@suzianne saidLong ago, a TV movie called "Missiles of October" was produced. Ever see it?
Kennedy's military blockade of Cuba in 1962 was instrumental in resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Riveting.
@shavixmir saidIt worked in 1905. https://www.history.com/topics/korea/russo-japanese-war
The question you should be asking is: why did Japan attack America when they knew the US could out-man and out manufacture them.
What drove them to such a measure?
The Japanese thought that they would be able to grab a significant amount of territory and islands and then defend them inflicting sufficient losses on the US and its allies that they would be willing to negotiate and acquiesce to some Japanese territorial expansion.
@athousandyoung saidWell, what was going on in and around Japan?
What do you think was the reason?
Japan was expanding, violently, into China (Manchuria) and beyond.
The US didn’t like this and other attrocities the Japanese were executing.
So, they started a trade embargo and began supporting the Guomindang (Chinese nationalist forces).
This seriously disrupted oil and steel coming into Japan.
The Japanese considered this cultural appropriation (The West involving itself in Asian matters).
There were months of negotiations without result.
Because they signed the treaty with Hitler and Italy, they were left no choice (in their perspective) than to pre-empt an attack.
So, it certainly wasn’t the US’s fault, but, much like WWI, a series of unfortunate events leading to the inevitable.
@teinosuke saidLet’s get real the A bombs were dropped on Japan for various reasons but chiefly:- to show the Russians what they had and what they can do, to stop the Russians getting into the war in Japan / Pacific, and probably the most reprehensible reason, the American military wanted to know what they could do to civilian targets during and subsequent to the blast.
A number of revisionist historians have argued that the atomic bombings could have been avoided had the United States been prepared to accept a conditional rather than unconditional surrender from Japan, which could have brought the war to an end earlier in the summer.
@shavixmir saidThat isn't substantially different from what I said except you did not explain what Japan hoped to accomplish with the attack.
Well, what was going on in and around Japan?
Japan was expanding, violently, into China (Manchuria) and beyond.
The US didn’t like this and other attrocities the Japanese were executing.
So, they started a trade embargo and began supporting the Guomindang (Chinese nationalist forces).
This seriously disrupted oil and steel coming into Japan.
The Japanese considered ...[text shortened]... wasn’t the US’s fault, but, much like WWI, a series of unfortunate events leading to the inevitable.
@athousandyoung saidThe US stopping their aggression.
That isn't substantially different from what I said except you did not explain what Japan hoped to accomplish with the attack.
From their point of view.
Personally, I would have used diplomacy. The US has always been very good in diplomacy.
Like now. Surely a country feeling hard done-by, by the US, would seek diplomatic relations with the US government. As always they’re the standard of reason and rationality.
@shavixmir saidYou call it stopping aggression, I call it interfering with brutal empire building. Potato tomato.
The US stopping their aggression.
From their point of view.
Personally, I would have used diplomacy. The US has always been very good in diplomacy.
Like now. Surely a country feeling hard done-by, by the US, would seek diplomatic relations with the US government. As always they’re the standard of reason and rationality.
@earl-of-trumps saidA man is known by the company he keeps
And I can tell you, I knew two WWII soldiers who deeply regretted the A-bombing of Japan....
because they wanted to invade the mainland of Japan and kill everything in sight!!
― Aesop
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@no1marauder saidAnd that strategy might have worked had the Japanese not attacked Pearl Harbor.
It worked in 1905. https://www.history.com/topics/korea/russo-japanese-war
The Japanese thought that they would be able to grab a significant amount of territory and islands and then defend them inflicting sufficient losses on the US and its allies that they would be willing to negotiate and acquiesce to some Japanese territorial expansion.
Had the Japanese laid off US possessions, it is possible that the US never would have declared war. Even if they had, the Japanese could have established a defensive perimeter that would have been hard to penetrate at least for a couple of years. Whether the American people would have supported an all out sustained war in the far east to save the British Empire and the freedom of the Chinese and other East Asians is very unclear.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was the first major mistake. The attack on Midway was the second. There was nothing material to be gained by attacking PH and Midway. Both were attempts to knock out the US navy only. Given the immense resources of the US to build new ships and war materials, they were almost pointless. The 10 or so battleships destroyed at PH were barely missed 2 years later and even had all the carriers been destroyed at Midway, the US would have just built bigger and better ones and more of them in 1943 and 44.
The one big Japanese hope in WWII was that the US people would grow tired of a far-off war with no clear purpose and clamor for peace (which is essentially how Vietnam worked).
@shavixmir saidBy embargoing its oil, the US did "force" Japan to either back down from its bid to rule the Far East or go to war in some capacity. What it should have done strategically was to seize oil and other resources in Indochina and other far eastern land areas and go on the defensive if the US did declare war.
The question you should be asking is: why did Japan attack America when they knew the US could out-man and out manufacture them.
What drove them to such a measure?
