"Tell me—why attack their agriculture?"
"General, Japan is a country that lives by the code of Bushidō. Every citizen is ready to die for the Emperor—you've surely seen that from frontline reports. But that's just the battlefield. Back home, they're even more extreme. Women, children—they're all willing to sacrifice themselves to kill the enemy."
The more fanatical he made the Japanese sound, the more ruthless the U.S. military would be willing to act.
If the U.S. were to go soft, Japan would get off lightly. Pierre couldn't let that happen.
So what if he exaggerated the Japanese? The more dangerous they sounded, the more justified the Americans would feel in hitting them harder.
"They really are lunatics," Holcomb said.
"On Guadalcanal, they charged our positions screaming 'banzai,' throwing their bodies at our defenses. Sometimes they literally tore through the line with flesh and blood. It rattled our boys."
He shook his head grimly.
