The Lost War

This is a book written by a reporter who was Japanese and who reported events in the United States where he was stationed for a while and then in Japan where he spent the rest of his time. The reporter had access to some of the biggest names of the war on both sides. I am going to only point out some of the most interesting things that he said or heard in his interviews.

Pre-war talks were hindered very badly by too many consultations being called for on the part of the Japanese. The Japanese ambassador didn't know what the Japanese government was doing or what they even really wanted.

The U.S. wanted Japan to leave China but Togo (Army) refused to withdraw his army from China.

The Japanese war plans did not contemplate an invasion of Hawaii or the United States itself.

The Japanese delegates in the U.S. did not know Pearl Harbor had been attacked.

Militarism was the main thing in Japan at the time.

A lot of his articles were censored by Japanese authorities and many were never printed at all.

Many people thought some kind of compromise would end the war.

Most felt that Japan would not actually lose the war.

Yamamoto opposed the tripartite pact with Germany and Italy.

A lot of shortages and rations were in Japan and the daily food amount was constantly going lower.

Japan actually had three wars going on at the same time. One was the war against the Allies. A second was a constant fight between the Japanese Army and the Japanese Navy for supplies, etc. The third was internal political warfare often involving the Army and the Navy.

The balloon bombs were not announced. Defeats tended not to be announced. Sometimes major victories were made up out of thin air. There was a plan for a Japanese sub to fire rockets at New York but that didn't happen since it was too complicated a thing to pull off.

Subs were used to carry cargo.

The quality of Japanese airplanes went down as the war proceeded due to a lack of skilled workers.

The fishing fleet was ineffective.

There was a major black market.

There's also tons of other information in this quite valuable book.

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