Breten said:
I'd just like to take a second to thank DM & BuShips and any others for the wealth of info found here.
As a gamer with a non-historical slant, I figured I'd have a lot of work ahead of me researching the Japanese fleet. Especially since Naval Warfare is especially unfmiliar to me, being landlocked and all. Thankfully most of my work is done and I can concentrate on arranging my pruchases out to make my fleets as historically accurate as possible.
I'm learning a lot. Thanks guys.
No problem, as I'm sure we both enjoy the discussion :wink: . DM and I bounch off of each other's posts and thus seem to pry out more information for all to digest. As for me, I'm going back to my roots in both gaming as well as love of military history. I have focused more upon the Pacific Theater of WW2 than any other period, as it was just an enormous battlefield. For example, the Pacific Theater encompassed over 60 million square miles. An impressive number, correct? This also happens to be the amount of
total land area in the World, so this part of WW2 spanned a very large area indeed. I also had an uncle who was at Pearl Harbor the day it was attacked, as well as another uncle that served on three destroyers throughout the Pacific, even spending 3 days trapped in the bow compartment of a bobbing DD riding out a Pacific Typhoon (now
there's an oxymoronic term!). I had a great uncle that spent three years fighting the Japanese around New Guinea, sometimes hand-to-hand. None of them talked about it much, and I can't blame them any for that attitude. Still, it is history that should not be forgotten, or we'll be reminded of Santayana instead (Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it). I also have a great affinity for the Japanese, and make every attempt to look at their WW2 history from their perspective. [wry]Sure it was an empire expanding at the cost of many other's lives, but what empire hasn't trodden on another's posessions and freedoms?[/wry] The Japanese were just "late to the party", as past expansions in the world (the U.S., the U.K., France and Spain for example) had mostly halted and tried to hold the "status quo" with their assets intact. Japan's mistake was in not doing their "land grab" in earlier times, so as to secure critical strategic materials such as rubber, tin and oil. I'm not saying it was a "good" thing to do, but rather that it was good
for them, I suppose. It was
not good for those they occupied, however. A very interesting phrase that I saw during my early reading was an eye opener for me. The "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" seems rather comical from a historical viewpoint, as Imperial Japan absorbed as much territory and resources as it could conquer, sharing their treasure with no one but themselves. From Korea through Taiwan (Formosa back then), and down into the Philippines (after Dec. 7), Malaysia and Indochina (now Vietnam), they kicked out any western interlopers (Australian, Dutch, Britain, etc.) and secured it for Japan's needs Although Vichy France was ally of sorts, Hitler allowed the Japanese to "manage" it for France, efectively adding it to their conquests. China holds a grudge to this day for the large part of China that was taken for the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", even though China was a territory of no one(!). Indeed, it
was a matter of perspective, but one looked at from a rather narrow viewpoint, I would say :roll: .
