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Energy in Training. The Japs have learned war by rote. They train endlessly, until they have memorized all they should know. Officers are unsparing in training their men, to a point which U.S. trainers would probably think insane. In 1930 naval maneuvers near Saishuto (according to a Japanese officer's article in the Spanish Revista de Aeronautica), Japan's present Commander of Combined Fleets Admiral Yamamoto, then captain of the carrier Akagi, launched 30 torpedo planes in a gale to give the men practice in heavy-weather launchings. They all launched, but not one got back to the ship.
Jap training methods are both humorless and tireless. Major Harold Doud, who served six months in 1934-35 as an observer with the 7th Infantry Regiment at Kanazawa, found the life exhausting and looked forward to the regiment's first holiday. When it came, he found that the regiment did not let the holiday interfere with the regular day's work. Reveille was at 3 a.m., and before the usual breakfast time the men had worshipped dead Japanese in three separate ceremonies, dueled with bayonets, eaten some dried flounder, shouted "Banzai!" and marched up & down a mountain. Then they trained as usual.
Despair in Defeat. Consequence of this kind of training is that privates rely inordinately on their officers. They are taught to believe in success, and they do. Consequently, when they encounter failure they break down. Diaries taken from Jap soldiers in New Guinea have had their share of despair: "Where is the Imperial Fleet? . . . The end is approaching. . . . We cannot endure another day of this sickness and shelling. We see nothing but American planes."
Even before they encounter failure, Jap soldiers are anything but supermen. They are notoriously hypochondriac. They carry little oily green cakes which they rub on the skin to keep mosquitoes away. Many carry white gloves which they wear when they sleep. They carry toilet waters and perfumed powders.
They do not like death any more than U.S. troops. In War and Soldier, a Japanese best-seller about the war in China, Ashihei Hino says in describing a defeat: "I actually put my revolver to my head. I thought I would cry out: 'May Great Imperial Japan live forever!' in so loud a voice that the enemy would hear me, and then press the trigger. But the feel of the cold steel made me shudder, and I hastily replaced the weapon in my holster. I wanted to live on as long as I could. Thoughts of home brought tears to my eyes, and I shut them and prayed. . . ."
The 5-5-3 Mentality. Unquestionably Japanese officers do fight against British Empire and U.S. troops furiously. This fury is born of resentment at having been treated as inferiors. Symbolic of that treatment was the famous 5-5-3 ratio for capital ships imposed by Britain and the U.S. on Japan. This ratio, says Japanese Expert Wilfred Fleischer, "has, in fact, played a much more important role in Japanese policy in recent years than is generally supposed abroad, and was a contributory factor in Japan's reversion to an ultranationalist, militaristic policy."
Admiral Osami Nagano knew the 5-5-3 ratio well. He was instrumental in Japan's defying it.