Why do we say 'American soil'?

[Oeditpus Rex]

Doesn't anyone ever launch an attack or set foot on American concrete, tarmac, sand, etc.? :shrug:

[Left Is Write]

1. Because "American dirt" was already taken by the tabloids.

:P

[MonkeyFunk]

2. because

various popes have kissed and therefore blessed all our tarmac.

[Writer]

3. Because it makes America sound like the mana of Jesus himself...

Sacred ground. God's Land. Jesusland. :P

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. That's kind of my take

but without the religious overtones. Or very subtle ones, anyway.

It's like Mer'ka is sacred land or something because we're better than all those folks who don't speak English and dress funny.

[Writer]

6. If I could only pluck America from the continent and plop it smack in the middle of Europe...

that would be a cultural wake-up call, don't you think? I don't think we'd have as many nationalistic yoekels.

[Oeditpus Rex]

10. We'd also have

a lotta really short Yurpeens. :7

[Call Me Wesley]

11. Pray for the short Yurpeens,

because thee will set you free:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_esCf2GSTI

[Connonym]

12. I'm going to have nightmares about this video, damn you!!!

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. Chick in the red skirt

looks like Joanie from "Eight Is Enough." :shrug:

[Kutjara]

9. A lot of countries hang on to myths like this.

During WWII, Britain made a big thing out of the fact that the country hadn't been invaded since 1066, as a way of motivating the troops to ensure it didn't happen in 1939 or '40. Even before that, there were huge political debates in which some of the greatest legal and political minds argued that even the Norman Invasion of 1066 wasn't really an invasion, merely the normal dynastic squabbling between members of the English aristocracy. Therefore, Britain hadn't been invaded since the Romans. The amount of effort and personal investment these debates produced indicated that the issue was perceived as very important.

Japan, too, made a huge deal about the fact that no foreign power had ever conquered Japanese soil. The 13th Century Mongolian invasion and subsequent salvation of Japan by the Kami-Kaze (divine wind) storm was imbedded in Japanese consciousness (much like the Spanish Armada story is imbedded in the English mind). The sacredness of Japanese soil was something few questioned, which is one of the reasons the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa were so bloody. It could also be argued that it was also a contributory factor in the US decision to use the atomic bomb.

The US itself has it's own "sacred soil" myth, although it can't claim thousands of year of unbroken sovereignty. Instead, it relies on the expedient of God's plan to justify its specialness. We're not unique in this by any means (most countries cling to the stubborn belief that they are singled out for greatness), but our size and power makes such a fantasy all the more dangerous.

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. Not sure I follow re the decision to nuke

Can you elaborate?

The only thing I know about the atomic bombs and Japan's "sacred soil" is that Kyoto, its "spiritual capital," was proposed as a target but the powers that be decided against it. Even MacArthur, who later advocated dropping atomic bombs on Korea, said nuking Kyoto would be like an enemy of the U.S. attacking Bethlehem.

[Kutjara]

15. I believe the decision to nuke was based...

...on the difficulty the US encountered on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The War Department estimated that it would cost over a million American lives and probably ten times that in Japanese military and civillian casualties to subdue the Japanese mainland. It was thought that the Japanese belief in the sacredness of Japanese soil (and the Emperor) would compel the Japanese to fight to the last man, woman and child. This reasoning (whether true or false) made the decision to use the atomic bomb easier.

Of course, this reasoning has a few flaws of its own. If the War Department was convinced that the Japanese would resist to the last, surely dropping the atomic bomb would make no difference. Japanese history and literature is full of stories of people who made heroic self-sacrifices in the name of the Emperor, so it was probably just as likely that Japan would have allowed itself to be nuked to oblivion. Indeed, it was apparently only the Emperor's intervention that prevented his senior ministers from allowing that very outcome to occur. If he hadn't, the US would have had to decide if they were going to exterminate a large proportion of the Japanese population (assuming they could build enough bombs to do so before the Russians rolled into Hokkaido - another view is that it was fear of the Russians rather than fear of the Bomb that motivated the surrender).

In the end, I think the Japanese sense of exceptionalism made it easier for the US to view the regime as a bunch of lunatics who would let their country die before surrendering, unless something drastic was done. So something drastic was done.

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. I see your point

Well-stated, too. Thanks. :hi:

[Art_from_Ark]

18. Nice theory, but

Did you know that the USSR declared war on Japan only after the first nuke had been dropped?

That the Russian invasion of Japanese territory lasted well into October 1945, until they had taken everything that had been promised to them by Roosevelt at Yalta, and reaffirmed at Potsdam?

That the new government of Prime Minister Suzuki, who took office in April 1945, had made overtures to the United States through the Soviet government to end the war in the Pacific after Berlin fell, but the Soviets didn't act on it because they were eying the territory they were going to get from Japan?

That no less a man than Dwight Eisenhower stated that the nuclear bombing was unnecessary?

[Blue-Jay]

5. Because we grow better cherry tomatos than any other country!

Suck that, Bolivia!

[jpgray]

7. Because we've soiled so many things.

[ZombieNixon]

8. Because "American earthworm shit" just isn't epic enough.

:P

[Bucky]

16. Because, Because, Because, Becaaaaause.... Because of the wonderful things he does.

Wait, that doesn't rhyme.

[leftofthedial]

19. "soil"

dirty or foul matter; filth; sewage.

[Robeson]

20. Because it has the Goebbels-esque ring to it....

...you know: Fatherland, Motherland, American Soil....