A ridiculous and clearly racist 1933 article claiming that Imperial Japanese military pilots would willingly fly a aircraft packed with explosives straight into targets and commit suicide for the glory of the Emperor. This sort of...Hang on.
Friday 6 February 2009
Death Bombs
A ridiculous and clearly racist 1933 article claiming that Imperial Japanese military pilots would willingly fly a aircraft packed with explosives straight into targets and commit suicide for the glory of the Emperor. This sort of...Hang on.
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3 comments:
Willing to sacrifice their life: yes
Technologically retarded: no
Overall, WW2 was won by sheer weight of numbers at least as much as by anything else. The Japanese had better planes and experienced pilots in 1941, but they were gradually overwhelmed by the huge numbers of new pilots from the worldwide Commonwealth pilot training program.
I was going to make a point about the number of amazingly successful mechanics/electronics-related Japanese companies and multinationals (and throw in something about the current state of the US automanufacturing industry), but someone on that link already did it. And, you know, ragging on an article from the 30's seems a bit unfair. I've probably already met my laughing-at-previous-times quota already.
Still, a fairly interesting (if slightly hilarious) article, showing attitudes at the time. Just don't mention the puppets in the photographs on the last page. >_>
Japan wasn't set up for a long war. It controlled a lot of territory, but that territory did not make soldiers. Rather, it required soldiers to keep it under Japanese control. Once Pearl Harbor failed to destroy enough of the American navy, and Midway fell through, it was only a matter of time. And very hard, brutal fighting.
A difference between Japanese kamikaze pilots and the current crop of human guidance systems: the Japanese had something to lose. Iran pretty much invented teaching kids to blow themselves up from an early age, and I think they go in without regrets (thanks, Mr. Carter!). In other words, you had to make a courageous sacrifice to fly a kamikaze mission. You were not planning out a pleasant afterlife. Easier to find dumb or malleable people in any country than brave ones. (Also, Japanese flew planes into military targets, not random people...)
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