for capitulation.Common sense was a fatal disease; Yamamoto was sent to sea because he wasn't enthusiastic enough for war, so there was a significant faction of people, mostly in the army and navy, who wanted to kill him. More that one officer was killed because they weren't militant enough.
Hey The Basket,
Very well said.
The western colonial powers, in earlier times, mostly didn't do their empire building under the guise of "liberating victims of tyranny", with the notable exception of the US in the Philippines. They acted openly in out-and-out exploitation, but by the middle stretch of the 20th century attitudes were starting to change about the propriety of that approach, and Japan was late to the table in the "Great Empire Race". The low hanging fruit had already been claimed, and any gains for them would be at the expense of other powers. Enter the Japanese warrior culture, as perpetrated by the IJA with its bastardized version of Bushido ethics, its doctrine of racial superiority, and its brutality-conditioned internal structure condoning and even requiring brutal treatment of "inferior", "dishonored", and "craven" conquered peoples. No wonder said peoples weren't very enthusiastic allies. The behavior of the troops on the ground shot the Co-Prosperity Sphere in the foot. And officers who tried to treat their occupied people like future allies got reprimanded by GHQ Tokyo.re:"Their value system had no provision for "liberated" peoples, only "conquered", hence contemptible, peoples."
The above statement is excessively incorrect, at least insofar as it implies that the Japanese were somehow different in attitude toward the conquered than other imperialist nations (ie US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Russia, . . . ) during their expansionist/colonial periods.
Japan got its ass kicked by the USSR in the 1930s. Now, in Spring 1942 Japan's embassy in Moscow will be reporting that a seemingly endless supply of combat troops, fearsome artillery and Katyusha rocket launchers, high performance aircraft and superlative tanks have demonstrably stopped the Germans....arguably the best army in the world. No way Japan is going to voluntarily kick that bees nest, especially as there are no resources to be hand in that direction.A major butterfly flapping its wings that if the Japanese avoid war at all cost with the west then they go war with USSR instead
This made me think of Britain's surrender at Singapore. The Japanese didn't leave an escape (anyone who surrenders will be murdered, or enslaved and worked to death), but the British thought there was one, surrender. Had the British known there was no escape they might have fought on.When you surround the enemy
Always allow them an escape route.
They must see that there is
An alternative to death.
—Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Always leave a line of retreat open
Not just for yourself.
For your enemy too.
A trapped enemy will lash out. has nothing to lose.
Rather leave a way to get out of position without losing face.
That means not questioning the oppositions motives.
Don't get personal.
Give your opponent a ladder to climb down
What happens when an action goes horribly wrong? If Japan was given an out then they may have taken it.
Now attacking Pearl Harbour didn't give the Japanese a line of retreat. When you do a military action, part of the thinking must be what happens when it goes wrong and how do I get out of it. Fighting an opponent which you know is superior is clearly folly.
Oddly the mobilization of America had very clearly been seen in ww1 so it's hardly going to be a shock of the sheer scale of American military industrial might. But bomb they do if Japan is going to be that stupid then it's a learning experience.
The question is the oil embargo started August 1941 and scrap metal embargo June 1940. The Nanjing massacre happened 1937.
The stable door needed to be bolted much much earlier.
The Hull Note which was seen as an ultimatum clearly stated removal of all Japanese troops from Indo China and China. Note sure if Korea is included here.
US public opinion was still too depression shaped and "America first" driven to be bolting stable doors on the far side of the world in 1937. "Let the yellow hordes fight it out themselves."The question is the oil embargo started August 1941 and scrap metal embargo June 1940. The Nanjing massacre happened 1937.
The stable door needed to be bolted much much earlier.
Historical term or not, Shinpachi San, what happened in Nanjing was no secret at the time. It got plenty of play in the media of the day. My family was in touch with many friends they had left behind in Japan, as well as Nisei and Isei here in the states, and all were appalled and disappointed. I personally feel that many of the executions after the war were misguided and misinformed and based on western misunderstanding of what actually occurred on the ground. Case in point: General Yamashita was executed for atrocities in the Philippines committed by subordinates who violated his specific orders, then framed him and escaped postwar punishment. He was victim of a personal vendetta by Douglas MacArthur because he was in charge of the Philippines which was MacArthur's private fiefdom, and MacArthur feared his influence on the Japanese people in occupied Japan. He suppressed exonerating evidence, conducted a "special trial" and expedited Yamashita's execution.Also, there was not such a historical term as the Nanjing massacre until 1946 when the allies needed it to execute Japanese war leaders.