Comments on: Japan Warned Of Nuclear Leak From U.S. Sub

Navy Says "Negligible" Amount of Radioactive Water Spilled From USS Houston During Pacific Tour

[rafterman1]

===Not good enough. the truth is we provoked them, they respobnded, lost, surrendered, and are absolutely no threat to do so again, so we should not have military still occupying a sovereign state 50 years after the conflict ended. We need that money here in the US.===
Posted by brianbwb

We provoked them? Only in their minds at the time. The US cut off sales of steel and other items in response to Japan''s invasion of Manchuria. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor to neutralize the US fleet so that Japan could act freely to secure resources (aka invade) Indonesia. This is the "provocation" that Japan mentions in their 14 point memo to the US explaining their reasons for war - we "provoked" Japan by not allowing them a free hand at invading neighbors for their resources. So that argument is a fallacy.

As for the reasons why we are stillin Japan, you are forgetting one important thing - we are still invited to stay. I they wanted us to leave, we would leave. But there are mutual benefits to a US presence in Japan (eg, as a buffer against Korea and China), as well as weapon sales considerations. Despite the occasional protest in Okinawa whenever a US serviceman breaks the law, the Japanese government, even the more nationalist elements, have made little noise about US forces leaving Japan.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Because they attacked us. And they lost." Posted by txgrouch2006

Not good enough. the truth is we provoked them, they respobnded, lost, surrendered, and are absolutely no threat to do so again, so we should not have military still occupying a sovereign state 50 years after the conflict ended. We need that money here in the US.

Having said that, it is disturbing that we would irradiate the water of another country, hide the fact for months, then when exposed, say "it was only a little bit".

No sane person would trust that statement to be true, and as seafood makes up a much larger proportion of the Japanese diet, they are totally right to be concerned.

[stn_sage]

Look! Either the water was leaking or it wasn''t! And you''re telling us that they didn''t notice it until they reached Pearl Harbot?! You know, what?!

If that''s the situation, the reactor operators ought to be ''written up'' and the skipper of the boat replaced!

[txgrouch2006]

Does anyone know why the USA still has troops in Japan?
Posted by cbsblogger at 11:59 PM : Aug 02, 2008
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Because they attacked us. And they lost.

[cbsblogger]

Does anyone know why the USA still has troops in Japan?

[txgrouch2006]

If any one of those events had not happened, the battle could have just as easily gone the other way. It was one of the most stunning victories at sea ever, but also one of the luckiest.
Posted by Rafterman1 at 10:38 PM : Aug 02, 2008
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Yes, it was an incredible string of coincidences in our favor.

[rafterman1]

While there was no way that Japan could have defeated the US in WWII, not with our industrial capacity, a Japanese victory at Midway may have persuaded the US to sue for peace, at least for a while. A Japanese victory at Midway could have set up the loss of Hawaii and push the US Navy back to San Diego. That narrow string events changed the outcome of the Pacific war.

[rafterman1]

There were a number of factors involved in the victory at Midway, the #4 scout being one of them. But the biggest was station Hypo''s decrypting of the Japanese JN-25 naval code and its discovery of the Midway operation Which in itelf was triggered by the April 1942 B-25 raid on Japan from the USS Hornet.

Japanese Admiral Nagumo''s indecision whether to arm his planes for another Midway strike or go after the US carriers was another key point. Then miscommunication caused US torpedo and dive bomber groups to not coordinate their attack. Zeros jumped low on the torpedo planes, slaughtering them. Then dive bombers, which could initially not find the Japanese carriers, followed a Japanese destroyer as it returned to its carrier group after stayng behind to attack a US sub, and hit the Japanese carriers from high. Zeros, having just slaughtered the torpedo planes, were too low to intercept the dive bombers. Nagumo''s constant switching between antiship and ground attack weapons left the Japanese carriers with bombs and open ful lines all over the deck, making the dive bombers'' attack even more devastating.

If any one of those events had not happened, the battle could have just as easily gone the other way. It was one of the most stunning victories at sea ever, but also one of the luckiest. And the Japanese did have some luck of their own. Only a lucky Japanese torpedo shot that sunk the damaged Yorktown as it was being towed back to Pearl blemished the victory.

[txgrouch2006]

The US planes had no idea where the Japanese fleet was. US pilots only knew which way the Japanese planes departed to return to their carriers. By the time US planes were in the air, the Japanese planes were gone and the US pilots could only guess which way to fly.

Flying on instinct and luck THREE SQUADRONS of planes found the fleet at the same time and all attacked simultaneously. First the torpedo bombers started their runs. They were all shot down, only one torpedo pilot survived. But they diverted the Japanese attention so they didn''t notice the dive bombers attacking from above. The dive bombers cut the fleet to ribbons before they could turn their guns.

You wonder how such unlikely things could happen, and TURN THE OUTCOME OF THE ENTIRE WAR.

[txgrouch2006]

Plus the excellent movie Tora Tora Tora, not to mention that crappy soap-opera movie about it back in 1976.
Posted by Rafterman1 at 08:19 PM : Aug 02, 2008
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Just getting tired of hearing crickets chirping, except for the Bush bashing. Trying to start a more productive conversation.

Tora, Tora, Tora was pretty good. The Discovery documentary is MUCH, MUCH BETTER.

The Japanese ships were trying to find the US fleet by sending out search planes in a fan pattern. The plane that was assigned to the sector that contained the fleet HAD ENGINE TROUBLE and it''s takeoff was delayed for nearly an hour. That delay turned out to be crucial in losing the battle for the Japanese. THEY LOST ALL THEIR CARRIERS BECAUSE OF IT.