Japan Burns While the Emperor Seeks Peace - War Against Humanity 137
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- The US bombers continue destroying Japanese cities with a rain of firebombs. As the country burns, the Japanese leadership and Emperor Hirohito finally realise they must seek peace.
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Japans government: we can take our time, its not like they can incinerate the entire island or anything.
Pretty much all of the Japanese cities within range of B-29s had been between 60% and 90% destroyed. Which makes me think that the atom bomb didn't necessarily have a great deal to do with their surrender. As they were prepared to put up with the damage from conventional bombing, and take their time discussing peace terms.
Curtis LeMay, “hold my sake!”
@bobmetcalfe9640 the lack of concern Japan's gov had as the USAAF ran out of cities to burn and the population starved is still criminal.
@@bobmetcalfe9640 it's not about what the atom bomb actually was, it's about the fear that the Americans could churn out those bombs every few days and keep on dropping them... And what else could follow. They did not know that the 2 the Americans used were the only two they would have for a while. I agree they didn't need much incentive, but it isn't a great leap of logic to argue that the atom bombs were the feather that broke the camel's back, if only because of the awe it inspired.
@@andersonklein3587 I have heard it argued that the reason that Japan surrendered was once the Soviets entered the war and took Manchukuo (Manchuria), they knew there was no negotiated peace. The Soviets entered the war after the bombs were dropped, because the bombs meant that the US might win the war in the East. If the Americans won without Soviet help, the Soviets might not have any say in the peace.
TLDR The bombs prompted the Soviets and the Soviets prompted the Japanese surrender.
How many millions died because leaders couldn't lose face
That is one Asian trait that irritates the hell out of me. "I'm going to do something most will consider despicable, and if it goes well, I'll be a revered hero, but if it goes wrong, I must be allowed to salvage and maintain my dignity." F that.
They would rather lose the war and die than admit to being wrong
The sunk cost fallacy is not just an Asian trait. Pretty common to all governments, I say that as a US Vietnam vet.
@@tomschmidt381 or the Soviets in Afghanistan, or the Americans in Afghanistan, or the Americans in Iraq, and there are probably even more examples of countries not wanting to give in on a lost cause.
@@markarren7480 The difference is that continuing the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq didn't lead to US or Soviet cities being turned to rubble every month. Japan was in a completely different situation and yet they still stubbornly refused to surrender.
The Big Six: "We will fight to the death, to the last drop of blood. And by "we" we mean "you" because we are too important to make such a sacrifice."
Has there been a single nation in history that valued the lives of the enemy over its own people?
@@MM22966 The Japanese Big Six had no regard for the lives of the Japanese people ... except, of course, their own lives.
@@MM22966 I think you might not understand the comment you're replying to
@@SoManySkinks Yeah, I messed up. I thought it said "Big Three" and I ran in the other direction, ha-ha!
meanwhile, Churchill after beeing dismissed as 1st lord of the admiralty in 1915: "off to the trenches it is"
You guys are better at this than anything shown on the History Channel in the last decade. Every time Spartacus starts one of his final monologues, I involuntarily find myself creeping my butt to the edge of my seat.
History channel has been completely shit for at least 15 years. I would say that this content is better than whatever was on history channel during its hayday.
And I dont mean that the good ol' stuff of history channel is bad, it is very good. But this is sooo much better.
Spartacus is doing a very good job. I like him.
It was aliens who made japanese buildings go up in flames
"History"
Thank you for the comment and thanks for watching.
The Emperor was remarkably aloof in response to the suffering of his people. Reflecting on the Emperor's training as a marine biologist, William Manchester once wrote that "He [the Emperor] probably preferred fish to people."
Well said.
All I can think now is that the Emperor was just the Japanese George Costanza.
He might have been thinking: "No worries, in 80 years there will be armies of internet lawyers accusing Allied leaders of criminal behaviour, saying I really wanted peace urgently.... and all I need are these extremely half-arsed efforts to imply that maybe the junta I supported into power could think about making a plan to contemplate whether there is a need for further research into suing for peace. Maybe, if that's okay with everyone."
He certainly ate seafood and sushi as most japanese people do, not sure he ate people...
Power corrupts. No matter how good a person maybe..If you give them unchecked power they will become bad.
Great Episode. The politics of Japan at the senior level is both fascinating and mind boggling. There was a Japanese movie titled “The Emperor in August” that explored in great detail the politics of the last weeks of the war and the attempted coup by mid level officers of the Army. The Japanese Army intransigence is extremely difficult to understand when faced with inevitable defeat.
