Yamamoto quote - authentic?

[MikePGS]

I'm actually reading the baroque cycle now, and not really into it as of yet. If Red Dawn has taught us anything its this: If we are ever invade, we'll need Patrick Swayze and a bunch of B-List actors to repel the invading forces.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Yamamoto 1942: "A military man can scarcely pride himself on having 'smitten a sleeping enemy'; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack."

Movie Paraphrase: "I fear all we have done is awakened a sleeping
giant and filled him with a terrible resolve."--Tora Tora Tora

Next, let's quote George Patton from the movie Patton. Or not.

 

[MechAg94]

Okay, the 1960 story was the version I had heard. Next time I want it, I'll just come here and do a search for Yamamoto.

 

[Tim Burke]

I'm late to the thread, but...

Incidentally, Nagano went to Harvard, too.

Harvard: Training America's enemies for 100 years.

 

[CajunBass]

I've read the same quote (a rifle behind every blade of grass) attributed to a "KGB official" after the end of the Cold War also.

 

[hoji]

However, some naive gun rights supporters spout Yamamoto and the phoney Hitler quote. Then there are the guys who spout the fake story of the general who told the reporter than she had the equipment to be a prostitute.

Just makes us look silly to the public who aren't up on the issue. When you are trying to convince folks that you want to own instruments of lethal force - it doesn't pay to look like an idiot.
__________________

Everyone please read the above.

 

[tegemu]

Check it out on Snopes www.snopes.com .

 

[History Prof]

Red Dawn
And what was the first thing the Ruskies did. They went straight to the town hall, and looked up all those gun registrations. Then they began rounding up all the gun owners.

However, the story was set in Colorado, wasn't it? They don't have gun registration there, do they?

Dude, you gotta go watch it again! They did it *very* realistically. The Cuban commander ordered the Russian cronie to go to the gunshop (not town hall) and find all of the form 4473s (not "registration records") and then to find the people whose names were on those records. Unfortunately, you have to pay close attention to the dialogue to understand a lot of that movie. For example, the "wolverines" revolt grew and grew (according to the dialogue) but you never saw anybody revolting except for the main characters. They needed a bigger budget, I guess.

As for the quote: I wish I knew. My field is Latin American/US relations... I never spent much time on Japan, other than teaching US History survey....

 

[GEM]

The most realistic thing about Red Dawn was the school teacher going outside to yell at the Invaders!

After that it got silly.