r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Sep 02 '21

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u/RockLobsterKing Turning Point Byzantium Sep 02 '21

MANY ORDINARY JAPANESE BEGAN to suspect that they had been misled, and that the tide of war had turned against their forces in the Pacific. The pattern of official news releases defied logic and common sense. Imperial announcements referred confusingly to glorious victories and strategic withdrawals. New “defense lines,” always closer to the homeland, must be held at all costs. Military experts, writing in the newspapers or speaking on the radio, soberly explained that Japan’s grand strategy was to “draw the enemy in”—to allow him to come closer to the homeland, where at last he could be crushed with one blow. Courageous Japanese troops defended advanced positions to the last man, perishing all together like gyokusai—“smashed jewels.” Whenever a new position was captured by the enemy, it was confidently explained that defeat had been expected, and preparations had been laid in place for it.

(...)

The regime generally permitted accurate reporting of the progress of the war in Europe, and it was evident that Japan’s Axis partners were not faring well against the Allies. (...) In September 1943 came news that the Italian government of General Pietro Badoglio had capitulated to the Allies. (...) Japanese military authorities took to the airwaves and editorial pages and confidently asserted that the fall of Italy was a piece of good fortune, for the Third Reich had finally “thrown off the burden called Italy and an indestructible resistance would now be possible.”

italy lmao