Loved the dying raging bull vs the invincible matador ....simple,brilliant and a perfect representation
This ending gave me the goosebumps.... so scary.
The Matador pulling out a sword made of Plutonium.
The Army after Okinawas fall was shaken to its core, over 20,000 Japanese surrendered. Usually the only prisioners were badly wounded men that couldn't fight or kill themselves. The fact that they were giving up was a shock to Army Command.
Okinawa was horrific. That and the siege in the Philippines.
How many were actually ethnic Japanese tho?
@@joeywheelerii9136Japan is too obsessed with ethnicity.
I guess being a US pow was a better life than the Imperial Army offered
@@robmclaughjr they finally started to realize the weak short emperor wasn’t worth dying for.
Japan: Dang it! Molotov is still gone fishing.
USA: *keeps cracking knuckles*
Molotov: Gone Fishin'
USA: Gone Fission
@@Onthejazz247😂😂😂
@@Onthejazz247 that is perfect.
Looks like "I'm sorry." really is the hardest thing to say.
In Asian cultures preserving face is very very important. Christianity turned the West from a shame based culture to a guilt based one where guilt is individual and based upon your guilt for failing to maintain a code. In the East where they are still shame based, morality more has to do with shaming the group.
So much harder apparently, then, "here you have a cup of saké and the nation is grateful for your honourable sacrifice". Odd too that it is the Dutch who got to trade with Japan. Because when it comes to death and honour we have an old saying: 'tis better to blush than to bleed!
"Cue the Chicago music!" *puts on sunglasses and gets out popcorn* "Ok boys, time to drop the BIG ONE"
@@merlijnbazuine5075 the Tokugawa Shogunate only allowed trade with the Dutch and expelled the Portuguese because of the the latter's interference in Japanesese politics but that was well back in the 1600's.
@@merlijnbazuine5075now?
Insanity of insanity.
Americans - Japan is lost. give up or else?
Japanese - No. We’ll fight to the death.
Americans -We have a big surprise.
Soviets - We want our share.
What happened to Major Kong?
You would think that a government who tells its citizens about the brutality of a particular nation would have been a bit more careful about picking a fight with that nation.
Totalitarnianism101. Find a "Them" to be an enemy the people will fear more than you.
Personally I'm just looking at the IJA still enthusiastically Three All-ing it''s way across Asia and thinking "oh well".
Dear Indy. Happy 10th anniversary of your first UA-cam appearance. I wish you all the best and another 10 years of UA-cam success! 10 years in the bussines! Wow! Congratulations!
A matador, eh? America's first nuclear armed cruise missile, the MGM-1, was named the Matador.
A more fitting name than Enola Gay...
@@eduardogutierrez4698the name originates from the pilot’s name. It's not because there is gay that it's about homosexuality.
@@Stella-gm7bo that B-29 was named after the pilot's mother, Enola Gay Tibbets.
@@Red_Four it was indeed
@@Stella-gm7bo you know what's crazy about it though, is that it only took me a few seconds to put Enola Gay into the search bar to see exactly why it was named that way, but some people have this ability and can't use it.
Japan; please Stalin intervene with the allies on our behalf
Stalin: like you intervened on our behalf with hitler?
@nicolaso.8666 just something I remember from one of the first baberosa videos
The US purchased Alaska in 1867 from Imperial Russia. Russia sold it for various reasons, including expectation of losing it to England in the event of a future conflict with them. Japanese relations had absolutely no bearing on the sale to the US.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
I thought Stalin and Hitler began WW2 in Europe as frenemies in the most extreme sense. Ultra Arch allies.
@@Revy8It is somewhat true about the selling of the Russia/USSR owned railroad in Manchuria to Japan.
No, Russia sold Alaska to stop the British taking it.
Russia could not afford to colonize Alaska - it only had fur, timber and ice - all in abundance much closer to home. Why spend the money?
By giving it to US Russia got a neutral bulwark between itself and the British Empire.
Spartacus looks fabulous in the navy blue suit.
And the brown tie stripes match the color well
I ain't gonna lie, Sparty wears some fly suits sometimes
For those wondering what the Imperial Regalia is -- mentioned at 13:24 -- these are a Sacred Gem, Mirror, and Sword Kusanagi (Grasscutter). In Japanese mythology, they are the sacred relics passed down from the Goddess Amaterasu to the Chrysanthemum Throne, and thus is Divine evidence of the Emperor's direct lineage to her. Entire wars were fought in Japan's earlier, tumultuous history for centuries to claim such a heritage. So when Kido offers the scenario that these relics might be captured -- or worse yet, destroyed -- he was providing a very concrete example of the destruction of the Japanese historical, national, and spiritual essence.
