Why didn't Japan take revenge on the USA?

[Smartman5]

You all know that the USA dropped two atomic bombs on Japan during the second world war and Japan was destroyed and the effect was huge. but Japan never took revenge for it. Any idea about the reason? Before the atomic bombs were dropped, Japan had attacked US ships. In return, the USA dropped an atomic bomb on Japan. this should not be overlooked. Also, Japan has always gone on scientific studies. Developed itself

[NamerOfStars]

They DID- that's what their involvement in WW2 was all about. Japan had been on the Allied side in the first world war- they'd been a minor player, but they DID fight- and they got shafted at Versailles. Pretty much everyone else got chunks of the German empire; Japan got basically bupkis. And they figured "Screw it, we'll strike out on our own" and began expanding in the Pacific. This worried the US, who, being the OPEC of 1940, shut off the flow of oil. The Japanese TRIED going after the Soviets instead, but got soundly thrashed. So they figured they'd follow the same strategy they had against the Russians in 1904: cripple or destroy the Russian Pacific fleet in a surprise attack on Port Arthur, then dig in and fortify their position while waiting for the Baltic fleet to arrive. When it DID, it was spent after a long, difficult trip, and faced a ready enemy, who basically wiped it out. The Russians sued for peace, conceding the fight was no longer worth it.

So the Japanese tried it again: destroy the American Pacific fleet in a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, then run amok in the Pacific until the Atlantic fleet arrives. Since the Panama canal made for a MUCH shorter trip than the Russians had had, don't try to defend a conquered Hawaii- fall back and attack the Philippines, forcing the Americans to rush to defend them, and destroy the Atlantic fleet there. It backfired- Roosevelt decided to let the Philippines fall, knowing it could be retaken once the US could attack in force. The Japanese saw that the Americans, like the Russians before, were decadent and rich, and assumed that meant they were gutless and weak- the Americans were even worse off, since they were corrupted by interracial breeding and jitterbug dancing (Germany wasn't the only horrifically racist Axis power), and so didn't have the stomach for a fight, either.

But Americans are kind of like Mongols; we don't really have an understanding of a "limited war". The Japanese people paid TERRIBLY for the folly of their leaders; every city was bombed into rubble. Do you know why Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two insignificant little towns, were chosen to be A-bombed? Because they were some of the biggest ones still standing.

The Japanese government had plans to issue every citizen a pointy stick and have them charge the American troops- you wouldn't have a prayer of surviving, but you might get lucky and kill one or two before they brought you down. Then the bombs fell, and even the hardliners in the government knew it was over. And when the Americans landed... they didn't enslave the locals. They didn't force the women into prostitution. They actually helped rebuild the country they'd blasted to pieces. The Japanese government had warned its citizenry that the Americans were bloodthirsty monsters, and to be taken alive by them was worse than death, but the truth was much, MUCH more pleasant.

Why, exactly, would the average Japanese person WANT to "take revenge" on such people?

[LiamJHayden]

"Japan attacked some ships." And quite a bit more than that, including perhaps as many as 20 million Chinese killed by Japanese aggression. Not to mention that ending the war as Truman did likely saved millions of Japanese lives that would have been lost by an invasion and the continued fire bombing of the cities. More people died in Operation Meetinghouse, the firebombing of Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, 1945, than were lost at Hiroshima. The entire Japanese nation would have been decimated, and tens or hundreds of thousands of Allied forces would have died, too.

[ChicanaChick]

Why would you want revenge on an attack you started first?

If I were to leg sweep and sucker kick Lucia Rijker while she's down, followed by running away like a coward (claiming victory)... then I would be my fault by the time she recovers and comes after me.

[ChicanaChick]

USA actually help them rebuilt their economy afterwards and promise to be their protector. More than enough.

[KostasKouvalis]

I don't know who that is, but I agree with what you're saying. They even admitted that they brought it upon themselves and that's why they decided to convert into a pacifist society, because they never want to experience something like that again. I don't know if such tactics would work on other people though

[WhiteBoyChill]

@KostasKouvalis I agree. This man is terribly uneducated

[KostasKouvalis]

I read about this once. It's because they knew they knew they deserved it. Virtually overnight they went from vicious warlords, to a pacifist society. They said they never want to experience anything like that again, so they decided to be nice to people from that point on. Also, the U. S. gave them a shitton of money and rebuilt for it.

[Guy13]

Yes. Japan took first action and learned that was not a good idea then. We also rebuilt that country... Pearl Harbor is what you are looking for.

[Sargentcaptain]

*Japan attacks US, doing basically no real damage whatsoever*

*US nukes Japan, twice*

> why didn't japan just magically take revenge

> im sure it would have worked out great for them

[jshm2]

Because Japan got compensation for it.

Then USA committed a few warcrimes, and didn't want to get called. So each kept it sturm and moved on.

Looking back, it's Japan that won out in the end.

[Anonymous]

If Japan took revenge by attacking the US, then what happens when the US nukes tokyo, then yokahama, then osaka, killing up to a million or more people and completely decimating the country and it's economy?

Is your name supposed to be a contradiction because you're not a very smart man. People like you are why I call gag the dumbest site in the world.

[KostasKouvalis]

OHHHHHHHHHH, BURN!!!

[Chazmatazz269]

Who says they didn’t? Japan has surpassed the US in every meaningful metric. Escalating military conflict would have been even more disastrous. Japan made the right choices.

[Redstang88]

Because they had nothing and nobody to take revenge with. They through pretty much everything they had at the US during WWII and lost

[KostasKouvalis]

OHHHHHHHH, BURN!!!

[WhiteBoyChill]

You are conveniently leaving out the fact that thousands of people still died from the Pearl Harbor bombings. Not just sunken ships.

Also we more than made up for it. We helped rebuild their country after the war

[FilmGuy93]

Treaties, mostly and the fact that Pearl Harbor was an act of revenge all on its own.

[Pterodon]

What would they take revenge for? They started it