tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19661405.post8762582328877428111..comments2023-10-20T09:13:15.862-04:00Comments on Swedish Meatballs Confidential (pNSFW): Our Game - Diplo-Blowback at Pearl HarborM1http://www.blogger.com/profile/05394503964463278951noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19661405.post-67575037707449723072009-12-12T13:21:18.492-05:002009-12-12T13:21:18.492-05:00Well...no. And the author ought to know better as ...Well...no. And the author ought to know better as he has a background - if I recall correctly - in Japanese studies.<br /><br />First, look at the Sino-Japanese War. Japanese interest in Korea and Manchuria predates TR.<br /><br />Secondly, the negotiation results are not particularly "secret". You can read the text of the treaties with Japan in the McKinley-Hay-TR-Root era for yourself in FRUS and in the State Department White Paper collection on China issued after the fall of China to Communism. <br /><br />Thirdly, you can't just jump from the late Meiji period to mid Showa and ignore the liberalization during Taisho. I won't say "democracy" per se but certainly a more parliamentary and more liberal Japan than before or after. This trend collapsed for internal political reasons that had nothing to do with TR.<br /><br />I would also add, there was little strategic reason for TR to favor Russia and even if he had, and the Tsar had attempted to pursue the war, Russia would have collapsed in 1905 instead of 1917. The Tsarist government needed peace. Japan would have been left utterly dominant except for the British Navy operating at it's greatest range.markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16283319657103608208noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19661405.post-60988935861812286832009-12-07T11:03:00.226-05:002009-12-07T11:03:00.226-05:00Good stuff! Thank you.Good stuff! Thank you.M1https://www.blogger.com/profile/05394503964463278951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19661405.post-57342793371231678592009-12-06T13:09:52.392-05:002009-12-06T13:09:52.392-05:00Interesting read -- other than a minor factual err...Interesting read -- other than a minor factual error (the Japanese did not surprise the Russian Navy at Port Arthur, but rather in the Straits of Tsushima -- which the Russian Baltic Fleet crossed en route to Port Arthur to respond to the Japanese attack there nine months prior).<br /><br />You may want to check the writings of USMC Commandant Lejeune, who foresaw a clash with Japan in the aftermath of WW-I. This is why he commissioned Operations Planning in the Pacific (done by his trusted aide Maj Pete Ellis) and the shift in focus for Marines from "Naval Infantry" to "Amphibious Warriors". The experiments in the 1920s at Isla de Culebra in the Caribbean refined the concepts that were put to effect twenty years later in the Pacific.deichmanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13358324721299617982noreply@blogger.com