Admiral William “Bull” Halsey swore in the wake of Pearl Harbor that he would do his best to see that after the War Japanese was only spoken in Hell. Certainly Japanese military power was sent to the nether regions during that War. I have been involved recently in beta testing a strategic level computer game on the Pacific War and the blindness of the Japanese leaders to embark on a war against the US comes shining through. American occupation troops in Japan after the War constantly asked the question of how a little country like Japan thought it stood a chance against Uncle Sam. By that time most Japanese wondered the same thing.
I was in Japan (Korean War) and was startled by the eagerness of the young people to assimilate to our clothing and music styles. And then there was Anime, created by the introduction of our comic books.
Currently Japan is one of our closest allies, especially against communist China. That said, the coming war with China over Taiwan will be very different than the previous war against Japan. Our woke Navy cannot prevail. Indeed, from reading US Naval Institute News and other Naval news outlets, every week at least one commanding officer gets dismissed for loss of confidence. BTW, the USS Connecticut SSN-22 – that sub which ran into an undersea mount in the South China Sea in April 2021 – is STILL in dry dock for repairs. We will lose at least 40% of our fast attack submarines and at least one – possibly two – aircraft carriers. And Guam will be nuked to hell. The Philippines will be surrendered. The President will cry, “Quintili Vare, legiones redde!” But don’t worry: we’ll still give “equal rights” to sodomites and transgenders.
“… every week at least one commanding officer gets dismissed for loss of confidence.”
I’ve noticed this too, LQC, I just assumed they were all registered Republicans.
I think the Navy’s days were numbered when they launched the USNS Harvey Milk. When you start naming your ships after self-professed homosexual pedophiles, can the tidal waves be far behind?
I think the Navy’s days were numbered when they launched the USNS Harvey Milk.
No kidding.
What a pitiful time in American history.
The new Dark Ages.
Do not dismiss our lack of industry. In the 40s we still had steel mills, heavy industry, etc., all of which could be switched to a war footing. Not anymore. My own city, a Cincinnati suburb had 20- 25 medium and heavy industries in the 50s. Half that by the 90s. 3 now. I know of 7 or 8 former large automotive related factories within a 25 minute drive. Even GE Aircraft Engines is 25% of it’s former size.
The Japanese attitude sprang from the defeat of the Russian Navy in the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese war followed by successful Japanese predations in China beginning in 1933. Also there was resentment that they were not properly rewarded in the Versailles Treaty for their rather modest aid to the Allied cause in WW I. These successes colored the Japanese attitude of its own abilities so that it ignored its own country’s shortcomings in a long war with a developed country. While it is true that Admiral Yamamoto had reservations about a war with the US, the prophetic warnings as depicted in several war films can not be verified as to the words he used and his exact position on the decisions of the war council.
I served with a guy with the surname of Halsey who claimed to be the Admiral’s great grandson. I never found out if that was true or not, but other than the same last name, he did bear a striking facial resemblance to the Admiral.
Imperial Japanese delusions aside, Japan was the fiercest foreign enemy the U.S. has ever faced in war.