In other terms, this would be like if China or Russia invaded the United States and stole the Declaration of Independence.
Nicholas Cage, when the Declaration of Independence is threatened: *heavy, overacted breathing intensifies further*
IIRC they were lost in the Battle of Dan-no-ura at the end of the Gempei War. Maybe they asked for some new ones.
That bullfighting analogy from Spartacus must be the best ending to an episode from this series so far.
operation starvation, how subtle
@@Healermain15I’m sure it was intended to be as visible and clear as possible.
The Americans wanted to clearly communicate to the Japanese government how defeated they were and how futile further resistance was. They still didn't get the message.
It is a bad codename.
The purpose of a code name is to disguise the mission.
Hence you can talk about operation A and no one who overhears will know what you are talking about.
@@jonahtwhale1779deception wasn’t intended in the slightest. It’s clear what the message was
The guy that named the operations was sick that day, and they had to rely on his brother to fill in.
J: "We will fight to death!"
A: "check out what guys at the Manhattan Project came up with!"
A: "we can arrange that"
Operation Starvation must be most brutal and blunt codename in history...
Or the ‘Hunger Plan’ for Generalplan Ost
Struggling to think of a more blunt codename than that...
- Jake
@@WorldWarTwoOperation Pay Yourself (The plundering of Freetown, Sierre Leone by the Revolutionary United Front during their civil war)...
I realized that myself. Very unusual for an American operational codename. Those are usually obscure, have catchy name, or have a politically heroic title. They are rarely that succinct.
@@WorldWarTwo Operation Ripper? But that's Korean War - so maybe I am spoiling things to come... 😅
Even at the end, those in power still delayed the inevitable and tried to get a better deal than what was available for them to choose from. What an awful war. Never forget.
As of this moment, this video has more likes (241) than views (233). I've never seen that before! Amazing work, guys.
How is that even possible?? Lol
This occurs because of UA-cam's bot-checking system, which delays the view count until views pass verification.
It is simple.
A LIKE is counted at the point of the user clicking it.
A VIEW is added after the completion of the video.
Many click like before the video begins.
Not to diminish the gravitas of what you said, Sparty, but that navy blue ensemble is *dashing*. ❤ You are one of the most stylish dressers I've ever seen.
Gen. Curtis Lemay was remarkably circumspect about the bombing campaign. All that matters is who wins. He remarked that 'If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals"
That's right, Curtis Emerson Lemay goes all in and no holding back. Winners decide the factors while Losers face the consequences.
He also ran on a pro-segregationist platform as a politician later in life since he was racist as f***
@@DouglaszillaAweomethere are no winners at war. You might not understand what time ghost is all about. Shame.
He is definitely a polarizing figure. I still don’t know how I feel about him
@@lightwishatnight There are nations which lost more than others.
Sparty and Indy are the perfect fit of presenters for this channel on the war side...Astrid presents a lighter side - the quirky stuff. The intrigues and double crosses.
Thanks for the lovely comment!
I was proud to start the Wikipedia article for Operation Starvation, one of World War II's most effective, and least known, blockade operations.
Being able to airdrop thousands of mines wherever you want sure is a game changer.
Could you imagine if they hadn't fixed their torpedoes?
I’ll say it again Spartacus: You’re an amazing writer
He doesn't write the episodes
Love how Japan thinks its still in a position for a negotiated settlement lol
Epic "I was just kidding bro!" fail.
10:21 Great Presentation . This is a perspective that is rarely presented .
To add ,
- The " Big Six " were effectively a military government , 5 of the Big Six were military , or former military .
- Complete agreement was required in order for the " Big Six " to make a decision .
- Naotake Sato was the only foreign minister with official sanction . He was sent to Moscow to see if the Soviets would negotiate terms . Sato was never given any terms by the " Big Six . " Sato was able to speak freely , without fear of assassination by the JIA , because he was in Moscow . All proposals Sato put to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister Togo were rejected .
- As Richard Frank points out , Truman and his advisors knew at least a 1,000 or more of civilians were being killed each week in Asia . They didn't have exact numbers , but they knew it was at least a 1,000 .
- As Indy pointed out , war was still raging in the rest of Asia . [ This usually gets overlooked ] .
- Also as Indy pointed out , after VE Day , American public interest in continuing the Asian Pacific War ,
was beginning to dwindle .
.
Operation Starvation? I guess they aren’t even trying anymore with the codenames. The Japanese intel officer who came across that one must have truly been perplexed.
