These peace feelers were generally the product of local initiative and had at most only a tacit approval from official Tokyo, where government quarreling over the question of capitulation was growing more and more desperate as the year advanced. They did not lead in any way to the eventual Japanese notes sent through standard diplomatic channels on 10 and 14 August, but they may have helped define for both sides the conditions therein drawn which made “unconditional” surrender a practical possibility.
The OP asks two question, neither of which any reply thus far has addressed.
1-Was the order to send infantry against tanks a critical mistake?
2-Could have junior officers in 1945 protested this order?
To the first, I say yes, it was a critical mistake. It was actually a STUPID DECISION. I don’t care from what level the order to charge came. It is suicide to try fighting against tanks with unsupported infantry.
To the second, I say yes. They could have protested the order. Perhaps they did and were overruled with threats of court martial and dishonorable discharge for disobeying orders. The OP doesn’t address this (though the book may have).
I believe any junior officer worth his salt should have at least questioned the order and discussed it with the Colonel before giving their subordinates the order to charge the tanks.
It is supposition on my part to say that the Colonel knew that support (in the form of tanks) would arrive on the third wave. More supposition that he knew the timing of the third wave.
Also, I suppose the soldiers on the beach were not being systematically picked off by defending infantry tank mounted weapons.
Nonetheless, my answers stand…yes and yes.
Upon reading your essay here I was moved to reflect about instances in WW 1 were battlefield generals made similar decisions without carefully weighing the odds and variables. Of course I am fresh off from just viewing the movie “1917” so that could have something to do with my recall, however in the movie itself there was a line in which one officer tells a private who is having to go on a perilous journey to deliver a message to a general to stop an advance because intelligence confirms it was a trap set by the Germans where thousands will die and he says: “when you deliver the message make sure there are other soldiers there to witness it, some men just want the fight and may not listen”. I don’t know why I thought of this when reading your post but like I said it could just be me freshly recalling the movie!
If you haven’t seen the movie I highly recommend it, pretty awesome film with some of the best cinematography shot. I wasn’t initially going to see it due to some mixed early reviews but The Drunken Critic whose a friend of mine insisted I go see it and I am Glad I did.
Complete bullshit. They started sending out feelers shortly after the defeat at Midway but all of their entreaties were predicated on keeping all of the pacific nations and Islands they had conquered.
One of the most ignorant comments ever made.
If Japan had taken Hawaii it would have given them a base from which to stage an invasion of mainland North America.
That’s exactly why they needed it.
The only reason the invasion fleet turned back after the destruction of Pearl Harbor was the fact the carriers and enough other capital ships were not in the harbor to seriously threaten if not outright destroy the invasion fleet before the conquest of the Islands would have likely been completed.
According to the book, “Flags of Our Fathers” tanks(Sherman Death Traps) where already there.They were having refuelling problems and coping with Japanese Harassment fire.
There may have been a few that came ashore with the scout units but the Marines were stuck on the beaches for 7 full days prior to the assault on Surabachi and their main tank forces could not come ashore until a substantial beachhead was secured.
See the timeline here.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20672371?seq=1
Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
Because it was an agenda. The Imperial Japanese Navy brass consisted of Masons whose (real) allegiance was not to the emperor.
History is not what meets the eye.
One reason for the attack, was that the imperial government felt that the American war machine would prove costly and not making a profit which would result in withdrawal. How silly!
The US fleet was the only force on the globe capable of stopping them from taking the entire pacific which is why they attacked.
Not really that hard to understand if you have any understanding of the world circa 1930-1942.
Digi is just insane and sees conspiracies everywhere.
You really should have read that article before posting it, it’s a very good article.
It leaves out one key factor in the war, the Japanese never made any real effort to attack our merchant marine and other logistical support vessels.
In comparison we starved the Japanese garrisons during the Island hopping campaign. We’d identify one strategic Island targeting it and ignoring other occupied Islands.
By taking the strategic key islands we cut off their supplies and literally starved them into submission.
We also used our entire submarine fleet to target solely their merchant marine fleets for the first three years of the war. They were in fact forbidden from seeking out their warships completely with only few exceptions such as during the battle of Midway.
By concentrating on cutting their fuel, food, and other supplies off, we greatly expedited the end of the war.
Their garrisons were essentially abandoned to their own fate with starving soldiers and sailors trying to grow enough rice and catch enough fish locally to survive while fighting a war of attrition they had no possibility of winning with little or no resupply of weapons, ammo, medicine and fuel.
Their failure to follow up the attack on PH with a full invasion and failure to concentrate on cutting our supply lines assured they could not win.
Japan had almost no native iron/steel so it all had to be imported. They also had almost no fossil fuels so they all had to be imported.
Prior to the war where did they get most of their coal, petroleum and steel? From the US.
Their other huge failure was in attacking Pearl when the carriers and quite a few lesser capital ships were at sea. Because all communication with the fleet was forbidden once they set to see the very good Japanese spy network around PH could not inform them of the movements of ships our of PH so they came in blind to those facts.
Those few strategic and tactical blunders in 41-42 assured their eventual defeat because they had no chance of reaching N. America with any kind of substantial force to hit our west coast Naval assets or west coast industry that powered and fed the entire war in the Pacific.
For those interested, take a look at Japanese shipping losses to US submarines here in this report. Focus on the merchant marine losses which constituted about 90-95% of the submarines targets.
Sadly, or torpedo tech for the first 2.5 years of the war absolutely sucked with most either never hitting targets, or failing to explode when they did due to weak firing pins on the contact fuses and a huge failure rate with the magnetic/proximity fuses.
About 75% of the submarine kills actually occured in the last 2 years of the war as those problems were finally identified and dealt with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6gFQH54k0M&t=61s
Watch how sailors on Wahoo gun down survivors of a torpedo ship.
Our “liberal friends” would want them all drawn and quartered for “war crimes”.
We’ll never win a war playing nice.
there’s actually a great series from the late fifties, early sixties on the Pacific Submarine war where they go through the stories of the individual boats and some of their more important missions. It’s on youtube if you’re interested.
As a matter of fact, that’s precisely why General Eisenhower was opposed to the use of the atomic bomb, protested solemnly when SOW Stimson told him of the plan, and HELD THAT POSITION (along with many of his contemporaries) TO HIS DEATH!!!
No, it’s one of Digi’s idiotic lies.
More important is why FDR facilitated it.
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He didn’t, why lie? …
Then why do they occur…?
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