What is the source of "the three most useless things in the world are the Great Wall, Pyramids, and the Yamato"?

score:5

I checked the Japanese text, which is as follows:

世界の三馬鹿「ピラミッド・万里の長城・戦艦大和」

I can confirm that this is mentioned in many histories of WW2 as a joke which was whispered between Navy staff. One notable source that comes up on Google Books is a 1965 biography of Yamamoto Isoroku by Agawa Hiroyuki.

Because it originates as a joke, the point was to astonish and there was no explicit reasoning given. I suppose the intuition would be that it was a very expensive project which did not produce the desired result of victory in war. In the 1960s, the same joke was told but instead of the Yamato, the third example was the shinkansen, which kind of shows the mentality of the joke teller.

Avery 2429

📝 Why did the Mongols destroy the library during the siege of Baghdad in 1258?
📝 Does any culture have a native food that is objectively bad?
📝 What differentiated Rome from other Mediterranean (e.g. Greek) city states?
📝 Extent of Empire of Lalitaditya Muktapida?
📝 What is the source of this quote about Demosthenes by Philip II of Macedon?
📝 What benefits were there to the USA of developing both Uranium and Plutonium bombs in World War 2?
📝 In the election of 1800, why did Burr end up with as many electoral votes as Jefferson, rather than one fewer?
📝 Did people practice multiphasic sleep in the Middle Ages?
📝 Why was Pearl Harbor selected as the base Japan attacked in December 1941?
📝 How is Gaddafi viewed outside the West?
📝 When was the last time there were border controls, customs, or border patrols inside what is now the contiguous US?
📝 Why was the Le Chapelier law annulled in Belgium?
📝 Are there any examples of technologies have been lost over time?
📝 What led to the abandonment of the word "canton" for RSFSR subdivisions?
📝 Who was the first Renaissance cartographer to include rich content in their maps that went beyond spatial points, borders, and location names?
📝 What happened to the S.A. (Sturmabteilung; "Stormtroopers") after The Night of the Long Knives?
📝 When did it become accepted to tilt your soup bowl?
📝 How did Hussars change from heavy cavalry into light cavalry?
📝 Is Kemal Atatürk responsible for Armenian Genocide?
📝 What attributes did Yahweh have before becoming a monotheistic deity?
📝 Who said "If I want the opinion of the middle classes, I'll ask Her Majesty"?
📝 What was the first "fashion trend"?
📝 What was the nature of the Japanese presence in China in the later stages of World War II?
📝 Why is the color red associated with communism?
📝 Can oral tradition be used as a source in scholarly papers?
📝 Did Soviet Union really consider using atomic bomb against US aircraft battlegroup?
📝 Are automatic assault rifle useless in current conflict?
📝 To prevent sex were men bound in bags or locked in beds?
📝 How did Greeks make greek fire?
📝 Is it true that medieval villages didn't have names?

Source: stackoverflow.com

Travel Tips

Search Posts

📝 What is the source of "the three most useless things in the world are the Great Wall, Pyramids, and the Yamato"?
📝 What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world?
📝 Who are the three men standing and what are they holding at this University of Paris Doctors' Meeting?
📝 What are the most comprehensive historical references for ancient India?
📝 What are the 'mushroom trusts' referenced in Churchill's "Second World War"?
📝 What was the most accurate map of the world before artificial satellites?
📝 What was the most important cause of the Second World War?
📝 What were the factors that caused debtors' prison to disappear in most parts of the world in the 20th century?
📝 What was the fate of most SS members after World War II?
📝 What is the source of the claim that Enigma codebreaking efforts shortened the Second World War by years and saved millions of lives?
📝 What was the most popular food staple among civilians during World War II?
📝 What are the most famous individual toys in modern history?
📝 What are the three major differences between the first and second silk road?
📝 What are the most recommended non-biased books on Egyptian History
📝 What are some items still existing today that were involved in the most killings?
📝 What is the primary source evidence for the theory that the African Ancient Egyptians are not black Africans whose origin is sub-Saharan Africa?
📝 What is the oldest building in the world still in use?
📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
📝 Why did the German army execute so few soldiers in World War I compared to most other armies?
📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
📝 What is the source of quote attributed to W.E.B. Du Bois: "When you have mastered numbers..."
📝 What is the most number of times someone has become leader of a European country?
📝 What is the date and original source of this medieval picture?
📝 Is it true that there are more slaves in the world now than ever at one point in history?
📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
📝 What are the text and subtext of this 1949 Soviet cartoon?
📝 What was the longest a World War II submarine stayed at sea without being resupplied at a port?
📝 What tactical situations made the use of traditional horse cavalry effective in World War II?
📝 What was the strategy to protect the British Museum during the World Wars?
📝 What are some Chinese sources testifying the extreme weather events of 535-536 CE?

What is the source of "the three most useless things in the world are the Great Wall, Pyramids, and the Yamato"?

More post

Search Posts

Related post