FreddieN wrote:

> If it weren't for Americans, China would be speaking
> Japanese today.

Certainly, Japan committed a deadly strategic mistake when it attacked Pearl
Harbour and brought the US into the war.  However, Japan's attempt to set up
the puppet state of Manchuria (Manchukuo) was as foolhardy and ultimately
doomed as Germany's invasion of Russia. The huge - and largely wasted -
expenditure of human and economic resources was, in both cases, a decisive
factor in the outcome of the war.

It can be argued that Japan didn't have much choice about attacking the US,
given that it was being starved of resources (notably oil) by the US trade
embargo. However, it *did* have a choice. It could have attacked the Soviet
Union instead. The reason it didn't is because it knew from experience (the
Manchurian border conflicts of 1939) that the fighting would be extremely
tough. Japan also ignored Hitler's request to attack the Soviet Union in
1942, for the same reason. Then, in August 1945, the Soviet Union declared
war on Japan and the Japanese army in Manchuria crumbled. Thus, history (as
opposed to nationalistic mythology) records that it was the Soviets, not the
Americans, who broke the back of Japan's hold on power in China, though
Manchuria did not actually come under the control of Mao's Red Army until
1948 (without, needless to say, any help from the Americans).

> If it weren't for Americans, the British Isles, along with
> all of Western Europe, would have been speaking German
> for a few years before speaking Russian.

Actually, Britain had fought off the worst attacks of the Nazis in the
Battle of Britain, well before the US entered the war. Germany (as already
mentioned) to a large extent had sealed its own fate by attacking Russia,
again before the US entered the war. If Japan had not entered the equation,
dragging the US in with it, the ultimate outcome on the European front would
very probably have been the same.

As for saving Western Europe from Russia, while it is true that the US spent
up to 50% of its budget on defence during the Cold War, most of the activity
was on the Eastern fronts (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan). The only aggression
in the European theater was the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968,
and the US took no action. Much of the US's expenditure during this period
(such as backing the muhajadeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan) actually
created more problems than it solved, and it is apparent, with hindsight,
that the US was party to an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion that
brought the world to the brink of World War III on more than one occasion.

> You can fuck off and die.

Nice sentiments, but don't they somehow undermine your case?

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com