December 7th...

[Bailey Guns]

While the attack on Pearl Harbor set us back in the Pacific, militarily speaking, it served as a motivating catalyst to enter the war with determination. This would prove to be essential, particularly against the Japanese, as they were ruthless and determined to win at any cost.

It's kind of ironic that one of the greatest and most victorious military attacks in history ultimately caused one of the most crushing and devastating defeats of a country and it's military in history.

“For a while we’ll have everything our own way, stretching out in every direction like an octopus spreading its tentacles. But it’ll last for a year and a half at the most.” Adm Yamamoto, Sep 1941

[CS1983]

It's kind of ironic that one of the greatest and most victorious military attacks in history ultimately caused one of the most crushing and devastating defeats of a country and it's military in history.

“For a while we’ll have everything our own way, stretching out in every direction like an octopus spreading its tentacles. But it’ll last for a year and a half at the most.” Adm Yamamoto, Sep 1941

We are a nation borne of the defeat of an empire at the hands what, 3% of the total population in the 1770s?

Why on earth would we, established as we were by the 1940's, do anything but crush the ever living shit out of Japan?

[Bailey Guns]

We are a nation borne of the defeat of an empire at the hands what, 3% of the total population in the 1770s?

Why on earth would we, established as we were by the 1940's, do anything but crush the ever living shit out of Japan?

That's my point. It seems so obvious. So why didn't the Japanese leadership listen to Yamamoto?

[CS1983]

That's my point. It seems so obvious. So why didn't the Japanese leadership listen to Yamamoto?

It's a flaw of the Asian mentality.

[Rucker61]

It's a flaw of the Asian mentality.

The book Flyboys has an interesting back story on the pre-war rise of the pseudo-bushido I found enlightening.

[Aloha_Shooter]

It's kind of ironic that one of the greatest and most victorious military attacks in history ultimately caused one of the most crushing and devastating defeats of a country and it's military in history.

“For a while we’ll have everything our own way, stretching out in every direction like an octopus spreading its tentacles. But it’ll last for a year and a half at the most.” Adm Yamamoto, Sep 1941

We are a nation borne of the defeat of an empire at the hands what, 3% of the total population in the 1770s?

Why on earth would we, established as we were by the 1940's, do anything but crush the ever living shit out of Japan?

That's my point. It seems so obvious. So why didn't the Japanese leadership listen to Yamamoto?

The Japanese leadership didn't listen to Yamamoto because America was far away and they had beaten their only previous opponents (Mongols, China, Russia, Korea) decisively in previous wars. They felt Japan had a destiny and Yamamoto was just a worrywart.

Yamamoto's predictions were based on the America of the 1930s, which he saw intimately while he was here on a foreign exchange tour. He saw an America that was an industrial powerhouse with still untapped reserves, where common people hunted frequently so gun use was common and proficient. Sadly, I don't think any of those conditions necessarily hold today and if the liberals have their way, the latter will definitely be negated.