Katanas of the Rising Sun: Difference between revisions

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Japan, 1867. Commodore Perry has visited Japan to display some [[Gunboat Diplomacy]] a decade-and-a-half or so ago, and the potential onslaught of Westerners to dominate Japan the way they did the rest of Asia has galvanized a clique of low-ranking samurai from the southern fiefdoms of Satsuma and Chōshū into leading their Western-style private armies against the Tokugawa Shogunate. They seize the boy-Emperor Mutsuhito at his Residence in Kyoto before the Shogun can secure him. The Shogun is dealt a heavy PR-blow by this, and many lesser Daimyos refuse to come to his aid as it would appear that they were going against the Emperor. The Shogun's forces slug it out, but are eventually driven off Honshu entirely and flee to Hokkaido where they set up a short-lived Republic in Hakodate. Eventually, this too falls, and Japan is more or less united under a new government, which moves the Emperor to Edo (renamed Tokyo) and proclaims the start of the Meiji ("Enlightened Rule") era.

 

 

 

In a fanatic stance change to hold the West in awe, some went as far as advocating for women to marry Western men [[Values Dissonance|to bring "superior genetic stock" into Japan, the women's opinions notwithstanding]]. In short, the West was the new China, and this called for a revision in all their administrations. There was very quickly a backlash against this sort of attitude, and there was a certain crisis of identity caused by the rapid changes in Japanese society. There was a renewed emphasis on retaining an essential Japanese-ness, which after flirting with [[Social Darwinism]] manifested itself in the form of a burgeoning belief in Japanese ''supremacy'', not inferiority. Because, they reasoned, who else could come so far in so short a time? This was clearly a demonstration of the Japanese people's innate superiority, above and beyond that of the European powers. Japan could do all they could -- Imperialism and everything -- and do it ''better''.

By the turn of the century, it had a fledgling modern army and navy. The army and navy proved themselves during the Sino-Japanese War, in which the Japanese emerged clearly victorious, and the Russo-Japanese War in which the Japanese managed to (barely) trounce the Tsarist forces, who didn't feel like going to the expense of a protracted war which they would have won. The war appeared to end in a Japanese victory, with ceasefire negotiated by Theodore Roosevelt in the Treaty of Portsmouth. This created major ripples in the world -- a tiny Asian power beating ''Russia''? -- leaving many considering Japan's potential. Japan believed they had learned an important lesson: respect was gained and maintained via the use of a plenitude of modern military hardware. The Social Darwinists rejoiced: what clearer sign could there be that the Japanese were a people ascendant, not just a "fitter" race, but the ''fittest''?

 

 

 

Japan, running out of options, believed it had to take and hold new sources of oil and strategic minerals. It also believed (quite possibly wrongly) that it would have to fight America if it tried to take the Dutch and British possessions that had the things it needed. Thus, Japan launched a surprise assault on Pearl Harbor, home of the US Pacific Fleet, to buy themselves enough time to take and fortify the areas they thought they needed. But America understandably took this ''very'' [[It's Personal|personally]], being attacked without receiving a formal declaration of war quickly enough<ref>A declaration ''was'' issued, but was marred by typical Japanese indirectness -- "it appears that negotiations are no longer necessary", rather than "we are now at war" -- and strategic blundering that resulted in it being presented ''after'' the attack</ref>. Following this were a series of invasions of British, Dutch, Australian and American territories throughout the Pacific. But Japan had, by Pearl Harbor, bought itself a long war that its industry and economy could not sustain. Outfought and outproduced, they were pushed back across the Pacific over the course of the next two years by a resurgent USA, with assistance from Australia and New Zealand. The Imperial Navy, after performing well in the opening battles, was shattered by several major defeats. Japan's island garrisons were either left to rot on the vine or were subjected to overwhelming assault and suffered hideous losses. Finally Japan was [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|bombed, burned, and flattened]] by the rather grisly [[General Ripper|General Curtis LeMay]]. Still unwilling to surrender, Japan was subjected to the [[Death From Above|atomic bomb]]; while its necessity is debated to this day, the belief at the time was that this would prevent the need for a repeat of the grisly battles in Iwo Jima and Saipan, where Japanese forces had fought nearly to the last man, most Japanese civilians had committed suicide rather than accept an Allied occupation, and the Allies, despite winning the battle, lost many men. An invasion of the Japanese mainland, it was thought, would result in the deaths of millions, making the loss of [[A Million Is a Statistic|a few hundred thousand]] a small price to pay.

 

 

* [[Badass Army|Badass Navy]] : The IJN. [[Badass Decay|Initially]].

** The Imperial Japanese Army almost counts as a [[Badass Army]] because it had such an incredible amount of pluck. But it had almost no sophistication or finesse unlike the Imperial Japanese Navy, and Allied troops tended to fairly commonly "give" several times better then what they "received" from the IJA. The reverse was true, however, for the vast bulk of the action it saw during the wars; most Chinese 'troops' were irregulars - that is to say, militiamen - and they were almost universally ill-equipped and ill-led, and even more poorly coordinated. An exception would be the Chinese Nationalists' 'German' divisions, which were largely wiped out at the Battle of Shanghai, and their Expeditionary Force in Burma, which was trained and equipped (and supplied, and led, and coordinated) to US Army standards.

