Posted on 06/07/2014 8:04:39 PM PDT by princeofdarkness
It's no secret that Japan was, shall we say, 'economically disadvantaged' in her ability to wage war against the Allies. However, the sheer, stunning magnitude of this economic disparity has never ceased to amaze me. So, just go give you an idea of the magnitude of the mismatch here, I decided to compile a few statistics. Most of them are taken from Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" (which, among other things, contains an excellent analysis of the economic forces at work in World War II, and is an all-around great book) and John Ellis' "World War II: A Statistical Survey." In this comparison I will focus primarily on the two chief antagonists in the Pacific War: Japan and the United States. They say that economics is the 'Dismal Science'; you're about to see why....
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearhistory.com ...
We couldn’t win a world war as things stood at the outset of WW2 either.
The problem is the next WW is likely to begin and end in a natter of days or weeks.
I’m sure China plans to defeat us conventionally and to destroy our homeland if we resist thereafter.
My mother was born in 1929 so she was growing up during WW2 and watched her brothers, uncles and cousins sign up in the service and be gone for years. Her brother was a missionary in the Philippines. He disappeared into a POW camp in 42 and this 6 foot linebacker came back at 89 pounds in 1945. She said something when I was growing up that I have always remembered. “Anyone who thinks America can be beaten in a war has never seen America mobilize for war.”. Sure we have some liberal wussies, but here in VA we have lots of recent vets. Trust me, if we ever flip the switch to full warfare the other side is ucked.
“That is the reason why Germany ended up divided (food had to be flown into a surrounded Berlin by air).”
—
The Berlin airlift wasn’t until 1948 and only lasted 11 months.
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Most definitely the Russians’ crushing of the Japanese army in Manchuria made the Japanese realize they did not want Russian occupiers in Japan. The nukes sealed the deal.
Let me append #2:
The American side knew that if the war on Japan were drawn out on very stiff surrender terms involving amphibious landings on the main Japanese islands, then this would give Stalin more time to shift his forces east —it would play into Stalin’s greedy, land-seizing hands.
Instead of only losing the “Northern Territories” (which belonged to Japan and are north of Hokkaido, near Sakhalin Island), she would instead lose all of Hokkaido.
More likely is that Japan would have lost MORE than that, since the Red Army never blanched as the type of casualty counts that make American armies nervous.
We could have seen the US sector of Japan being everything south of Tokyo, and the Russians everything north of that, as in Korea.
For later
I wish I could believe you but unfortunately we now live in a different world in regards to demographics, economics, culture, and an outright lying media. All these factors would hinder us winning a global war.
You said it better than I did.
And at the other end of the war, there is an excellent documentary, “The Last Bomb”, featuring Curtis LeMay, showing all the planning and logistics that went into a B29 raid.
http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70299227?trkid=2361637
I was born just before that awakening. I do remember the fury. If you are going to war what sense does it make to give into the enemies within and do anything less than apply every ounce of our tremendous strength with a cold, methodical fury against both enemies foreign and domestic.
BTW, a couple of years ago John Batchelor interviewed an author of a new book about how (I am trying to remember exactly) the GNP measurements won W.W.II.
The whole measurement of our economy's output was developed to tell the generals what they would have in 1943, 1944, and beyond. The numbers were almost exact it turned out and the generals planned with confidence.
I used to read news articles from back then. One I remember well, late in the war, was a complaint that our aircraft production was simply too high. LOL.
>>Enough young people who were not so self absorbed.
An American media that was loyal to this country.<<
These two are the reasons why we would lose the war. Our youngsters are almost full blooded socialists and the media hates the productive work force.
A successful D-Day probably saved millions of German and Japanese lives as well. If our invasion had failed, we'd have re-grouped in England, the B-29's would've firebombed Germany into the Stone Age, and we would've carpet-nuked our way to Berlin. Japan would've ceased to be a race (Bull Halsey once said the only place the Japanese language would've been spoken "was in Hell").
Economics? That is true but there other reasons Japan could
not defeat the US. Japanese war strategy sucked in many ways. For
example often the US would rotate fighter pilots home so they could
help to train new pilots and provide up to date tactical information
Japanese pilots stayed in combat zone and perished with their
unshared experience.
The Japanese soldiers were mostly fanatical but stupid. My paratrooper
dad and his division pursued the Japanese thru the mountain Jungles
of Leyte. When the Japanese became hungry they would stop beside
a creek, start a fire, and boil rice. Of course the fire would mark their
position. Their leather belt and other gear would acquire a nasty odor
in the jungle humidity. This would also betray their position. The ways
that the Japanese lagged behind the Yanks are too numerous to tally.
I'd bet you've read it.
Just saying.
It is not the media sending US manufacturing to China.
Since the United States Army did most of the fighting and dying, and beach assaults, in the Pacific, you should always remember to mention them when addressing our efforts in the Pacific.
“But beyond that, never forget - WE WALKED ON THE MOON !”
I guess we could try moon walking into Tehran.
What about the flying Tigers. If I remember correctly they bested the Japanese early on using inferior planes
The dry docks and tank farms would have been targeted by a third strike on Pearl Harbor. Younger Japanese commanders—specifically Fuchida and Genda—argued forcefully for such an attack, but Admiral Nagumo refused to go along, for several reasons.
First, he was concerned about his ships’ fuel state, and lingering in Hawaiian waters would exacerbate that issue. Secondly, the accuracy of U.S. AAA fire improved remarkably during the second wave, and Nagumo feared additional losses. Third, the location of our carriers was still unknown, and the Japanese were worried about a surprise attack against their flattops while the strike force was over Pearl.
Having won a great victory, Nagumo decided against risking another strike on Pearl and headed home. Tactically, it was the right thing to do, but strategically, it was a costly blunder.
Had the tank farms and drydocks been destroyed,the U.S. would have been forced to evacuate what was left of the fleet from Pearl, and offensive ops in the Pacific would have been delayed until 1943—and Midway might have had a much different outcome, since the maintenance complex at Pearl was responsible for patching up USS Yorktown after Coral Sea (in only 48 hours) and sending her out to fight at Midway. Without that capability, we would almost have certainly lost Midway and the arc of the Pacific War would have been greatly changed.
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