Posted on 07/10/2007 5:50:14 AM PDT by MrJapan
Sorry, a few typos in my last post >.<
Why would you expect them to be the same?
They are different cultures and were allies in WW II against the same American enemy for completely different reasons.
Germany was partitioned and was threatened till the fall of the Soviet Union. Japan had no such threat.
Not quite sure exactly which post you are asking about... but that was the main point of my question.. Why weren’t they the same (military wise). I am still learning as I go.. day by day. I have no disagreement or argument to the posts following my question... I’m just trying to learn history.. ;-)
I don't believe that that is true: immediately after World War I (when Japan and the US were allies) Germany was penalized by the Versailles Treaty for some years until Hitler took power and began to aggressively circumvent the treaty and rearmed Germany. Around approximately the same time, Japan began aggressive militarization and started attacks against neighboring nations in a campaign of conquest and subjegation (Manchuria, Korea, then China).
Attempts were made to restrict all aggressive activities by Japan, Germany, and Italy but treaties were abrogated and the League of Nations ignored. The onset of the Second World War was initially avoided by the United States but was forced on us by Japan's unprovoked attack at Pearl Harbor.
At the final bloody conclusion of the war, Germany and Japan both surrendered unconditionally and required extensive assistance to rebuild and to face the new threat from the Soviet Union and then China. The one exception to the unconditional nature of the conclusion of the war was that Japan's Emperor was not held as a war criminal and allowed to stay on his throne, albeit with drastically reduced powers.
After these many years, neither Germany nor Japan are major military powers but are integrated into the alliances of the free world. Their economies are in excellent shape and they do not suffer from anything except occasionally poor memories.
What is there to complain about?
Japan has the industrial strength that she could easily re-arm with a 1st rate military. However, her people are civilized and respect the rule of law, namely her Constitution. Should the people of Japan decide to change the law, they can, up until this point, they have chosen not to.
I’m a big fan of the raw fish, though. Even my kids (ages 13 and 8) love it. Much to the surprise of the Japanese couple we met at EPCOT, who were floored. They said that even in Japan, sushi is an aquired taste, and that they had to work on their kids for several years to get them to eat it.
Given the recent visits of their Prime Minister to the Yasukuni Shrine to pay homage to Japan's war dead, the current glorification of the Kamikaze pilots, and the recent resurgence in denying culpability for "Comfort Women", the Rape of Nanking, war atrocities, etc., encouraging Japan to rearm is still a very bad idea.
I have found that the world is filled with wonderful, charming, and highly cultured people - which immediately become vicious, murdering tyrants when they are in power. I am not convinced that any great changes in Japan's (or Germany's) soul have ocurred over these 60 years.
"Those that ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it." Santayana
Overly simplistic.
The attack was not entirely unprovoked, and the US was fairly heavily involved against the Germans in the Atlantic (and taking casualties) by that point. Roosevelt knew what he had to do to get America to commit to the war.
I see. So you are of the camp that blames the United States for WW II? Whatever reason we had for staying out/pertially participating on the European end didn't have a damn thing to do with an attack by the Japanese.
I'm really tired of "historians" that see it in the Axis' favor and blame this country for everything.
Roosevelt choked off Japan’s access to resources because of their brutality, primarily in China. It was inevitable that they would move against the Dutch in what is now Indonesia. In April, 1941, he signed an executive order authorizing American airmen to go to work for the Chinese as part of the AVG. The Americans didn’t actually see action until after Pearl Harbor.
Texas National Guard troops shipped out from San Francisco in November, 1941, although again, they didn’t see combat until after Pearl Harbor.
And, of course, American carriers were sent to safe waters so they wouldn’t be in Pearl Harbor on December 7.
In the Atlantic, US naval forces hunted both submarines and surface raiders. The USS Reuben James was sunk with the loss of over 2/3 of her crew in March, 1941.
So yes, it is overly simplistic to act like the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred in a vacuum.
And others believe everything they hear while wearing their tin hats.. I particularly enjoyed your idiotic reference to the "aircraft carriers being in safe waters", implying that their deployment away from Pearl Harbor was intentional.. What a jolly America-hater you must be!
Both the Japanese and the Germans had choices. They could have restrained themselves and not invaded other countries. They could have acted as civilized people and not butchered innocent people - and prisoners of war.
Unfortunately, they both acted in universally corrupt and immoral manners and eventually paid a severe price.
The "World War II was our fault" crowd, such as yourself, disappoint me.
It is undisputed that Washington knew about the attack before it took place, they were quite leisurely in sending a warning to Pearl Harbor. And the USS Ward signaled that it had sunk a Japanese submarine an hour before the main attack.
I can understand your hostile response to what appears to be an attack on the reputation of the democrat icon FDR.
Another one of your ridiculous gems! That canard fits right in with the "9/11 was a US Government plot" myths.
You may have been a Navy man but you have lost any loyalty to the Navy or our country. Blaming the Second World War on the United States instead of the Japanese of the Germans is despicable.
Aside from cultural differences, the Allies re-armed Germany as a front line against the Soviets, and discouraged Japan from re-arming.
OK, now I see the problem. You have never read ANY history of the Pearl Harbor attack. Washington had broken the Japanese code, and knew of the impending attack. The then forwarded a warning, not by secure military channels, but by a commercial RCA radio with nothing to indicate the urgency of the situation. While the message reached the island before the attack, it was not delivered until late morning, well after the attack (the attack itself causing some of the delay).
Start from page 141 here: http://ibiblio.org/pha/pha/army/chap_3c.html#138, Or read the full report of the Army review board: http://ibiblio.org/pha/pha/army/chap_0.html
For your information, suggest reading Combined Fleet Decoded by John Prados. It will give you a more accurate sense of to what extent we had "broken" Japanese diplomatic and military codes.
If you were as knowledgeable as you would like the rest of to believe, you would know that we had only cracked certain parts of those codes, giving us only parts of the messages.
In any case, it's unimportant - we were right to defend the world from that evil even if we took a while to finally do it.
So you were aware that Washington knew in advance?
I'm skeptical that this was an isolated event. Enjoy reading your posts.
But only a devoted paranoid wierdo would put it all together and say that our government "conspired" to allow the attack at Pearl Harbor.
Like I said earlier, anybody that would believe that of our own government is anti American to the core. You should be ashamed.
BuHuHaHa! 35% of the population in the US are somehow of German heritage and quite a few have to deal with Japanese ancestry. Somehow it is difficult to replace your own family. Therefore you are well advised to care about your own soul.
Best regards from Germany to my American "cousins". :)
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