Episode 80 - The Great Gamble

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2014

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week -- and if you're getting this on release day, 72 years and 364 days later -- we're going to discuss the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as well as its architect, the iconoclastic Japanese admiral Yamamoto Isoroku. Who was this man who came up with a bold plan to disable the entire US Navy in one shot? What was he thinking when he put this plan together? And why, in the end, did he have no prospect of victory?

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.
0:04.1	Audible has over 150,000 titles to choose from, all compatible with iPhone, Android, Kindle, or your MP3 player of choice.
0:14.2	For listeners of the show, Audible is offering a free 30-day trial membership, complete with credit for a free audiobook of your choice.
0:22.1	You can cancel any time and keep the free book, or keep going with one of Audible's subscription
0:26.9	offers.
0:28.2	Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your offer.
0:33.2	This week, I'm going to recommend Japanese destroyer captain,
0:40.9	a very poorly named but extremely fascinating autobiography by Captain Hara Tameichi of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
0:45.9	Hara was present at Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal and Midway,
0:50.0	and recounts his wartime experience in this,
0:52.8	one of the most popular war memoirs in Japan.
0:56.5	Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your copy.
1:00.3	Thank you, Hello, and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, Episode 80, The Great Gamble.
1:27.1	I can think of no better way to introduce our main character this week than the way that Dr. Arihata does in her book, Japan, 1941, so I'm going to just borrow her setup wholesale.
1:40.3	First, I have to set the scene. On the 28th of May, 1905, the Battle of Tsushima, between the Navy of Imperial Russia and that of Japan, raged on.
1:51.0	Abboard the cruiser Nishin, a 21-year-old ensign assigned to duty on the bow, was wounded by incoming Russian fire.
1:58.9	Dr. Hata continues, quote,
2:01.7	Assigned to frontline duty at the bow of the Japanese cruiser in the Battle of Tsushima,
2:06.4	the ensign was hit by a shell fragment that set his lower body on fire. It also scooped a hole
2:12.1	as big as a newborn's head from his right thigh and cost him the indexed and middle fingers of his
2:17.3	left hand.
2:18.9	He recuperated in the naval hospital in Nagasaki for the next 160 days. When infection set in,
	...

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