Comments by "" (@BobSmith-dk8nw) on "IJN Kitakami - Guide 285" video.

  1. Thanks. That was interesting. Yes - they should have used her off Guadalcanal. .
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  2. This is why Actors hate to be type cast. Get typecast as a conversion specialist and it just never ends. .
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  3. Yes. .
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  4.  @JonathanSchattke  A faster cruiser would make a more effective commerce raider ... .
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  5.  @gregorywright4918  Yes. Like all the other ships that were held for the "Main Battle" - which ended up being a Carrier Battle (Marianna's) they didn't matter in. .
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  6.  @Frost-01  I'm not sure what you mean by that. It was meant to be in the Main Battle like the Yamato, Nagato and Musashi but it was in the Guadalcanal fight that it - and they - could have made a difference. .
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  7.  @Frost-01  Yes. We do agree. I just wasn't sure before. .
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  8.  @ULTRA_2112  The Japanese chose to become a colonial nation on the premise that "if you can't beat them, join them". Then they took on the Russians to show that they were powerful enough to be included in the club. They colonized Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria. Then they went to war with China and eventually the US cut off their oil. Now - at this point - they had to make a decision. They firmly believed that if they ever backed down to a colonial power - they would become a colony. They also KNEW that if the went to war with the US they would be destroyed. What to do? Become a colony or be destroyed? Being destroyed was more honorable so that is what they did. After they were committed to it they started bull shitting themselves - that they could get a negotiated peace by making the Americans bleed - but - they had pissed us off to much with Pearl Harbor - so that wasn't going to happen. .
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  9.  @Pangora2  Your first sentence is right but the rest is off. They KNEW they would be destroyed before they did it. As I said - they were faced with the prospect of either being colonized or destroyed - and they chose destruction. It's just that afterwards - (after they chose destruction) they tried to bull shit themselves that they could bleed the Americans into a negotiated settlement. Here - what they didn't count on was how pissed off we were about Pearl Harbor. Even then - it was Hirohito who saved Japan. If he had wanted to fight to the death - the rest of the nation was ready to do that. After the nukes though he wanted to spare his people that. The odd thing was - they very much ended up being colonized by the Americans ... at least for a while ... .
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  10.  @Pangora2  Of course they weren't going to invade the United States. OF COURSE THEY WEREN'T does that really need to be said? I can understand your logic about the Russo-Japanese War - but - no - that is not what they thought. They did have as part of their doctrine the Decisive Battle - which is what they got at Tsushima Strait - but they did not think that they could defeat the Americans Militarily. 1940's America was not 1905 Russia. It is my opinion - that the mistake you are making is in not realizing that Tsushima Strait and their plans for WWII - were all part of the same Doctrine. Thus - their Doctrine in 1905 and their Doctrine in 1941 - was the same. The Decisive Battle. So - they were not doing things because of 1905 - they did things in 1905 because they were using the same Doctrine. Unlike 1905, what they were relying on in 1941 - was taking a series of Barrier Islands that they could fortify - and which they believed the Americans would have take back in order to reach Japan. These Islands would have airfields as part of their defenses - and - as a part of their nature as barriers. This is the primary difference between their strategy in 1905 and in 1941. In 1905 they attacked the Russians at Port Arthur. In 1941 - they planned on having the Americans attacking THEIR fortifications - where the Yankees would suffer the kind of losses the Japanese had suffered going against the Russian Fortifications. The Japanese designed their aircraft in pairs with very long range. The first pair was the Mitsubishi G3M (Nell) bomber and the Mitsubishi A5M (Claude) it's fighter escort. These were to be replaced by the Mitsubishi G4M (Betty) bomber and the Mitsubishi A6M (Zeke) fighter escort. Both these pairs of aircraft had, for their time - extremely long ranges. With the idea that these Island Barriers could be mutually supportive. The Decisive Battle their Doctrine had called for would take place in defense of this Island Barrier. They would bleed the Americans on these islands, sink their ships and cause the Americans to quit. This was the same strategy that the North Vietnamese and Taliban succeeded with. So - it wasn't stupid - it's just that they were not able to hold out as long. If the US had been forced to Invade Japan ... we would have taken a lot more casualties but - at that point - I can't see the US ever negotiating a peace with them and giving back all their land we had paid so dearly for. The thing is - many if not most of the Japanese Leadership KNEW they would fail. Yamamoto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Yamamoto knew they couldn't win. He was the one who talked about having to take Washington to win - as an impossibility. Tojo thought they could win - but - as is common in Army/Navy disputes - the Navy is more often strategically correct. My source for my opinions here - is John Toland's The Rising Sun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rising_Sun They had some very real success during the first months of the war but when they took loses - could not replace them. The Americans isolated their Island Fortresses, taking only the ones they thought they needed for THEIR airfields. While the US certainly was bled on a number of these islands it was not enough to make them want to quit. .
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