The average Japanese infantryman was a highly-trained soldier. That said, some of his weapons weren’t exactly the best in the world. While the United States gave its troops a classic rifle in the form of the M1 Garand, Japanese troops were left wit…
If there’s one thing Japanese troops were known for during World War II, it was fighting to the last man. It doesn’t matter if they were fighting on land, sea…
In May 1945, the Axis powers were all but beaten, but the war was far from over for the United States. Germany surrendered to the Allies on May 8 but a lot of work was left to be done – namely, the invasion of mainland Japan.
The ongoin…
When the United States Marine faced off against Japan, especially later in World War II, they had a few advantages. They had the semi-automatic M1 Garand against Japan’s bolt-action Arisaka rifle and their pistol was the M1911 as opposed to the Nam…
The sailors assigned to the commands around Yokosuka, Japan know about high optempo. The units assigned to Forward Deployed Naval Forces Japan are either on deployment or working up for deployment.
But with limited liberty time, the sail…
Mitsuo Fuchita was just shy of 40 years-old during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When he took off in the observer’s deck of a Nakajima B5N2 ‘Kate’ torpedo bomber that day, he probably never imagined he would spend much of the rest of hi…
On September 2nd, 1945, the foreign affairs delegation of the Japanese Empire boarded the USS Missouri and signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender under the guidance of Emperor Hirohito, finally putting an end to bloodiest war mankind h…
Some things are universal. If you’re going to start a war, make sure you’re also the one who finishes it. To be ill-prepared for any reason is dumb and just prolongs a war, yielding pointless loss of life. In the history of the world, wars have be…
WWII was the golden age of military seaplanes. From the legendary PBY Catalina to the behemoth BV 238, most major countries utilized seaplanes or float planes during the war. However,…
In the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, there was plenty of blame to go around in the U.S. Navy. At first, Adm. Husband J. Kimmel caught a…