Show notes
Japan's rising sun goes supernova and engulfs a huge area of Asia and the Pacific. A war without mercy begins to develop infusing the whole conflict with a savage vibe.
Highlighted moments
One of the reasons you can't put much trust in the idea of, the lessons of history, especially when it applies to specific situations, is that we human beings see the sorts of behaviors that we admire, and then we choose the examples that fit our bias.
“the British military attache in Tokyo told officers of the Singapore garrison that he regarded the Japanese army as a first class fighting force, well trained, well officered, and possessing high esprit de corps. As the talk ended, Lieutenant General Lionel Bond, head of Malaya command, rose to declare that such talk was, quote, far from the truth. He added, you can take it from me that we have nothing to fear from them.”
“sometimes the politics get involved in ways and the diplomacy gets involved in ways that sort of doesn't consider too much what's actually going to happen on the battlefield because if the islands really are indefensible what happens to the people you send over there to defend them”
“a british or american soldier who fell into captivity by the germans or the italians had a four percent chance of dying while in captivity a british or american soldier who fell into japanese hands had a 27 chance of dying”
Transcript
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