Word: trumping
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Watching her Okinawa outpost crumble before U.S. attack, a desperate Japan played small cards for high stakes last week-and lost. In two disastrous days 417 Jap planes went spinning into the sea. In 30 fateful minutes of the second afternoon, two cruisers, three destroyers and her last naval trump, the 45,000-ton battleship Yamato, were battered to the bottom...
...Play showed three main differences from bridge: 1) South, claiming the contract at 500, declared spades trump (in Check, the trump is not announced until the contract is claimed); 2) South, leading the Spade ace won East's singleton Spade ace (in Check, the first ace wins the second; the first king, the second king, etc.), 3) honor cards taken in tricks counted in point score (in Check, aces and tens count ten, kings and queens, 5.; jacks, no count...
Then they played their defense trump: the Allies had been broadcasting appeals to civilians to help German soldiers desert; Hogen and Packbier were only following General Eisenhower's instructions; the three soldiers were trying to desert from the Wehrmacht...
Argentina last week played an ace. But perhaps not a trump...
...Spirit. Tojo spoke not in desperation but from knowledge of his people, their obedience, credulity, imperturbability in the face of hardship. Japan's soldiers, peasants and factory workers expect to win the war; their trump is Yamato Damashii, the "unquenchable spiritual force" of the Japanese people which must match the earthier power of the U.S.'s bigger guns, faster planes, heavier ships. They know Japan has conquered a rich empire, believe that the peoples of East Asia are united against the Western powers. Few of them seriously doubt the extravagant claims of continued victories, because they have...