The Pacific War…
I apologise in advance for re-raising a subject we’ve previously discussed at some length, but once again, I find myself fighting (and winning) the Pacific War in my mind. Hopefully at least fellow history student byronius will be receptive to my remarks.
It is easy of course, to analyse battles from the remove (and hindsight) of seventy-years and from the comfort (and safety!) of my living room, but I’ve come to the considered conclusion that the U.S. victory over Japan in World War II was never in any real doubt – once Japan took the decision to attack the United States – its imperial fate was sealed…
Certainly, there was luck involved – there always is in warfare – But the Americans (usually) took much better advantage of their breaks of good fortune than did the Japanese. Strategically, Japan was playing from a very weak position from day One…
The entire Pacific war can be condensed to just three actions IMHO.
I am aided in my arguments by some excellent recent documentaries.
► Pearl Harbor:
The Japanese had developed torpedoes with breakaway wooden stabilisers (fins) which allowed their use in shallow water… and the dive bomber pilots had practised the technique to a fare thee well. The American battleships were doomed. But by dumb luck, the American aircraft carriers were NOT in port on that fateful morning. The Japanese Imperial Navy was well aware of the coming primacy of the aircraft carrier… so WHY did they go ahead with the attack KNOWING that the U.S. carriers weren’t even THERE?? Meanwhile, America, despite having broken (some of) the Japanese JN-25 code, did NOT ‘connect the dots’ (which were pretty obvious in retrospect). Much as with 60 years later on ’9/11′, we suffered a ‘failure of imagination’… and were caught with our pants around our proverbial ankles.
The brilliant Japanese commander of the attack, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, recognised that he had NOT delivered the ‘knock out blow’ he had envisioned and probably knew that Japan’s goose was cooked. He promised six months of free Japanese rein in the Pacific… which is precisely what they got (see below). And in the bargain, the attack on Pearl had enraged the Americans as nothing else could have. Oh yes… after THIS, it was ON!
► Midway:
The Battle of Midway marked the end of Yamamoto’s ‘six months’, and as it turned out, the end of any hope for Japan to prevail in the Pacific Theater. The Japanese intent was to lure America’s aircraft carriers (which they’d failed to catch at Pearl Harbor) into a trap and destroy the rest of the American Pacific fleet for good and all.
But by June of 1942, the American Naval codebreakers had cracked practically all of the Japanese JN-25 code and were reading operational info faster than the Japanese were. A famous ruse about Midway being short of water tricked the Japanese into revealing target ‘AF’ as Midway Island. When the Japanese fleet got there – the Americans were lying in wait for them.
By sundown on 7 June, the Japanese defeat was complete. All four of the Japanese carriers were sunk: ‘Akagi’, ‘Kaga’, ‘Soryu’ and ‘Hiryu’. All had been involved in the Pearl Harbor attack six months earlier. The cruiser ‘Mikuma’ was also sunk. More than 3000 Japanese sailors, pilots and flight-crew personnel were killed. The Americans lost the carrier ‘Yorktown’, a destroyer and over 300 killed, notably nearly all of dive bomber squadron VT-8.
Japanese Admiral Nagumo was disgraced and relieved of duty. He later killed himself when captured by the Americans.
Most military analysts consider the Battle of Midway the ‘turning point’ in the Pacific war. I would go further and call it the ‘beginning of the end’ of the Japanese war effort. Japan simply could not recover from such a costly loss of men and materiel, especially as American war production was hitting its stride. Military historian John Keegan called it “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare.”
► Hiroshima:
By mid-1945, Nazi Germany had collapsed – and Japan was beaten, but the ‘Bushido’ fantasy of a last minute ‘miracle’ (‘kami kaze’ or ‘divine wind’) still gripped the psyche of much of the Japanese nation. And Japan’s government was ignoring Truman’s ‘Potsdam Declaration’ demanding Japan’s immediate unconditional surrender. Japan appeared bent on committing national hara-kiri rather than to endure the shame of surrender.
“If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” — President Harry S. Truman following the announcement of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Perhaps the most chilling moment in the entire film above comes at [39:09] :
“8:15. There will be a short intermission while we bomb the target.”
Following a second bomb on 9 August which destroyed Nagasaki, Japan at last capitulated.
The Second World War was over.
Sky, you and Byron aren’t the only one’s here with a thing for military history. It’s a passion of mine, though largely dormant of late. I went through a period of devouring anything I could find written by Mr. Keegan. Thus, I highly appreciate your post and your succinct analysis here. I’ll try to find time for the docs you posted, but I’m under way too much time pressure at the moment. Begs the question of why I’m up at 3 something AM with a two doctor’s appts tomorrow, a demo at work, and a recording session on Saturday to prepare for and am spending time commenting on a blog. I guess it has something to do with all of the above. Please pardon my ramble and thanks for the post.
Comment on February 8, 2013 @ 3:40 am
What a marvelous collection!
