"Last Samurai" and Bradley's book "Flyboys"

"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

Breezing over a lot of history, what we wound up with in the late 30s was
a
Japan that had a very modern military force, albeit somewhat small, with
some
very archaic ideas.

The odd thing about the bestiality of the Japanese armed forces in
their "Fifteen Year War" (it actually lasted a month short of 14
years) is that the same military, in the Russo-Japanese War, behaved
in exemplary fashion toward prisoners. So you can't blame it on the
samurai. Something really twisted happened to the Japanese army and
navy between 1905 and 1931.

If memory serves me, Bradley attempts to explain the change between those 2
wars. It's a good book.

Cub Driver wrote:

So you can't blame it on the
samurai. Something really twisted happened to the Japanese army and
navy between 1905 and 1931.

Absolutely. And the book delves into this in some detail. The author calls the
result a "spirit warrior", rather than a samurai.

George Patterson
Great discoveries are not announced with "Eureka!". What's usually said is
"Hummmmm... That's interesting...."

On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 01:41:03 GMT, "Maule Driver"
wrote:

If memory serves me, Bradley attempts to explain the change between those 2
wars. It's a good book.

Okay, I'm going to look for it at BJ's, and if it's not there, I'll
order it up from Amazon.


all the best -- Dan Ford
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