Well the Japanese never broke late war US codes, but they could have just giving in in the clear to psyops right at them.
Excellent closing metaphor, as always. I like this flourishes at the end of Sparty's writing. The metaphors are striking and insightful.
Nice suit Spartacus!! Great episode as always. My daughter and I have been watching this channel since I started homeschooling her 4 years ago. History came alive in my daughter and now she can't seem to finish her day without Indy, Spartacus, Astrid and Anna. Thank you for giving me your blessing to show her your countless videos on this page
That's amazing to hear, thank you very much for sharing that with us!
- Jake
As someone once said : Making War is easy, making Peace is harder. Here's to that !
A comment to support the channel, and feed the algorithm
Thank you very much Salty!
The US passed the test after this. Imagine any of the Eurpean colonial powers, the Chinese or the Soviets standing in the USA's place in October 1945.
Victorious, unchallenged on every continent with the largest navy in thr world ans nuclear weapons to boot. No other nation would have resisted the temptation to keep all that conquered land. No othe nation would have rebuilt their former enemies.
This is who we are and we need to remember. What makes ua great is not our strength but our ability to forgive enemies.
Would I be outspokenly considered wrong if I said - That The Japanese did some unhuman horrendous wicked things, for a decade or more, leading up to the final breath peace talks, and saying this I have to condemn the sons who fought, but I do feel sadness, compassion, and sympathy for the common citizen, just a cog in the machine, that passed due to the fire bombings
All they have to do now for this dying empire is just say " i surrender ", but no instead the military like ijn still decide to worship their fake god lol 😂
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
That’s exactly what Japan was doing. It is a lack of sense of the reality.
Spartacus is such a good storyteller. i enjoy listening to him, as much as I enjoy listening to Indy.
1:23 "burned through their stock of incendiaries..."
Very punny!
Woah, a special episode? It's like Christmas!
I hear that the war will be over by then, year after year.
My great grandmother lived in Nagoya at this time. She never once talked about the war nor what she personally experienced duing the war.
Japan: Can you help us negotiate a surrender?
Stalin: Hmm? You said something? I was thinking about the Russo-Japanese war, for no particular reason.
Japan: Please?
Stalin: Give me a minute, I just need to approve these army plans. You know how time consuming these things are.
It likely speaks to a significant moral failing on my part, but I find it difficult to pour out sympathy for the civilians of Japan when that reservoir has already been so drained on behalf of the victims of the Japanese military.
Not impossible, but certainly difficult. Though perhaps I ought to think of the Japanese civilians as victims of their own military as well? After all, it was the Japanese military that robbed the civilians of any say in the direction of their country or their fate.
As some earlier episodes of this show laid out, the more peace oriented governmental ministers, political parties, industrialists and military strategists have been ousted, threatened or assassinated by militarists. Generals that are insufficiently zealous find themselves attacked and killed by lower ranking officers hungry for glory and conquest. Some even theorize that Yamamoto chose a field assignment rather than a ministerial post because he was felt safer on the front lines than in Tokyo.
Your comment is on point. Seeing whole Japanese cities aflame is....disturbing, in the least. But when you compare that to the atrocities the Japanese military committed since 1930....I can't feel sympathy. At the end of the day the Japanese population as a whole has to accept a large portion of blame for the leaders in charge of them. The entire population willingly got behind them.
I understand that it was part of the culture, instilled since birth. The Emperor and all that. But at some point that excuse can no longer be used. When entire cities in your country are being burnt to the ground...that should be enough of a wake up call.
I think that modern philosophers and legal theorists have failed to deal with industrial warfare where governments can take over the economy of the nation and compel an arbitrary number of male citizens to be conscripted. They fail to deal with the issue of powerful dictatorships or factions to can make opposition to the government close to suicidal.
It is almost always flawed to view groups of millions of people as homogenous in one way or another. Guilt cannot be assigned to an entire people.
There were obviously some people who were pacifists and others who were militarists. Most would have been misinformed about the war to varying degrees. At the very least, we can say that the millions of children in the country were innocent victims.
Well said.
Once again an exquisitely done summary of a complex topic. Mahalo and Aloha!
Thanks for the comment!
I saw your flag, you guys like suns huh? Here's a temporary one 500 meters away, enjoy!
Out of the darkness, brighter than a thousand suns...
It wasn't just the bombers destroying Japanese cities though, because the combined fleet of the Allies were sailing up and down the coast pounding anything they could see that looked as if it might be important to the war effort. My dad never talked much about the war, but one thing he did mention was they bombarded a brewery - for whatever reason - in Sapporo. And they were fired on by a lone howitzer, which was instantly obliterated by a broadside from 9 x 6 inch guns. I would imagine the carrier planes were doing a certain amount as well. I think it was a relatively minor contribution but I wouldn't have liked to have lived near the coast of Japan at the time.
