Quote:
Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp
I wouldn't exactly say that we did very little to the majority of it's ground forces. The Japanese culture was imbued with the philosophy of death before surrender. This made them fierce in battle and yes, little was (or could be) accomplished in changing that aspect among their ranks. Though fierce as the later battles proved, they also proved that despite altering their tactics away from the early Banzai charges, little could be done to change the casualty ratio between them and their U.S. counterparts.
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I think my favorite quote regarding Japanese soldiers was made by a British officer in Burma who called them "first-class soldiers in a third class army." They showed an incredible capacity for enduring hunger, privation, brutality by their higher-ups and sustaining staggering losses among their ranks. It became quite normal for them to fight in a condition of semi-starvation and non-existent medical services. But were often indifferently equipped with virtually obsolescent weapons, and often poorly led by militant junior officers of a violently aggressive stripe who loathed ever being on the defensive for long.