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Katanas of the Rising Sun: Difference between revisions
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* [[Underestimating Badassery]]: Both America and Japan did this to each other to some degree at the start of [[World War II]]. Indeed Japan's whole plan was based on the assumption that a nation of quiet, polite shopkeepers would never have the heart to put [[Honor Before Reason]] and would give up pretty quickly unlike a true [[Proud Warrior Race]].
** Khalkin Gol, where Japan learned you never, under ''any'' circumstances try to invade Russia, as they mostly achieved a [[Pyrrhic Victory]] the first time. The earlier Russo-Japanese War was indeed a fluke as the Russians claim. The Japanese ended up losing some 30,000 soldiers, almost twice as much as the Russians, and retreating.
** There's a possibly apocryphal account that at Midway, Admiral Nagumo, awestruck by the suicidal courage of the torpedo plane attacks, turned to an aide and said something along the lines of, "My God, the Americans have bushido!"
* [[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.
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