* [[Big Brother Instinct]]: Some Americans felt this toward the Chinese - they felt they had done a lot to prevent China from being carved up between the other Imperial powers, for instance, as a result of their 'Open Door' policy to China. Likewise the Japanese government promoted this kind of pan-Asian-solidarity as a post-facto means of legitimating their Asian Empire.

** The Japanese legitimately believed their propaganda. Tojo was crying during the formation of the East Asia Prosperity Sphere

* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]: During World War II it was known to tie the wounded to a tree, torture them and leave them with a sign that said "It took him a long time to die". Naturally, the Allies didn't like that..

** A common favorite of Japanese soldiers was to force bayonet blades or katanas into the vaginas of non-Japanese Asian women.

* [[Combat Aestheticist]]: Japanese were into this in a big way, often to the detriment of [[Combat Pragmatist|pragmatism]].

* [[Complexity Addiction]]: The Imperial Japanese Navy had a serious problem with creating incredibly complex battle plans which involved a half-dozen groups of ships that couldn't support each other or be easily controlled. Such practices cost them the services of at least six carriers ''in 1942 alone'': ''Shoho'' at Coral Sea, ''Akagi'', ''Kaga'', ''Hiryu'', and ''Soryu'' at Midway, and ''Ryujo'' in the Solomons. While as theories their plans were often highly elegant, they were also stupidly vulnerable to Murphy's Law and usually incredibly optimistic.

* [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]: Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War. Albeit the Russians had to fight on foreign waters halfway across the globe.

** Their simultaneous invasions of the Philippines, Malaysia + Singapore and the East Indies count. Heck, the fact that they could hold off the US as much as they did (it could have done much better in several battles) is a case of sheer awesomeness.

** The rescue of the dying garrison on Guadalcanal could also qualify.

*** Some of the naval battles in Guadalcanal too.

* [[Determinator]]: Do we really need examples?

** Because of the nature of ocean warfare, the entire conflict between Japan and the U.S. boiled down to a contest of who could [[Buffy-Speak|out-determine]] the other. A lack of resources meant that Japan didn't have the long-term replenishment capacity of the U.S., but because of Pearl Harbor, they started out with a head start and more ships on the balance sheet. If Japan blinked first, they would sue for a beggar's peace and likely give up their Pacific conquests with harsh terms. If America blinked first, they would see the time and effort of rebuilding their fleet to recapture those conquests as not being worth the cost. And say what you will, but as time passed and Japan's new territory shrunk island by island, ending with hundreds of thousands of Allied troops poised to invade the home islands themselves, ''they never blinked''.

* [[Eats Babies]] : Some comfort women (read as "forced sex slaves") testify that some Japanese men brought meat stew for them and made them eat it, then laugh and reveal that they were chopped remains of babies cut out from other sex slaves they impregnated (and their mothers strangled with their intestines).

* [[The Empire]]

** From Japan's perspective, this helped them a lot in the Second-Sino Japanese War.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Ironically enough, Imperial Japan was one of the friendliest nations to fleeing Jewish refugees, refusing to hand over its tiny Jewish population to the Nazis and not questioning the large number of exit visas issued by Chiune Sugihara, Japanese consul to Lithuania. Compare this to the relative indifference towards Jewish refugees exhibited by the US, UK, and other Allied powers at roughly the same time period.

** Some Nazis expressed this attitude towards [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|the Japanese campaign in China.]]

** Operation Olympic/Coronet, the invasion of the Home Islands, would have been the ultimate in final battles as far as [[WW 2]] went, with even its planners describing it as a "blood-soaked apocalypse". Fortunately, the atomic bomb rendered it unnecessary.

* [[For the Evulz]]: Some of the things Japanese grunts did for fun are truly horrifying and pointless. For example, see [[Eats Babies]].

* [[Insane Troll Logic]]: The Allies "forced" Japan to attack them by refusing to sell ''their own oil'' which Japan of course absolutely needed to sustain their brutal colonization of China.

** [[Insane Troll Logic]], or rather the realization of it, is the reason why the Japanese public grew to hate the military fairly quickly after the Battle of Saipan, when it became obvious even through the propaganda that Japan was in way over its head.

** This had a political purpose as well. It represented an anchor in [[Good Old Ways|the past]] during the Meji Reformation.

** Hideki Tojo was officially the Prime Minister of course, but he was so unassertive in personality compared to Mussolini and Hitler that one might almost think he was chosen to be a puppet.

** For much of the 30s and 40s, you can just say "the military ruled Japan".

* [[Honor Before Reason]]: Or [[Lawful Stupid|"honor without reason."]]

** As an example: When the US landed at Guadalcanal, there were 16 Japanese divebombers sitting at Rabaul loaded for a ground-attack mission against a target in New Guinea. They did not have the range to strike Guadalcanal and return, nor were they armed with weapons that could significantly harm a ship. [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|The divebombers were ordered to attack at once.]] This gesture was absolutely relished by apparently every involved officer except the squadron leader, but it cost them sixteen perfectly good aircraft and twenty-eight veteran aircrew for nothing.

