During World War II, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto of the Imperial Japanese Navy expressed caution about war with the United States. His opinion was well documented: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” The other line you always hear, about a rifle behind every blade of grass? That one is pure translated sensationalism. A made up quote that refuses to die because it sounded good. But here is what matters. Japan never seriously considered invading the American mainland. Not because they lacked guts. Because they understood reality. A heavily armed civilian population is not a soft target. It is a nightmare. At the time, it was widely understood that Americans owned massive numbers of firearms. That fact alone made any occupation scenario absurd. You do not invade a country where the population is already armed and spread across a continent. Now fast forward to today. We have chipped away at that reality with laws li...