Even bad guys work very hard

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

I have been reading some history books and noticed a fact that I never paid attention to.

Even bad guys worked really hard.

My education and culture gave me below impressions about bad guys: 

• Bad guys are bad guys because they are“bad”.
• Because they are “bad”, it would be easy for them to be bad guys.

I now realize that this is only half correct.

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On one hand, the bad guys are definitely “bad”, in the sense that they believe in “bad” things.

For examples, corrupted officials believe that all man are selfish and it is justified to leverage the power for his own good. They might even believe that this is the only way they could stay as official.

Thanos believes that the only way to restore the Universe is by eliminating half of the lives randomly.

…

We need to take note that the things bad guys believe in are just “bad” to us. They themselves do not think for a bit that what they believe in is bad or wrong.

They never doubt themselves.

In this sense, bad guys have to be “bad”.

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On the other hand, it is not easy to be bad guys. 

Bad guys have to work for it too, just like the good guys.

They have to stand firmly with what they believe in, turning a blind eye to all the “good” in the world. From this angle, being a bad guy is much harder than being a good guy.

They have to think and work very hard too. Otherwise, the good guys will out-work and out-think them and ultimately out-power them.

I read about this famous bad guy in Chinese history. 

He was thinking and working all the time and he was so good at what he did. 

Many initiatives and plans were executed flawlessly under his mastermind. 

So many creative ways to satisfy everybody and secure their support were invented by him.

…

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If we want to leave our mark in the world, chances are we will need all three things below:

• Unshakable belief
• Continuous hard work
• Talent in what we do

It is not easy, even for the world to remember us as a bad buy.

 

Till next time!

Leaders continue on, knowing that they will be wronged

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

My journey to finishing “The Pacific War Trilogy” continues. I am at 10% of the third book, on track to completing it in H1 this year.

Today I would like to share with you another take-away.

Let’s begin.

Douglas MacArthur gained favor of almost all American people due to his strategy towards the media during the war.

He had been leveraging his popularity to request for more power and more support to his strategy.

He requested to command all forces, air, land and sea, in the Pacific War Theater.

He requested to recover Philippines before attacking Japan in its inner defense circle, even though this might delay the war by up to 6 months.

Some top generals believed that he valued his own commitment to “Return to Philippines” more than winning the war, which was the end goal.

Of course, he was not getting what he wanted, because luckily people with higher ranks were rationale and had the right attitude.

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Then, people believed he would participate in the presidential election against Roosevelt.

Even though he would have had no chance anyway, this incident gave his supporters an opportunity to accuse Roosevelt and other people at the top for letting political opinions interfere with the War strategy.

Putting it bluntly, MacArthur’s requests were not granted because he was a potential opponent in the election. 

And just then, big strategic decisions needed to be made.

With a series of victories in the Pacific against the Japanese, Allies needed to fix their strategy to keep the momentum.

And it was clear that they needed to attack the Japs in its inner circle of defense, and not Philippines, Japs’ well-fortified outer defense.

And the decision was not to be delayed.

But the shadow of accuse would not disappear. The only way to avoid it would be to give MacArthur what he wanted and risk tens of thousands more of American lives.

The fact was that the US leadership made the right decision, knowing that they would be wronged by some people.

That is real courage and sacrifice! That is real leadership!

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Also, people will eventually learn the truth.

MacArthur was so favored during the war and even after the war by the public.

Then Korea war happened. MacArthur finally tasted the bitterness of his arrogance.

And present day, people increasingly learned his mistakes during the war, especially his inability to avoid “Another Pearl Harbor”, where majority of US air forces in Philippines were also destroyed on the ground by Japanese air raid, after “Pearl Harbor” with ample time for him to react. It was reported that his air-force generals requested repeatedly for his orders and he just ignored all of them.

Also the fact that he accepted 500K USD from the Philippines president, which is equivalent to 8 Million USD today, was compared to Eisenhower who rejected the offer from the same president.

It is almost impossible to hide the truth forever, especially so in the current age.

People will get their “justice”.

 

Till next time!

Retrospective

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

 

Battle of Mid-way, where 4 major Japanese carriers and 1 US carrier were sunk, is the turning point of the Pacific War.

We all know that now. 

But back then, people probably did not realize its full significance, apart from the fact that it was a great victory for the US.

How could they?

It was still a long way before it became clear that US would win. 

After that, the war only got tougher and bloodier for both sides.

Even with the industry capabilities of US, there was only one US Carrier left in the while pacific at one point, after 3 were sunk or disabled by sub-marines or air attacks.

…

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Retrospectively, things are clearer.

But we cannot shamelessly take advantage of that and laugh at what people did back then.

Just take advantage of that and think about what we could not be realizing right now.

 

Till next time!

History has to “make sense”

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

The “Pacific War trilogy” is so good, even though I only have read 30% of the the first book “Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific”. I plan to finish it in H1 this year.

The book covers vividly what “actually” happened during the war, supported by a lot of first-hand evidence. The readers will get so many details comparing to movies, or even documentaries.

While reading, I could not help, but keep on thinking that History has to make sense.

Thinking from this angle, we can call bullshit a lot of the “propaganda” material, even though probably that is what we want to see.

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For example, a lot of the movies and documentaries, in order to showcase courage of the soldiers and give people hope that they would win eventually, highlighted how angry and committed the US soldiers were right after the Japanese surprise attack on Peal Harbor, having seen their colleagues die and their ships burn.

I am sure they were.

But what would make more sense, as the book described with tons of evidence, was that

1. They were scared shit-less about the possible invasion of the Japanese, because they could not locate the Japanese carriers
2. They were extremely low in morale 

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Some of the details in the book (I could not remember all):

1. In the chaos after the attack, weapons were distributed “randomly”. No signature were required and no record was kept.
2. Ground defense and anti-air would just fire on anything that moved, causing multiple casualties, including the 5 fighters from “Enterprise” (4 damaged with one shot down and its pilot killed). Even the Admiral commanding the “Enterprise” were shot at when he tried to reach shore in a small boat while the carrier was being resupplied and re-fueled.
3. Light restrictions were way beyond reasonable level. Soldiers would shoot any lights that were on. People who did not follow would get their windows smashed. Even lighting a cigarette in the back yard were fined.
4. Light restrictions were not conducted in the islands, but also across west coasts
5. Nursers kept poisons in their pockets because they heard how brutal the Japanese were towards females in general
6. Rumors flew: Japanese sub-marines in the harbor, Japanese bombers over San Fransisco, Japanese landing on Pearl…Wives would screen at random rumors about the ship their husbands were on…

….

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Logically, that would make more sense as well.

Just put ourselves under those circumstances and we would be able to realize it.

Also, that was also part of the purpose of the risky “Do-little Raid” to boost US morale and inject fear to the Japanese minds.

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Therefore, even though it is good to watch those angry and committed soldiers on screen, we could easily realize that the other side would be more human and make more sense.

And that only made the Americas more admirable.

We all have fear. It is what we do right then that makes a difference.

History has to make sense.

 

Till next time!