I wrote:
> "Look, top admirals such as Yamamoto and our invincible soldiers have > never lost a war in 6,000 years. . . ." > I meant 2,600 years. That was the claim, made in 1940. They held a big celebration, and informally named the "zero" fighter airplane after the last 2 digits (00). Supposedly. I do not want to exaggerate their irrationality. They had legitimate reasons to be upset with the U.S. They had entirely different notions about wars, and the scope of war. Their experience was with 19th century colonial wars in Asia, which were brief, with limited goals. They were not all-out wars like the U.S. Civil War or WWI. It did not occur to the Japanese political or military leaders that the only way they could win the war and avoid the destruction of every city in Japan would be for them to invade the continental U.S. and lay waste to every U.S. city and factory, from California to Washington and New York City, the way Sherman destroyed Georgia and the Carolinas in the Civil War. If you had asked a Japanese general or admiral if such a thing is within their power he would have said you are crazy. They were playing by different rules. As one of them remarked after the war, "we had no concept of 'total war.'" - Jed
