Attacking Pearl Harbor is kinda funny though, committing to the bit of "Empire across the Pacific" so hard that you go 2000 miles out of your way to bring the country with the world's largest economy into the war against you, pulling off a surgical decapitation strike on a military base when the key targets of several carrier groups were patrolling elsewhere.

[–] MarxMadness@hexbear.net 34 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

[In 1940, t]he United States placed an embargo on scrap-metal shipments to Japan and closed the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping.That hit Japan's economy particularly hard because 74.1% of Japan's scrap iron came from the United States in 1938, and 93% of Japan's copper in 1939 came from the United States... Responding to Japanese occupation of key airfields in Indochina (July 24) after an agreement between Japan and Vichy France, the U.S. froze Japanese assets on July 26, 1941, and on August 1, it established an embargo on oil and gasoline exports to Japan.[15][16][17] The oil embargo was an especially strong response because oil was Japan's most crucial import, and more than 80% of Japan's oil came from the United States.

The U.S. wasn't exactly out of the way: it was a huge trade partner that was shutting down all sorts of key commerce in response to Japan's expansion. A conflict was as inevitable as it gets.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 3 hours ago

Lenin predicted it in 1918, though he overestimated both sides economies and Washington Treaty prolonged the timeline.

[–] SacredExcrement@hexbear.net 20 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

We talk about American military mishaps (and the Axis were inevitably going to lose WWII regardless), but it really was an incredible fuck up on on behalf of the Japanese

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 12 points 9 hours ago

The fascist urge to open a second front

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 10 points 9 hours ago

Stunning tactical victory, pivotal strategic defeat.