Quote:
Peter A Goldsbury wrote:
I wonder if there was a similar type of belief among Japanese soldiers during the Russo-Japanese War, when the Japanese were laying siege to Port Arthur. Not a belief in the properties of magic water, but in the invulnerability of Japanese fighting spirit and Yamato damashii (occasionally used by Morihei Ueshiba in his discourses). This had to suffice in any case, because the Japanese could not produce enough ammunition to satisfy the demands of the army.
PAG
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The Okasaki Brigade charge as told by Sir Ian Hamilton in his
A staff officer's scrapbook during the Russo-Japanese War, Vol II, pp 205-206 would be a good example of what at first sight looked miraculous but, after looking closely, it was something as mundane as skilled troops deployement and manoeuvring in the battlefield.
Figting spirit, if not accompanied with skill, tends to produce heroic defeats, to be remembered but defeats nonetheless.