Pacific

As for the battles we went over this week, you can see why the Japanese had so much trouble in the later years of the war. Had America pursued a "Japan first" policy, no doubt the Empire of the Rising Sun would have crumbled even faster than it did. The Japanese land tactics seem to be well-rehearsed and trained for, but only for offense. Nearly every defensive battle they fought they lost, and lost with most of their troops. I realize that the bushido code wanted a glorious death in battle, but it seems to make little operational sense, much less strategic, to fight badly in order to die gloriously. And that is almost what it seems they did. Some of the fortresses they lost with such casualties would have been successfully defended much longer and at great cost to the attackers had they been adequately commanded. I don't doubt the Japanese infantryman or Royal Marine was not a fierce warrior, but their lives were thrown away in glorious, but operationally unsound movements.