* [[Improvised Weapon]]: Kamikazes. The rocket-fueled suicide planes were designated "Ohka" (Cherry Blossom), but they were so worthless that someone in the Pentagon named them "[[Baka]]" (Idiot). Ohkas played a role in the loss of a Japanese carrier transporting them, which is one more than the number of US carriers they sunk. The American name turned out to be apter.

** Kaiten, glorified torpedoes with room for a man to guide them. Evidence suggests that they were actually less effective than standard torpedoes.

** Indeed, the Katanas also caused said officers to have a [[Highly-Conspicuous Uniform]] on the battlefield, and they often found themselves drawing fire from the American troops as a result.

* [[The Laws and Customs of War]]: Played straight and then subverted later. Interestingly the Japanese were complimented widely for their gracious adherence to this during the Russo-Japanese war. They did not have this reputation during [[World War II]].

* [[Karmic Death]]: The architects of the US firebombing campaign considered it a justified response to Japanese atrocities. After the war Japan was essentially a pre-Industrial Age wasteland with almost no cities still standing and came very close to mass famine as their transport system was in ruins.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: Arguably many Japanese officers and grunts from the war. Particularly the ruling family.

** US soldiers in the Pacific Theater came pretty close too for various reasons.

* [[Made of Explodium]]: The "Long Lance" was a scarily good torpedo. But it got its range and speed from using pure oxygen (where other torps would have compressed air). A '''lot''' of destroyers (and several cruisers) were lost when their torpedoes exploded.

* [[Off with His Head]]: Japanese soldiers used to have contests to see who could decapitate the most Chinese prisoners. This even made positive headlines in papers back in Tokyo.

* [[Older Than They Think]]: Japan's ambitions for a trans-Pacific empire date to 1798, when Honda Toshiaki, actually opposing British imperialism, said Japan should rule the entire Pacific Rim and relocate the capital to Kamchatka, because Kamchatka, being at the same latitude as London, [[What an Idiot!|would have the same climate]].

*** Another way of looking at the latter instance is that after Hideyoshi brought an end to the Sengoku Jidai, he needed some way to occupy the attention of all of his samurai and allied warlords while he focused on rebuilding the country. The solution? Send them off on a hopeless war of conquest that will likely get them all killed.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Isoroku Yamamoto, mentioned above, seemed to be the only man in the country that thought an unprovoked attack on America might be a bad idea... at least in his diary. He's often portrayed as having openly protested or denounced it, but most of the quotes attributed to him may have actually been apocryphal. More recent scholarship suggests the Pearl Harbor attack may have actually originated with Yamamoto.

** Subverted by Homma and Yamashita, other "sane men".

* [[Proud Warrior Race]]: The concept of ''Yamato damashii'', the spirit of the Japanese race, played a major role in the self-image of Japan's armed forces.

* [[Recycled in Space]]: [[Star Blazers]].

* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: Remember Pearl Harbor!

** While the losses were about even, and Japan gained very little out of the war, Russia still came out of the war a lot worse for wear, as the people trusted the government less, many prisoners were taken, and over fifty thousand people died due to economic deadweight.

* [[Seppuku]]: A fatalistic culture, the Japanese were extremely devoted to suicide, preferring (what they believed was) an honorable death to captivity. At least in theory (read propaganda). The people of Okinawa had been told that capture by Americans would be [[A Fate Worse Than Death]], and given what soldiers who had returned from China had experienced, it was not that far fetched. However, some survivors report having murdered their whole families against their will before being captured by American soldiers.

* [[Technician Versus Performer]]: The USN thought of itself more as a technician of war and the IJN more as a performer.

* [[This Means War]]: Pearl Harbor.

* [[Unobtanium]]: America and [[The British Empire]] placed an embargo on oil and other resources to Japan before [[World War II|the war]] as they really didn't want it to be used by Japan to beat up China, where they had their own interests including the local [[Balance of Power]]. The Japanese could not carry on military operations without such things and withdrawing would [[Honor Before Reason|lose face]]. Thus they decided that they should attack Pearl Harbor, Singapore, the Phillipines, Burma, and Malaya, thinking a quick strike would and a quick "magnanimous" offer of peace would end the war. [[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time]].

* [[We Have Reserves]]: The Chinese attempted to use this strategy against Japan, but [[Curb Stomp Battle|it worked out very poorly]] against Japanese tanks, planes, mortars and machine guns. The Japanese themselves attempted to use this against the advanced armies of the United States and the British Commonwealth, which also ended in disaster for much the same reasons. Also, unlike China who could actually afford to replenish losses, Japan couldn't afford to have large amounts of troops killed. On paper, their empire had a very large population to draw from. In reality, they didn't have the food to feed them, the money to train them, or the ammo to equip them.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Forces With Firepower]]

[[Category:Katanas Of The Rising Sun]]