A reminder for every one of the death toll inflicted directly at the hands of the Imperial Japanese military or indirectly through the seizure of food and medicine by the Japanese military:
China - 20,000,000 civilian deaths
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia - 1,500,000 civilian deaths
Burma - 1,000,000 civilian deaths
Philippines - 1,000,000 civilian deaths
Indonesia - 4,000,000 civilian deaths
India - 2,500,000 civilian deaths (remember the primary cause of the Bengal was the Japanese conquest of the vast rice fields of Burma cutting British India off from the food)
Malayia - 150,000 deaths
Singapore - 50,000 deaths
The Imperial Japanese military still occupies significant portions of China, the entirety of French Indochina, Thailand, Malaya, Singapore, Indonesia, southeastern Burma, and isolated pockets in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Every day the war continues, more civilians die in Japanese occupied areas.
The reluctance of the Japanese Junta to start negotiations for surrender have caused incredible suffering on their people.
Sadly, this is more the norm than the exception. Evil regimes isolate themselves from the people they have enslaved.
I believe the Americans did right. The alternative was a full-scale invasion of Japan, which would have been extremely costly to the USA. They prioritized their own people over the Japanese, and I do not blame them.
There is some debate as to whether it saved Japanese as well. There was so little food, Japanese civilians were starving to death. A quicker defeat led to American food.
If your country was invaded all the way to the mainland, would you be willing to surrender?
@@isaragi I do understand why the dictators do this, but even the strongest dictator can be disposed by a determined populace.
That is why it is said: a people gets the leader it deserves.
@@TheEvertwa
Japan counting on the Soviets to help seek peace reminds me of the scene in Goodfellas where the restaurant owner begs Paulie to become his partner.
I did not know they could lay naval mines via bomber. Is there a video on this?
"Deploying Mines at Sea from Aircraft in World War 2" - go to the 10 minute mark for specific to aircraft preparation and delivery
The raging bull and the matador... Interesting to note the same imagery was used in the cold war novel "Fail Safe" to great effect.
My uncle died in Japanese hands when his B29 was shot down in July 1945. I can't blame them in view of the fire bombing campaign. I read a diary of a Japanese high school girl who has assigned as the assistant leader of an antitank team. All they had were bamboo spears. They to jam the spears into the treads until the track came off and then stab the crew as they tried to get out. She knew that it was an impossible suicide mission. In a later entry she told of hearing the emperor's broadcast. She next wrote, "I cried. I will live."
As much as I hate to say it, the nuclear bombs saved countless lives. Now they have become a loaded gun aimed at the head of all humanity, waiting for the first nut job, terrorist, computer glitch, or panicked soldier to pull the trigger. My only hope is that I believe in God.
Despite the fact that 18 non-Japanese civilians died for every 1 Japanese civilian over the course of the war (most of them Chinese) Japan still likes to portray itself as a 'victim' of the war.
Didn't sound like she wanted to die, I have no doubt the vast majority had had enough and talk of a 'fight to the last' was fanciful.
@@mrmr446 Based on the rest of her entries, she didn't want to die but would die. That is two different things. There are many cases in history were people who didn't want to die, willingly fought to the death because it was their mission. Heck, just look at first responders who go into insanely dangerous situations if they think that they can save someone.
@@old-moose had accepted the inevitable when all evidence pointed to it being only a matter of time. The video is clear that the Japanese military had a pessimistic view of how well they could defend the homeland.
It´s the sad truth few dare to admit.
Loved the Matador simile. Well written stuff, as usual Spartacus.
Thank you
I've read that the USAAF made no serious attempt to attack the Japanese railroad network. However, studying the aftermath of the war in Germany during summer 1945 had caused them to realize it was a weak link in the Japanese supply chain they could break. The plans to do so weren't implemented before Japan surrendered.
Is this accurate? If so, why did the Americans underestimate the value of such an obvious target for so long? Was it simply a matter of wanting to hit easier targets (i.e. mass bombing of cities) before turning to smaller targets that were harder to hit (bridges, tunnels, rail yards)?
Probably rail targets would have been hit once southern Japanese islands would have been taken and more (tactical) aircraft would have been available. Rail networks are incredibly hard to keep out of operation from the air.
