Why Japanese leaders attacked Pearl Harbor
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Why Japanese leaders attacked Pearl Harbor
1–10 of 133 posts
Re: Why Japanese leaders attacked Pearl Harbor
#2And untold millions died because of Japanese leaders' cautious stupidity. It seems like there are lessons to be learned here? Let's start with, whenever there are positions that are culturally unspeakable, you have a problem. Perhaps another is, whatever idiocy a foreign nation's leaders are spouting, it's a good bet nobody actually wants war (cough cough Putin)
Re: Why Japanese leaders attacked Pearl Harbor
#3And untold millions died because of Japanese leaders' cautious stupidity. It seems like there are lessons to be learned here? Let's start with, whenever there are positions that are culturally unspeakable, you have a problem. Perhaps another is, whatever idiocy a foreign nation's leaders are spouting, it's a good bet nobody actually wants war ( cough cough Putin )
You only know the results in hindsight. When you make a decision, you can't guarantee what would happen next.
Re: Why Japanese leaders attacked Pearl Harbor
#4I'm wondering to what extent the same social and linguistic issues might be behind Japan's political and economic policy paralysis over the last 20+ years.
Re: Why Japanese leaders attacked Pearl Harbor
#5This timeline seems to put all the blame on Japan. No doubt they had over-militaristic tendencies. But let's also take the long view on America from Japan's perspective:
* Settlers displace native peoples in the north east of North America and the Caribbean.
* The first Americans kick out the British.
* Americans move west, killing more native peoples.
* Americans take over land from Mexico.
* "Manifest Destiny"
* Americans topple the Hawaiian monarchy and take over Hawaii.
* Americans go to war with the Philippines, killing tens of thousands.
It doesn't seem unreasonable for Japan at this point to feel threatened by America or compelled to take action to protect themselves.
Re: Why Japanese leaders attacked Pearl Harbor
#6And untold millions died because of Japanese leaders' cautious stupidity. It seems like there are lessons to be learned here? Let's start with, whenever there are positions that are culturally unspeakable, you have a problem. Perhaps another is, whatever idiocy a foreign nation's leaders are spouting, it's a good bet nobody actually wants war ( cough cough Putin )
You only know the results in hindsight. When you make a decision, you can't guarantee what would happen next.
Yes, but you can use history to make an educated guess about what will happen.
Re: Why Japanese leaders attacked Pearl Harbor
#7And untold millions died because of Japanese leaders' cautious stupidity. It seems like there are lessons to be learned here? Let's start with, whenever there are positions that are culturally unspeakable, you have a problem. Perhaps another is, whatever idiocy a foreign nation's leaders are spouting, it's a good bet nobody actually wants war ( cough cough Putin )
Not for the first time, and perhaps not for the last time, these words are so relevant.
A war that need not have been fought was about to be
fought because of mutual misunderstanding, language
difficulties, and mistranslations.
Why did America drop the two bombs? Why did it not drop the first one over the Tokyo bay? Why Japanese leaders hesitated so much to surrender, despite being so much overwhelmed by foreign power? Why nobody managed to stop Hitler from inside Germany? Why all the genocides in the history had to happen?
The world is complicated, it does not always choose the right path. Decisions of even the greatest importance are sometimes made with insufficient information, and are subject to all kinds of cognitive failures. It's easy to judge after you know all the facts.
Re: Why Japanese leaders attacked Pearl Harbor
#8And untold millions died because of Japanese leaders' cautious stupidity. It seems like there are lessons to be learned here? Let's start with, whenever there are positions that are culturally unspeakable, you have a problem. Perhaps another is, whatever idiocy a foreign nation's leaders are spouting, it's a good bet nobody actually wants war ( cough cough Putin )
Not for the first time, and perhaps not for the last time, these words are so relevant. A war that need not have been fought was about to be fought because of mutual misunderstanding, language difficulties, and mistranslations. Why did America drop the two bombs? Why did it not drop the first one over the Tokyo bay? Why Japanese leaders hesitated so much to surrender, despite being so much overwhelmed by foreign powe…
Re: Why Japanese leaders attacked Pearl Harbor
#9[deleted]
Re: Why Japanese leaders attacked Pearl Harbor
#10This timeline seems to put all the blame on Japan. No doubt they had over-militaristic tendencies. But let's also take the long view on America from Japan's perspective: * Settlers displace native peoples in the north east of North America and the Caribbean. * The first Americans kick out the British. * Americans move west, killing more native peoples. * Americans take over land from Mexico. * "Manifest Destiny" * Am…
I doubt Japan felt threatened by the US because of manifest destiny or the American revolutionary war. I think you're going a bit too far trying to paint the US as appearing unusually hegemonic or aggressive for the time.