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2022-07-17 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Summer 1941: Japan prepares to take over the Soviet Far East and Siberia

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Posted by badanov 2022-07-17 00:00|| || Front Page|| [8 views ] Top

#1 ...I am a little skeptical on this.

The Japanese had two options to start full scale war in the Pacific: East and South, against the US, UK, the Dutch, France, and Australia, and North against the Russians.

There was a fair amount of argument as to which path to take, but there was likely never any real chance the Japanese would have gone north. The resources they needed could only have been found to the south, and they were perfectly willing to believe that the German invasion of the USSR - at that point only a few weeks old - was going to end in a Soviet defeat. To them, it would have made no sense to start a war against the Russians when by all appearances said Russians would collapse in short order. Once that was done, they could send in forces at their leisure to secure whatever they wanted, and those forces would have full fuel tanks thanks to the South-East strategy. To attack the USSR without that fuel would have been a gamble not even the Japanese could have accepted.

My thinking on this is that the Russians - as usual - are indulging in a little projection here.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2022-07-17 11:57|| 2022-07-17 11:57|| Front Page Top

#2 The Japanese used their insights into US thinking that they gained from our diplomats. I'd imagine the Russian diplomats were a bit more inscrutable. That would have played a role.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-07-17 12:03|| 2022-07-17 12:03|| Front Page Top

#3 Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939 by Alvin D. Coox is a great book covering the multiple battles culminating in Zhukov's double envelopment. Also very interesting is the author's side comments on the Kwangtung Army and the final Soviet attack in 1945.

One anecdote was about a junior Japanese officer in the intelligence branch that honestly told his superiors that that the Soviets could simply throw 130% more at them over the Trans-Siberian Railroad than the Japanese could respond with --- he was told to "sit down, shut up and show the proper samurai spirit." As Mike Kozlowski noted that Japanese had bigger strategic goals (oil, rubber ant et,) and the defeat had made them hesitant at unnecessarily provoking the Soviet bear.

Posted by magpie 2022-07-17 12:57|| 2022-07-17 12:57|| Front Page Top

#4 The Japanese used their insights into US thinking that they gained from our diplomats

Which was their mistake. The American public were not interested in war over Europe's Asian colonies. Their own, the Philippines, were already scheduled for independence in 1946. They didn't have to attack to protect the line of supply from Japan to the Dutch East Indies oil fields. As it turned out, a fatal miscalculation.

Posted by Procopius2k 2022-07-17 15:04|| 2022-07-17 15:04|| Front Page Top

#5 In a fight between samurai spirit and massive industrial capability, bet on massive industrial capability every time.

Posted by Matt 2022-07-17 15:19|| 2022-07-17 15:19|| Front Page Top

#6 See: "Last Samurai"

Posted by Frank G 2022-07-17 15:20|| 2022-07-17 15:20|| Front Page Top

#7 George MacDonald Fraser (the author of the Flashman papers and a veteran of the CBI theater) wrote that judged by western standards every single Japanese soldier would have qualified for the Victoria Cross or the Medal of Honor. On the other hand, John Basilone had samurai spirit and a machine gun.

Posted by Matt 2022-07-17 15:30|| 2022-07-17 15:30|| Front Page Top

#8 I think everyone should read Shogun and see Rising Sun.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-07-17 15:33|| 2022-07-17 15:33|| Front Page Top

#9 Last samurai... Shogun... rising Sun.

Well it's all Tamagotchi and Nintendo now. Superb movies though, and Clavell's work is most is illuminating about the region and the period.

Some of Takeshi Kitano's films show the real corruption and zaibatsu-mob-politician nexus in modern times. Also the existentialist treatment to the matter-of-fact violence sprees is rather telling.

Posted by Dron66046 2022-07-17 16:07|| 2022-07-17 16:07|| Front Page Top

#10 I'm a huge Akira Kurasawa fan since I first saw Dodeska Den in college. And I love Mifune's books. More modern day, Fuminori Nakamura's novels.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-07-17 16:15|| 2022-07-17 16:15|| Front Page Top