In Nazi Germany during WW2, the German propaganda ministry called the bomber crews "terror fliers". This program, unfortunately, seens to be a ressurection of this policy. The air raids in WW2 were not equivalent or comparable to the German policies of annihilation of the Jewish population of Europe, which was an organized deliberate policy that was carried out in defiance of war needs of the Third Reich. Japan was a different case, and the air raids had failed to achieve results with precision daylight bombing, according to American intelligence, and the fire raids were initiated to try and save the incredibly expensive B29 program.
Over adherance to the medieval code of bushido.
The fact that Japan's leaders were bickering among each other while Japanese cities were literally going up in flames all because of their refusal to admit defeat literally shows how out of touch they were with reality on the ground (pun intended).
The repetitive and catastrophic strategic miscalculations the Japanese military made are staggering : beginning with Pearl Harbour and expecting the US to come whimpering for a negotiated peace after some battleships have been destroyed…Time and time again looking desperately for that “decisive” battle to somehow annihilate the US…Not having any intelligence on or simply ignoring the truly vast industrial capabilities of the US had in running Japan into the ground from mid 1943 on…Expecting Stalin to help them ward of a US invasion now that Japan is weak and itself a tempting target for Russian aggression…V. D. Hanson sees this tunnel vision as consequence of a dictatorship (same for N*zi Germany) where a total lack of critical thought prevents any adaptability to changing circumstances.
I wonder if any of the Japanese leadership at this point were wondering why Hiroshima was being spared, given the absolute destruction suffered across every other major city?
Did you guys ever go through the holocaust in the balkans? Ustaša etc.?
The two atomic bombs in Japan saved the world of nuclear armageddon because showed how everything would be destroyed. Is not fair with the civil population, but war is never fair.
But that is objectively wrong. Both cities bombed were rebuilt within the decade. The impact point at Hiroshima (the observatory) is a memorial. For that matter, their were numerous survivors from both.
Your analogy of Japan as a Bull in a rink was EXCELLENT. Japan knows it is surrounded on land, sea, and air, but doesn't know how to quit. If the bull just laid down the game would be over. But the bull continues to snort, defend, and fight until the end. Japan did too.
I have gone to Bullfights in my youth in Mexico and they are dramatic, violent, and sad.
The only difference is that the bull is driven by instinct while those in power in Japan were perfectly capable of admitting defeat and surrendering.
Isn't the bull killed either way?
@@kaltaron1284 Surprisingly not always, but usually. Japan was going to lose in any case. Surrender before or after invasion. I think keeping the Emperor in place was a great idea and allowed them to maintain the rule of law during occupation.
@@Macieks300 I totally agree.
@@earlyriser8998 Guess then the comparison is even more apt as Japan was kind of spared.
Sure they droped the bombs but saved millions from starvation (or getting invaded by either the Soviets or the USA or both).
And yes, keeping the Emperor was a big deal for at least some Japanese.
Spartacus looking sharp as always
Sharp as Matador' sword...
That's gotta be surreal to see blocks of a once bustling city now missing.
It puzzles me: What did the leaders of Japan think the world was going to do if Japan had managed to end combat with the allies, but not surrendered unconditionally? Which is what they were hoping all along. They would have lost EVERYTHING not part of the Japanese home islands. The Japanese government would have remained but Japan would have been isolated and not part of the world economy. This would have turned them into a pathetic hermit kingdom like North Korea or much like medieval Japan isolated from the rest of the world. Japan wouldn't have grown and moved forward with the rest of the world. Japan would be a mess.
For those on top, being insulated and on top is better than being out of power.
Off topic, but Sparty's suit is ice coooold
Quite a contrast in how the Japanese military thought the homeland could be defended and the US assessment of how much it would take.
I hope there is a long video discussing how the main generals, politicians, and all nations militarily involved in world war 2 began vs how they are at the end of the war.
Looking back at older videos it gets very muddled and forgettable about what happened to all figures. Also with certain nation leaders making unpredictable decisions on who controls what makes knowing what happened to the men they bossed around
Great episode but seems that most comments arent made by people who watched all of the episode…
It is however interesting how different our western reporting is about the bombing of Japan compared to the bombings of hamburg and dresden…
Their Majesties Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles, Grand Emperor Akihito, & Emperor Naruhito have certainly made sure Britain, Japan, & the U.S. have come a very long way since THESE BAD OL' DAYS ! Thinking of everyone's recent Buckingham Palace State Visit....ALSO, "Kami-San Tezuka", God Bless Him has unquestionably contributed so so much to such as well. Perhaps without his ever realizing such aside from understanding Animation's Power !
watcheda documentary yesterday by these guys and it told how the us navy sank three japanese ships, they went to pick up survivors and the survivors refused to be saved...what the hell did they teach there citizens.
