A Rifle Behind Each Blade of Grass
Posted By Randy on June 14, 2015
Today’s title is a fragment of the sentiment spoken by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto upon learning of the successful raid on Pearl Harbour:
“In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.
“You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass.
“I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
As I write from Canada, I am more than a little privileged to know an uplifting number of people – mostly Men but there is a gloriously growing component of Women – who live on the continent of North America and could easily haunt Admiral Yamamoto’s dreams today. Many I speak of are as old as me or older, and so remember the lesson, but all is not lost for I am happy to observe that the efforts of modern society to domesticate its youth have not been altogether successful, leaving me in hope that they never will be.
I hold that the Warrior Arts, expressed both inwardly and outwardly by the individual, are an integral and essential component of a truly secure society. Many making the decisions these days, both public and private, would rather cast these Arts and all they demand of the practitioner as a threat to the public good. To “the organization”. As THE problem rather than a vital component of the solution both today and forever forward.
Nay, nay, and THRICE nay! That one who pursues the Warrior Path be viewed as a threat to the society in which that Warrior dwells, and holds a vested interest, is directly opposed to historical precedent, for long before the treachery of Pearl Harbour. The defense of the realm has forever relied upon the readiness of its citizenry to bring tooth and claw to bear, and as an example, the recognized efficacy in this pursuit in the form of long range shooting is reflected in laws that, up until 1863, required all Englishmen to practice archery as a standing national readiness for war.
All this being said, and ever mindful of history, articles like the Field & Stream piece by J. Guthrie titled How to Make a 1000-Yard Shot make my black heart glad. The author’s reasoning for mastering this Art makes perfect sense to the Hunter part of my own Warrior Soul, and lest anyone in government or law enforcement anywhere choose to see his subject matter or my endorsement of it as a threat of any kind to “peace and good order”, I would say get over yourselves. It’s not about you, and it never was or will be for anyone I would trust with my children.
You said it all. I am familiar with Yamamoto's "sleeping giant" epiphanym, but indeed was in days of yore when significance was significant. When determination was not merely a politically correct jerk-off remark about how everyone is entitled to the fruits of everyone else. You have probably seen some of my recent far-right comments about the state of affairs we are now living with and the Ars Moronicus of our present leadership. Nuff said. Huzzah for every free man and 'free man' has nothing to do with living environment as I am sure you might certainly agree. It has to do with sense of self-worth.