[Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two

[John]

On Thu, 2009-07-02 at 14:51 +0800, G K Milner wrote:

> Japanese plans must have been flexible enough to at least 
> consider an invasion of Australia.

But you don't have a strategy that is "flexible enough" to include a
plan (b) to invade an entire continent, like Australia. Such an assault
would have been a huge undertaking, as Tom has pointed out. It isn't
just some "flexible" option in a plan. And as Tom pointed out, the
Japanese army was critically overstretched.

Ultimately it is not so much the USA that Australians (or New
Zealanders) should thank for Japan never formulating a plan to head
further south. It is people like Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Min and Kim Il Sung
and the millions of people in Asia who struggled alongside or supported
them and at great human cost to themselves tied down tens of thousands
of Japanese soldiers throughout Asia. They are the real reason that the
Japanese could not even contemplate expansion into Australia.
Cheers,
John