Consider how the Japanese treated their prisoners and occupied civilians. If you considered that "normal" and expected it from your enemy, would you?
General Watcheda? Oh - wait ........
Spartacus, will you be extending your brilliant War Against Humanity into the Korea series?
Spartacus will appear on the Korean War Channel in periodic segments.
I look forward to your channel's coverage of when the Emperor finally goes, "We must end this." There's events around that that I was not familiar with until a few years ago.
10:14 Yonai was in the navy and part of the civilian government before the war started. He was also one of the guys that tried to keep Japan out of the Axis and away from the road to war with the United States.
Just before the Pacific War, Yonai was still serving in government doing things like I mentioned above. However, he was senior and respected enough that the Imperial Japanese Navy was considering two men to be Commander-In-Chief Combined Fleet: Yonai & Yamamoto. Yamamoto wanted to defer his candidacy to Yonai out of great respect. However, Yonai refused:
1. He needed to stay in Tokyo to fight the political battle against the ultra-nationalists and road to war.
2. He joked that if Yamamoto took over Yonai's position in the government, the Army was surely going to assassinate Yamamoto. Yamamoto shared a lot of Yonai's views.
The Emperor's brief you mentioned where the subject of the Kwantung Army came up is important. Before war with the US, that army was arguably one of the strongest concentrations of force the Imperial Japanese Army had. However, as the Pacific War expanded and dragged on, that army was weakened many times as its units were siphoned off to the Pacific. By this late stage of WWII in 1945, the Kwantung Army was a shadow of itself. And it will soon meet a firestorm.
All through this the Japanese military and civilian population are facing the full brunt of a lost war. The deaths are mounting even higher and the military can no longer turn the tide. The last gamble in China petered out. The Japanese are stuck out in the mountains in the Philippines. Iwo Jima and Okinawa had fallen despite determined resistance, yet nobody was in doubt about how those defenses would end. The country has been effectively blockaded finally. The bombings continue. And the government and military is still diddling about in continuing to fight or calling for an end to the war.
Also, when this war finally ends, you'll also find out that the largest killer of Japanese military personnel will be of starvation. Many isolated Pacific garrisons. Army units cut off in the Philippines will roam the country side and starve while also contending with US Army and a very angry Filipino guerilla force. Forces fighting in China and elsewhere in the Asian continent will wither and suffer heavy losses from starvation and combat losses.
Japan even while fighting for Guadalcanal, the Solomon Islands, and New Guinea in 1942-1943 already were terrible in keeping their forces abroad supplied enough. We had the army in Guadalcanal dying mostly from starvation and not from combat. Now it's 1945 and the strategic situation is far worse for Japan, and their shipping ability is effectively shut down. There's some real heavy dying to take place now.
Here come the Grave of the Fireflies feels…
It is certainly a difficult watch.
Can also recommend この世界の片隅に (Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni - In This Corner of the World).
Thank you for all of the great work you have done.
Thanks for watching!
That was another excellent episode
They will only surrender when their own lives are threatened 😤
Thank you Spartacus. 🏆🏆🏆
Spartacus' Japanese pronunciation is pretty accurate.
Comment for algoritm : )
It was easy for everyone, including the hardliners, to agree to ask for Soviet mediation because that was never going to work anyway.
No they actually thought they had a chance. It was all about saving face.
Even after Nagasaki half of the War Cabinet refused to accept surrender. These men were delusional
As always fight to the death... of others... Bastards. Good video, excellent presentation. Will you continue this series to the Korean War?
My God, your towns, industry n, navt and Aviation are no more, give up already
"It's only a flesh wound!"
Party, I have a question about the WAH series going forward. Will we have a final conclusive episode to end the series analyzing the evils of this war from 1939 to 1945? I’m just curious because, of course, history still continues on, and in some ways we could say many are still fighting for humanity, from protecting those harmed from current wars to preserving human memory and knowledge. However, as a WW2 buff is seeing this war coming real close to conclusion next month, followed by the war tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo, It had me thinking if we were gonna see a big video reflecting on the war against humanity. I’d also bet you’d probably come up with a banger end of video conclusion speech that would touch the hearts of those that still believe in fighting for humanity.
Japan had not won a single victory for years by the Summer of 1945. Winning was no longer an option or the goal? Dying for the Emperor was the answer? Talk about Lions being led by Donkeys?
It was way too late for a negotiated peace. Honestly, from Dec. 7, 1941, it was probably too late. To end the war, it had to be surrender.
