Napoleon, actually the Japanese beat the Tsarist Russian navy in separate chunks back in 1904-1905, which certainly doesn't give any reason to make assumptions about the Red Army in 1941.
That's like suggesting the British could have intervened successfully in the ACW ergo there was no reason the British couldn't fight the US after WWI.
In fact the Japanese Army DID provoke several clashes with the Red Army starting in 1938, as Trotsky notes, and the Soviets mopped up the floor with the Japanese.
Earling, the only problem is that it wasn't a gamble. At no point did any prominent Japanese figure have the slightest idea how to WIN the war, as opposed to win a particular battle. Basically they decided that Japan would never lose an important battle and eventually the US and British Empire and China would all grow weary of the fighting.
CalBear, you forgot one minor detail. They didn't attack a series of nations, they attacked each in turn and then attacked the next on the list without bothering to finish the first war.
That's like suggesting the British could have intervened successfully in the ACW ergo there was no reason the British couldn't fight the US after WWI.
In fact the Japanese Army DID provoke several clashes with the Red Army starting in 1938, as Trotsky notes, and the Soviets mopped up the floor with the Japanese.
Earling, the only problem is that it wasn't a gamble. At no point did any prominent Japanese figure have the slightest idea how to WIN the war, as opposed to win a particular battle. Basically they decided that Japan would never lose an important battle and eventually the US and British Empire and China would all grow weary of the fighting.
CalBear, you forgot one minor detail. They didn't attack a series of nations, they attacked each in turn and then attacked the next on the list without bothering to finish the first war.