Comment on February 8, 2013 @ 7:12 am
Great post, Sky-o. There’s a bit in Toland that says the Emperor saw the desperate writing on the wall after Midway, and ordered a small clique of officers to pursue peace; their efforts were met with stony silence. Pearl Harbor had not only awakened a giant, but had made the giant implacable and quite vengeful.
One must, however, note that the Japanese had gone from feudal pre-technology culture to a world power that could shake the earth in — two generations? — a phenomenon unparalleled in Earth history. That leap is still reflected in the subconscious underpinnings of the modern culture — for instance, the Five Families that run everything, and the Yakuza.
They haven’t quite overcome the deeper issues. The Germans, however — Solar Gods that they are, may well end up dominating the future purely by the power they control with their monopolization of the newest technologies in plastics, optics, and heavy machinery.
Comment on February 8, 2013 @ 9:36 am
One can only imagine where both Germany and Japan might be today if they had been a little less militaristic in the application of their energies from the get-go. Of course, the Marshall Plan gave a boost, but instead of digging out of a pit they might have been launching a later stage from the stratosphere on their own accord by now.
Of course, such thinking ignores a gazillion other factors that would complicate in innumerable ways had history played out differently. Kind of like when you think we would have won that game if only so-and-so hadn’t struck out with the bases loaded in the first. If so-and-so had come through with a gap shot the pitcher might have been yanked in favor of a brilliant reliever, instead of giving up several runs over the following few innings.
Can you tell I’m ready for baseball?
Comment on February 8, 2013 @ 9:47 am
Well, yes, but in the case of the Pirates, there’s a little bit more of a foregone conclusion…
Oh, sorry. I’m intruding on The Dream.
Go Pirates! All the way!!
Comment on February 8, 2013 @ 10:56 am
Good comments all – thanks! I thrive on the feedback!
Of course, by paring everything down to barest essentials, much is lost – For instance, I don’t minimise the blood and sacrifice of the Pacific ‘island hopping’ campaign – but the eventual outcome was inevitable from Midway on. The war was lost in 1942, just as Germany’s Reich was finished after Stalingrad and it took two+ years for it to die.
Byronius raises a good point about Japan’s ‘overnight’ transformation from a feudal-age backwater to a modern nation – from the Meiji ‘restoration’ in 1868 to the early 20th century – in only two or three generations. The mind-set of dark-age samurai ‘knights’ suddenly put in charge of heavy machinery… and modern weapons. When you add Japan’s paucity of natural resources, the impulse to conquest can’t be far behind…
A manager’s toughest decision? When to pull the freaking pitcher! (you can only know for sure when he’s waited too long!)
Go Mariners – and Go Pirates!
Comment on February 8, 2013 @ 11:04 am
By turns horrifying, humorous and just plain absurd – very much a movie of my childhood.
I hadn’t seen this in years – Now you can see what the Teabillies long for – EEK! And those SONGS!!
Comment on February 8, 2013 @ 7:26 pm
First time I saw that, it both horrified me and made me laugh. ‘Remember kids — when you see the flash — Duck And Cover ™!’
Did you really have to do that? That was all gone by the time I hit elementary school.
Comment on February 9, 2013 @ 12:16 am
Yes, my brother – I really did. I used to make wise-ass remarks when we had drills… Diving under a desk ISN’T gonna save you from a 5 Megaton Hydrogen bomb blast! It just… WON’T.
All of that Civil Defense crap was just to keep the natives calm and compliant.
The City and County of Los Angeles was really into this shit!
Did you catch your best girl smoking thin black cigarettes?
Listening to subversive ‘Jupiter Sheep’ so-called ‘music’ recordings?
It might already be TOO LATE!
She might already be a COMMUNIST!
Immediately report all suspected ‘Leftists’ and/or ‘Pinkos’ to the proper authorities!
Comment on February 9, 2013 @ 2:07 am
Between reactionary right-wing anti-soviet sentiments and constant invocations of god, ‘The Atomic Cafe’ is actually an interesting period document of late-40′s to early-60′s America. The parallels to Tea-Party America are disturbing! There’s really no difference between the bomb shelters of the sixties and modern-day ‘Preppers’. It’s hard to say whether the American or Russian propaganda was the cheesier or more repellent…
As a Boy Scout through the early-60′s, I marched in jingoistic parades and took part in Civil Defense ‘Nuclear Attack’ simulation exercises… and was more and more put off by the whole scam as I got older.
The following doc uses solid science to show how dangerous our atmospheric testing became… from our ‘Castle Bravo’ test which ‘got away’ from us – producing 3 times the intended yield (15 megatons) – to the gargantuan soviet ‘Tsar Bomba’ – at 60 megatons the largest explosion ever produced by man. We throw these numbers around rather casually, but they are blasts of almost unimaginable concentrated power:
Comment on February 9, 2013 @ 9:36 am