The Barnyard

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"Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule." - Friedrich Nietzsche

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Aaron Burr Cock said...

double edged sword. the action in china helped hone the skills of the japanese especially in air ops, early on in the action their air crews were much sharper than the english american or whomever.

they could hardly leave manchuria, they had propagated to their citizens this was part of their nation now, the army had a stake in the continuation in china...there were probably a million total japanese troops in china & manchuria...

the matter of getting & keeping empire was truly a more or less religious type seriousness to the japanese people. leaving occupied or disputed land would have meant serious loss of face

in truth, the need to go to midway was the plan of yamamoto...who came up with the pearl harbor action. it was a poor plan poorly executed but he was so revered that once he made up his mind there was no going back.

but initially the japanes air crews from the carriers especially, they were far better than ours....but then they overworked them to death, pushed man & machine past their limits and lost them of course to enemy fire & accidents, missed landings whatever....their quality of crews could not be kept up as were those of the allies, and the allies got better, quick.

just finished a book on the pacific theatre 41-42 it was a pretty interesting read. the japanese pscyhe is beyond my mortal ability to completely fathom or evaluate

"Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule." - Friedrich Nietzsche