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    Orientation for the Pacific Theater
    Orientation for the Pacific Theater
    Orientation for the Pacific Theater
    Ebook73 pages1 hour

    Orientation for the Pacific Theater

    By US War Department

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    About this ebook

    Document prepared by The U. S. Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Maryland in July 1944 for officers who would soon be deplooyed in the Pacific Theater of World War II. As explained in the Preface: This is a description of Japan's military power as the Japanese conceive it. The nation's strength roots in many things, including beliefs, attitudes, feelings and mental habits. These are the factors that make the Japanese a formidable foe, and an accurate conception of them has military value. The action of the enemy often is intelligible only in terms of these factors. An understanding of the forces motivating Japanese actions is best attained by residence in Japan and association with Japanese people. The war has made such contact impossible at the very time an insight into Japanese characteristics is most needed, and observations already made have to serve as a substitute. The material presented here is intended to help in this way. The conclusions stated here were formulated by the writer after three years of residence in Japan and subsequent studies of things Japanese. The material was first presented as a series of lectures at the Military Intelligence Training Center, and the original organization has been retained."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSeltzer Books
    Release dateSep 22, 2018
    ISBN9781455448128
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      Book preview

      Orientation for the Pacific Theater - US War Department

      Orientation for the Pacific Theater

      War Department

      The Military Intelligence Training Center

      Camp Ritchie, Maryland

      July 1944

      Published by Seltzer Books. seltzerbooks.com

      established in 1974, as B&R Samizdat Express

      offering over 14,000 books

      feedback welcome: seltzer@seltzerbooks.com

      Preface

      Lecture I - Geography Of The Pacific Theater

      Lecture II - The Social Basis Of Japan's Military Power

      Lecture III - The Religious Basis Of Japan’s War Effort

      Lecture IV - The Jap As A Fighting Man

      Preface

      This is a description of Japan's military power as the Japanese conceive it. The nation's strength roots in many things, including beliefs, attitudes, feelings and mental habits. These are the factors that make the Japanese a formidable foe, and an accurate conception of them has military value. The action of the enemy often is intelligible only in terms of these factors.

      An understanding of the forces motivating Japanese actions is best attained by residence in Japan and association with Japanese people. The war has made such contact impossible at the very time an insight into Japanese characteristics is most needed, and observations already made have to serve as a substitute. The material presented here is intended to help in this way. The conclusions stated here were formulated by the writer after three years of residence in Japan and subsequent studies of things Japanese. The material was first presented as a series of lectures at the Military Intelligence Training Center, and the original organization has been retained.

      The Japanese entered this war with the e3xpectation of winning.  Most of them still expect to win.  Some of their objectives are matters of geography. These are the subject of the first lecture. The dynamic element in the situation ahs been inside Japan.  Here we can observe powerful, driving forces enabling the Japanese to make a war effort out of proportion to the area and resources of their country.  This combination of forces is sketched in the second lecture. The Japanese regard one element in this combination as being particularly important. This is the Shinto religion. Shintoism is supposedly the basis of unique patriotism and superior morale, which are expected to compensate for inferior mechanical equipment.  This religious basis of Japan's war effort is described int he third lecture. The fourth lecture is a statement of some ways in which the ideas and attitudes previously described have affected the organization, training and tactical doctrines of the Japanese Army. The lectures have been designed as a unit, and each member of the series is more helpful if considered in relation to the others.

      As presented at the Military Intelligence Training Center the lectures have been supplemented with a film, The Enemy Japan.

      Lecture I - Geography Of The Pacific Theater

      The Japanese expect to win this war. This is a study of the factors they have relied on to bring them ultimate victory. Some of these factors are matters of geography. Many of Japan’s objectives and some of the elements she has counted on to help achieve these objectives can be stated in terms of geography, for the Japanese have been taught to regard the geography of Asia as one of their major assets.

      They also have been taught to regard the present war as just on® in a series of wars, some of which have already occurred, some of which are still to come. For it is assumed that it is Japan's destiny to become the dominant power in the Pacific, and war is the means by which this des tiny is to be fulfilled. Rival powers have been disposed of one by one, as rapidly as Japan's strength and position permitted. In 1894-95 the Japanese waged war against China and destroyed such Chinese sea power as existed. Ten years later they attacked Russia and destroyed Russian sea power in the Pacific. The Germans had acquired bases in China and had purchased numerous Pacific islands from Spain. After the war the Japanese acquired these islands, fortified them and relied on them as a formidable barrier, making it difficult for us to approach by sea, Japan's militarists considered the nation's geographical position carefully, found it good and did everything possible to make it better. Eventually they concluded that distance, weather, natural barriers, fortifications and Japan's armed forces made their position invulnerable. They were then ready, they thought, for the present war.

      The objectives of this war were stated long ago in a document known as the Tanaka Memorial, sometimes referred to as the Mein Kampf of Japan. This document was the work of General Tanaka, formerly Prime Minister of Japan, who professed to find the fundamental elements of his plan in the papers of the Emperor Meiji. It was submitted as a long-range political and military program. It was a military program because the men who sponsored it assumed that Japan would have to fight in order to carry it out. And the nation's expansion, in the main, has followed this plan. When the program has been modified, it has been because Japan's soldiers have been stopped by force of arms. There is no evidence that the ultimate goals have been abandoned. While Americans are thinking in terms of months or a couple of years as sufficient time to win the war, the Japanese are being trained to think in terms of decades. Day after day the people of Japan have been told

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