History

I t s m i l i tar y was m ade to appear alm ost d i v i ne i n the f ace of i n com peten t Br i t i sh , Fr en ch and Am er i can def en se i n 1942, yet i t possessed no r eal arm or ed f or ces. O n ce a m or e p r ot r acted con f l i ct began , i t was qu i ck l y r eal i sed that Japan d i d not have a sustai nab l e supp l y of arm s p r oduct i on , and af ter the Bat t l es of the Cor al Sea and M i dway, i t f ound i t sel f w i th a l acer ated navy, too. T he Un i ted States, by con t r ast , cou l d easi l y r epai r and m anu f actu r e vessel s, and so always had f or ces to har r y the i n cr easi ngl y weak Japanese. So l ar ge was the U.S. naval advan tage that i t has been debated whether the Am er i can s? ?I sl and H opp i ng,? ven tu r es wer e actual l y needed to def eat the Japanese (see M ax H ast i ngs, Al l H el l L et L oose). T h i s i s because the U.S. was al r eady st r angl i ng the Japanese econom y. I n O ctober 1944 al one, 322,265 ton s of Japanese sh i pp i ng was sun k . Total am oun t s r ose to 6 m i l l i on ton s of dest r oyed sh i pp i ng over the war ?s cou r se. T he U.S., then , cou l d have star ved Japan i n to

su r r ender , yet deci ded not to? causi ng m any unnecessar y deaths i n the U.S. and Japanese arm i es al i ke. T he U.S., of cou r se, wou l d go on to sub jugate Japan w i th atom i c weapon s, yet i t s v i ctor y u l t im atel y depended on econom i cs. H ad they l acked such vast i ndust r i al r eser ves, the Am er i can s wou l d have been unab l e to def eat Japan w i th the easy they even tual l y d i d . Japan ther ef or e l ost the Second Wor l d War on econom i c gr ounds. Par adox i cal l y, i t was econom i cs that caused the cr eat i on of thei r em p i r es. Yet i t was i t s i n st i tu t i onal econom i c weakness that caused the def eat of f asci sm i n 1945. Both Germ any and

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