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What does "chief hypothetical enemy" mean?
The Japanese army anticipated war with the Soviet Union sooner or later, but the navy considered the United States its chief hypothetical enemy. The army looked northward, the navy southward toward the rich resources—particularly oil—of Southeast Asia.
2 Answers
- busterwasmycatLv 75 months ago
chief means most important. hypothetical means "what if" as in a possible truth that is not (yet) true, and refers to the fact that the US was not yet an enemy. So, most important possible future enemy.
- ?Lv 75 months ago
Well, whatever it means it shows that the Japanese were more concerned about the US than the Soviets. I understand that a Japanese naval officer, Marshal Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto went to the USA in his earlier years.
In 1919, Yamamoto Isoroku, who later planned the attack on Pearl Harbor, came to Harvard to study English. He received only a C+ in the course but spent his free time to advantage by hitchhiking to Texas, where, by some accounts, he gathered information on America's oil industry.
The Soviets were less of a threat to the Japanese, as I understand it. I think it was a part of the reason why the Axis failed to win, because if they attacked the Soviets while Hitler attacked them from the West, the outcome of the war would have been at least prolonged and the world would reflect that all the way up to now. IMHO.
