tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7415178.post3340441664398091887..comments2023-10-23T00:04:35.356-04:00Comments on The Vault of Buncheness: IN HONOR OF THE DATE THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMYBunche (pop culture ronin)http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831085937894725459noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7415178.post-4755550842449346622007-12-11T09:11:00.000-05:002007-12-11T09:11:00.000-05:00Who says this blog isn't educational?Who says this blog isn't educational?Bunche (pop culture ronin)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11831085937894725459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7415178.post-31008578237404092332007-12-11T09:07:00.000-05:002007-12-11T09:07:00.000-05:00>warrior culture hubris. Maybe they thought we'd c...>warrior culture hubris. Maybe they thought we'd cower in the face of their samurai awesomeness<BR/><BR/>Do the words "shock and awe" ring a bell? <BR/><BR/>Thing is, America was in sad shape in 1941. Years of depression had sapped our government coffers and national spirit. Riots were commonplace in our streets. Periodicals as "respected" as The Readers Digest featured articles exorting us to stay out of "the distant war," and luminaries like Henry Ford and Charles Lindburgh even urged for an alliance with Hitler! Sure, bombing us seems stupid in retrospect, but we've been guilty of similar stupidity far more recently (again, see Iraq). <BR/><BR/>Also, as in the Iraq "adventure," there were many dissenting voices againt the Pearl Harbor attack in the Japanese high command... and again in a similar light, they were ignored. <BR/><BR/>As for why the Japanese didn't simply invade - they didn't have the resources to do so. Bombing a harbor is one thing; a land invasion of an inhabited island chain is quite another, especially when that island chain is almost a third of the earth's surface away from you. The necessary supply lines simply wouldn't reach far enough to do the job; even if they'd been able to ship across the necessary soliders and equipment, the Japanese would have been more or less stranded in hostile territory. (Can you say "American Revolution?") Pearl Harbor was a gamble - and for a while, at least, it was successful... enough so to earn a retribution no other nation (thus far) has suffered: nuclear bombing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7415178.post-35748113970206725982007-12-07T16:58:00.000-05:002007-12-07T16:58:00.000-05:00I always asked myself the same question, and the b...I always asked myself the same question, and the best answer I could come up with was that it was a case of warrior culture hubris. Maybe they thought we'd cower in the face of their samurai awesomeness, but think again, Tojo!Bunche (pop culture ronin)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11831085937894725459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7415178.post-91218443935503090842007-12-07T16:49:00.000-05:002007-12-07T16:49:00.000-05:00The part I'll never understand is why they didn't ...The part I'll never understand is why they didn't follow up with an invasion of Hawaii. The U.S. would not have been able to hold out, and would have lost a crucial naval base, and Japan would have been in position to begin operations against the west coast after consolidating the west pacific. They must have thought that a sharp slap was all that was required.Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16874243983012948223noreply@blogger.com