From: miklg@acuson.com (Michael Goldman )
Subject: Re: Pearl Harbor & U.S. plans to attack Japan.
Organization: Acuson; Mountain View, California
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 19:55:26 GMT


From miklg@acuson.com (Michael Goldman )

Dave Turner <dmturne@ptsfa.pacbell.com> writes:

>From Dave Turner <dmturne@ptsfa.pacbell.com>

>In article <Bx1G6t.I41@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> kasprj@isaac.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak) writes:
>> Hector Bywater's book _The Great Pacific War_, written in the late 30's,
[deletions]

>> The book was recently reprinted by St. Martin's Press, and got a good 
>>amount of attention last year in connection with the 50th anniversary 
>>of Pearl Harbor. It shouldn't be too hard to find a copy at a good library
>>or bookstore.

>	The Great Pacific War
>	Hector C. Bywater
>	1991
>	ISBN 0-312-06364-4


	The following appeared in the San Francisco Examiner, on November 17,
	1991.  (Edited for length.)  The most interesting item is that the
	Dec. 7th attack on Pearl Harbor was a plan proposed in a book by 
	British analyst Bywater well before the event.


	"The 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack is...not an occasion
	for us to feel morally superior to Japan.

	"We ourselves launched at least five surprise attacks in our history
	while Japan made only two, or perhaps three, in modern times.

	"The most prominent instance of America's ... "sneak attack" [was]
	against Mexico in 1846...commanded by Gen Zachary Taylor.  Far from
	expressing any remorse about our conduct, the American people later
	elected Taylor president.

	"Aside from Pearl Harbor, the most important instance in modern history
	of Japan's launching a surprise attack was at Port Arthur in 1904
	when, after ambassadors had been withdrawn from Moscow and Tokyo,
	the Japanese torpedo boats attacked the Russian fleet.

	"...According to British Army officer and historian Sir Frederick
	Maurice, in the years between 1700 and 1870 Great Britain made 30
	surprise attacks, the best known being Adm. Horatio Nelson's attack
	on Copenhagen in 1801, which destroyed the Danish fleet.

	"During the same period, France struck 36 unannounced blows, Austria
	12, Russia seven, and Prussia seven.

	"Furthermore, it has just come to light that the plan for Japan's
	offensive against the US - including the surprise attack and the ...
	seizure of the Philippines and Guam - was originally conceived and
	meticulously spelled out by a British naval expert in a book widely
	discussed in world capitals in the 1920s and 1930s.

	"It happened that back in 1926 Yamamoto arrived as naval attache' at
	the Japanese Embassy in Washington just as debate was in progress
	over a provocative new book by the British naval authority, Hector C.
	Bywater.

	"In [the book "the Great Pacific War"] Bywater sought to demonstrate
	the best possible naval strategy for each country.

	"He showed that Japan, by making [the moves it eventually did], would
	pose a "well-nigh insolvable" stratergic problem to the US.

	"But, he declared, the US ... would pursue an an unprecedented
	campaign of amphibious island-hopping across the Marshall and
	Caroline chains - a revolutionary idea for its time, and one that
	became a fundamental of American strategy in World War II.

	"...Naturally, [Yamamoto] reported to Tokyo on Bywater's book.  Shortly
	after returning home, he delivered a lecture on how Japan could defeat
	the US in which he adopted Bywater's ideas as his own.

	"Bywater and Yamamoto met face to face in London in 1934, and spent
	an evening together discussing Pacific strategy and tactics.
	
	"In 1939, when Yamamoto was named commander-in-chief of the combined
	fleet and was charged with preparing it for war, he began to rehearse
	the strategy and tactics he had formulated soon after reading ...
	Bywater's `The Great Pacific War'

	"Today, it can be shown that Yamamoto adopted Bywater's war plan in
	matters ranging from overall strategy down to such small but critical
	details as selecting many of the same landing beaches as those
	prescribed by Bywater."

	--------------- end of quote ----------------
	
	I need to add my own comment, that other historians I have read
	have described Yamamoto as being against the initiation of
	conflict with the US as being unwinnable and unneccessary

	As for the US knowing Japan would attack Pearl Harbor, there was a
	meeting of US military commanders who role-played various figures
	in the Japanese command, and concluded that Japan would not attack
	Pearl Harbor because it would galvanise a war-averse US people, and
	accomplish nothing strategic since the battleships were out-moded
	by carriers, and Japan could not occupy Hawaii, so the US would
	still have the base there.

	Many Japanese military Admirals felt the same, but they were
	over-ruled by Yamamoto.
	
	Even the average citizen in the US and Japan could see that war
	was coming.  Where and when was the only real question.

	- Michael

-- 
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have
exhausted all other alternatives." - Abba Eban
	Disclaimer:  All views are solely my own & not the views of Acuson.
	<sun!sono!miklg>  or  [miklg@acuson.com]

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