U.S "Japan did you touch are boats? Sounds like you need a taste of freedom!"
Midway was the real deciding point. Or, it should have been. Up to that point, Japan was hoping the US would lose interest in an impractical and distant war. Such a reversal should have made it clear, especially to the IJN, that they no longer had the position to make terms.
Hopefully Sparty keeps dialling back the outrage for Korea? I'm not sure too much attracts viewers. Cheers TGA.
_Yes, I realise ostracism is a likely outcome, but someone has to say it. There can be too much._
I didnt know any of yhis . I am sixty five .all i new was the a bomb.
most of us didnt , thank you guys
Errol Morris 2003 documentary about the US bombing strategy that extended to Korea Vietnam and Cambodia.
Another powerful episode. Thank you Spartacus
When I was in school, what I learned was that the horror of the A-bomb is what finally got Japan to surrender. I never heard anything about Lemay until after the "Nam war. It sounds like Lemay's firebombing caused a lot more death and destruction than the A-bombs. I seem to recall that the Japanese were fed propaganda about how brutal and murderous the Americans were such that surrender was not an option. It's my perception that the fire bombing of Japan's cities only reinforced this propaganda. It is unclear to me that the a-bombs by themselves forced a surrender since the government still had hopes for peace thru the Soviet government. The second bomb fell on the same day as the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria dashing any hopes for a negotiated settlement. I wonder if they would have surrendered if the Soviet Union had waited.
That said, I've wonder why the Japanese would have feared the atom bombs when so much of their country had been ruined thanks to the firebombing campaign
My understanding is that the A-bombs provided Japan with the excuse to surrender that it needed.
It wasn't the destructive capacity of the A-bomb - the firebombing did indeed cause more damage - but that it was a "new & terrible weapon".
The conventional bombings were within the scope of their understanding and expectation. The atomic bomb was beyond that and it broke their will because even the hawks realized they had no choice. The Soviets were not even a factor since as mentioned in the video, the Japanese government wasn't even of one mind on that strategy.
Kinda.
Japan's vain, gasps of hope centered around the US lacking the stomach for a bloody, protracted land war on the far side of the Pacific, and suing for Peace. They had NO such illusions about the Soviet Union, which was why they quickly signed a treaty in 1939 when it was clear to Japan the Soviet Union wasn't the pushover everyone thought they were.
That said, while they knew they had lost, they could still have made the Soviets and Americans bleed for every foot.
And then a city vanished *from a single bomb.*
Then *another.*
That was something not even the firebombings had accomplished. Those were whole squadrons of bombers, dropping thousands upon thousands. Now? The US only needed to send one bomber, and Tokyo would be erased. The Americans wouldn't have to dirty a single boot on a Kyushu beach. No last stand. No determined resistance.
The Soviets alone had ended any possibility of a negotiated peace. Anything left of Japan would have surrendered, not long into their invasion.
The Americans had ended any possibility of resistance, and made the invasion unnecessary
@@obsidianjane4413 Sure. Them desperatly trying to contact the soviets for peace terams and that dream crushed by the SOviets joining the war effort against them had no impact whatsoever.
Should’ve listened
All who have read the comments here are familiar with the concept of “Man’s inhumanity to man”.
I don’t think that concept has nudged an inch toward the humanity side since the events of this episode.
The militarists almost have the Allies exactly where they want them, on the Home Islands. Just not in the way they expect.
Suddenly remember about Grave of The Fireflies
Likewise. 😭
An incredible but heart wrenching film.
I've always thought about this, but why were the fire bombings of Tokyo, Dresden and other cities with heavy civilian populations and also the atomic bombings not considered war crimes?
That’s a complicated issue. First of all for anything to be a war crime it must be determined that it was in a court of law. However, if we look at the laws of war as they stood in 1939-1945 this clearly falls in the area that should be prosecuted as war crimes. The prosecutors in the war crime tribunals chose not to, though. This applied to both sides - the bombing of civilians by Germany and Japan were also not prosecuted. While it might be easy to dismiss that as the victors simply setting their own acts aside, and applying the same standard to their opponents, there’s also another issue. Until after WW2 there was an unwritten concept in the laws of war called “reciprocal response.” Vastly oversimplified, this concept basically makes legal by default something that all belligerents do. This concept has since been legislated away, so that in 2024 this would definitely be considered possible war crimes. I say considered because like I said it has to be tested in a court of law, as there are more issues that may make an attack on civilian targets legitimate.
Had the Allied powers lost the war, they would have been charged for war crimes. However, to the victor go the spoils. And ruins.
@@Psychonaut316 nah