Ok! I'll slate this for tomorrow, when I'm actually awake and not pretending to be :P
A couple of things I can note from your reply, straight away, tho - no, Japan definitely wasn't a victim, and in that sense I have absolutely no sympathy.
However, it did just occur to me, in a fuller sense than it had before, that if algae growth is more honourable than a man who surrenders rather than takes his own life, how does an entire nation cope when faced with the reality that the country, in itself, failed to fall on the proverbial sword?
I can see how the censorship began - what I personally find apalling is that this has continued for 60 years! At the end of the day, surely it's more honourable to admit your past errors and move on? Or maybe I'm just too simplistic. ^^
Yes, the Kokoda Trail really could be called a successful version of Custer's Last Stand. If I remember correctly, it was just a small platoon with a handful of backup that held back the oncoming Japanese troups. By the last few weeks, there were no guns (mud damaged), no ammunition even if they had guns (that which wasn't useless from the tropical conditions were already spent), no food supplies etc. Raw guts, basically.
To put it in full context for you, in terms of how near a thing it was, Papua New Guinea/New Guinea is just north of Australia - you can *see* it from the northern most tip! There's actually more water distance between the mainland state of Victoria and the island state of Tasmania in the south than there is between northern-most point of Cape York and New Guinea.
The Japanese had managed to advance about 2/3rds of the way down, before they were turned back with the help from the newly arrived US forces.
The general policy was (and pretty much has always been) that Australia's so isolated, that we can send most of our troups elsewhere and still be safe. We were wrong then, we are wrong now.
So, really, if the Japanese had cleared a way thru New Guinea (which they very nearly did), then it would have been a very easy invasion trip over into Queensland.
Travel being what it was in the day, and there being so many islands and areas under Japanese control or isolated by Japanese troups, between the northern asia continents and Australia, Japan had a far better chance of diverting an invasion force down through the region than Australia would have in recalling its troups from the European section of the war.
So, either the British lost one of their Commonwealth countries - which provided a significant amount of resource imports for the UK in terms of minerals, wheat, ecconomy etc, as well as a large, widely achnowledged defense force - or it would have had to a) lose a large proportion of australian troups who were providing man power in the european sector OR send alternative troups OR do both, in order to reclaim australia.
Given that, until Pearl Harbor, the US didn't want to have anything to do with the war, in general, and that both the european and pan-pacific wars were running very close to a loss until the US intervention, then yes, the domino effect *would* have been totally catastrophic!
no subject
Date: 23 Apr 2005 03:51 pm (UTC)A couple of things I can note from your reply, straight away, tho - no, Japan definitely wasn't a victim, and in that sense I have absolutely no sympathy.
However, it did just occur to me, in a fuller sense than it had before, that if algae growth is more honourable than a man who surrenders rather than takes his own life, how does an entire nation cope when faced with the reality that the country, in itself, failed to fall on the proverbial sword?
I can see how the censorship began - what I personally find apalling is that this has continued for 60 years! At the end of the day, surely it's more honourable to admit your past errors and move on? Or maybe I'm just too simplistic. ^^
Yes, the Kokoda Trail really could be called a successful version of Custer's Last Stand. If I remember correctly, it was just a small platoon with a handful of backup that held back the oncoming Japanese troups. By the last few weeks, there were no guns (mud damaged), no ammunition even if they had guns (that which wasn't useless from the tropical conditions were already spent), no food supplies etc. Raw guts, basically.
To put it in full context for you, in terms of how near a thing it was, Papua New Guinea/New Guinea is just north of Australia - you can *see* it from the northern most tip! There's actually more water distance between the mainland state of Victoria and the island state of Tasmania in the south than there is between northern-most point of Cape York and New Guinea.
The Japanese had managed to advance about 2/3rds of the way down, before they were turned back with the help from the newly arrived US forces.
The general policy was (and pretty much has always been) that Australia's so isolated, that we can send most of our troups elsewhere and still be safe. We were wrong then, we are wrong now.
So, really, if the Japanese had cleared a way thru New Guinea (which they very nearly did), then it would have been a very easy invasion trip over into Queensland.
Travel being what it was in the day, and there being so many islands and areas under Japanese control or isolated by Japanese troups, between the northern asia continents and Australia, Japan had a far better chance of diverting an invasion force down through the region than Australia would have in recalling its troups from the European section of the war.
So, either the British lost one of their Commonwealth countries - which provided a significant amount of resource imports for the UK in terms of minerals, wheat, ecconomy etc, as well as a large, widely achnowledged defense force - or it would have had to a) lose a large proportion of australian troups who were providing man power in the european sector OR send alternative troups OR do both, in order to reclaim australia.
Given that, until Pearl Harbor, the US didn't want to have anything to do with the war, in general, and that both the european and pan-pacific wars were running very close to a loss until the US intervention, then yes, the domino effect *would* have been totally catastrophic!
Gah! Not bad for someone still asleep :P