VJ Day Open Thread: ‘My Father Served in World War II’(Tell Your Story)

My Dad, who has been gone for 22 years served with the Army in the Pacific, with the 81st Infantry "Wildcat" Division, during WWII.

He told me countless stories of the brutality and inhumanity of the Japanese soldier.

My point:

The 2 Atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima were justifiable to end the atrocities, and it saved the lives of countless other American soldiers, sailors and marines who might of otherwise invaded the Japanese mainland!

My father served with the 63d Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division in New Guinea and Luzon. He was wounded in action on Luzon in April, 1945. We both served in Vietnam and his grandson served two tours of duty in Iraq.

Three generations of Combat Infantryman’s Badges and Purple Hearts.

My Uncle Giles joined the Navy at 17 in November, 1941. He served in the Pacific. After the war, he came home, returned to high school and graduated in my dad’s class. I think my uncle was at Coral Sea and Midway

My dad idolized my uncle. One of the few times I saw my dad cry was when “Anchors Aweigh” was played at my uncle’s funeral.

Japanese atrocities were no secret to us. We heard all about their atrocities against the Chinese and also about the Bataan death march.

I think I’ve done my duty and told the kids about the imperial Japanese — they sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind at the end of the war.

My Favorite Uncle was a Captain of Marines during the War. I don’t know what outfit he was with, he never said, but I suspect the 4th Marine Div. He was retired with a medical discharge, the results of some strange tropical disease that I never knew the name of(not malaria).

Yes, in the Coast Guards, during WW II, on the ship the Ambrose.

Three generations of Combat Infantryman’s Badges and Purple Hearts.

Awesome!!

Thank you for your Service!!

Yes indeed! Thank you for your service!

My Dad served on the destroyer USS Perkins and the cruiser USS Oakland. He saw action in many of the main battles in the Pacific. His ship (the USS Oakland) was also in a typhoon. He passed away in 1984 leaving me to regret not asking him more about his experiences.

He passed away in 1984 leaving me to regret not asking him more about his experiences.

Me too, FRiend..:=(

The bombs actually saved more Japanese lives than Americans and allies. The invasion of Japan would have seen bloodshed on an unimaginable scale.

My family and I was at a restaurant the other day and after my son (16) went to the bathroom, he mentioned there was a man sitting in the front with a WWII hat on. My son asked me if I thought he was in WWII or just wearing a hat. I told him the man is old enough to have been in WWII,so after dinner, I told my kids we are going and thank him. Ok, they are teens and were a bit apprehensive, but I walked up and it seemed those in the booth with him knew what I was about to ask. I said sir, my son noticed your hat and we wanted to know if you served in WWII, he say “Yes, I most certainly did” I told him we wanted to thank him. I then asked him where, he said in Europe for two years. He was just a boy, 18 and the second year “he took one in the chest”. I wanted him to go on....everyone around us was listening, and the woman across the table who I assume was his daughter had this look like she was so proud of her father. I asked him if he had written the events somewhere, his daughter(?) shook her head no, almost regretful, this beautiful, kind and peaceful looking gentleman, said “ I really just want to forget”. How could I be so insensitive......I told him, I was sorry, but I hope we never forget their courage and their service.....He then said “we wont as long as folks like you keep telling your children” I was so proud, I wanted to hug him, but I knew that would not be right, so I just shook his hand, my daughter and my son did as well. As we were walking out, my 16 year old son said “that was so cool”.

God Bless our wonderful Veterans! I WILL NEVER FORGET!

Every year I shop a newly wordsmithed revision of this oped about, but no luck yet. This year the the Washington Times published a highly compressed version, seemed a feelings piece without the analysis. Anyway, here is the latest full version.

Dropping Japan Atomic Bombs Unavoidable

We recently marked the 65th anniversary for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WW II, and must listen to the revisionists expound on what a tragic and profoundly immoral decision was made. However, advocates for these seminal events often cite avoiding the catastrophic casualties unavoidable if troops landed on the home islands. People extrapolate from 48,000 American and 230,000 Japanese losses at Okinawa to 500,000 American and millions of Japanese casualties for mainland invasions.

Those estimates could have vastly understated causalities. Japan at 374,000 mountainous square miles mathematically enables over 500 defensive redoubts comparable to that General Ushijima’s constructed to inflict most losses for the Okinawa invasion. Also, the Japanese planned as stubborn defenses of their cities as the Russians had maintained in Stalingrad and Leningrad.

The War Faction adopted the motto of “100 million Japanese deaths” for planning the final mainland battles. Besides kamikazes, redeployed Kwantung divisions from China, and bamboo spears for civilians, allies faced biological warfare. Occupation searchers uncovered large stockpiles of viruses, spirochetes, and fungus spores throughout rural Japan. These biological pathogens had already been tested on Chinese civilians. For Japan one delivery plan directed Japanese to infect themselves then surrender. The “Greatest Generation” and their parents would have been enraged to discover a cabal indulged personal moral orthodoxy by condemning over 500,000 Americans who might otherwise have been saved.

I have not seen mentioned the critical role Kokutai played in surrender. Any prominent Japanese lived out this spiritual combination of Emperor, citizen, land, ancestral spirits, government, and Shinto religion. Hirohito foresaw the inevitability of defeat and had appointed a “Peace Faction” in January 1944. However, he and advisors debated through twenty months of continuous defeats, fire bombings of over 60 cities, and 1.3 million additional Japanese deaths. The atomic bombs removed the “Final Battles” argument, allowing the “War Faction” to relent, Hirohito to assume his unprecedented roll, and no one to lose face. They remained within the fabric of Japanese from all eras who had sacrificed for Emperor and Empire.

People say Japan was in the process of surrendering, but Japanese negotiation initiatives proved too vacuous to make dropping the atomic bombs unnecessary. Supposed negotiations cite proposals Foreign Minister Togo directed Ambassador Sato to offer Molotov. Japan intended achieving Russia neutrality with incentives including conquered Chinese territory, and thereby have it mediate settlement for Imperial visions of “peace with honor”. The first June 29 contacts ignored surrender with proposals the Russians considered too vague to answer. The August 2 proposals accepted the Potsdam Declaration as one basis for further study regarding terms. When Ambassador Sato finally saw Molotov on August 8, two days after Hiroshima, he received a war declaration instead of answers to his latest proposals. U.S. cryptologists reading “Magic” confirmed even Sato considered Togo’s Russian contacts ineffectual. Other contacts like those by Admiral Fujimura and Kojimo Kitamura with Allen Dulles in Switzerland lacked Cabinet knowledge.

The Japanese Cabinet debated the “Final Battles” arguments into utter physical and mental exhaustion for eleven hours following the Nagasaki bomb on August 9. In the final meeting of Hirohito and his Cabinet, Barron Hiranuma reproved Foreign Minister Togo for never making concrete proposals to the Russians. Minister Togo had no answer.

At impasse Hirohito, the god-king, spoke the “Voice of the Crane” in the 30’ by 18’ sweltering, underground bunker. He would bear the unbearable, conclude the war, and transform the nation. Only then did Japan contact Swiss and Swedish foreign offices to commence negotiations with allied belligerents.

A final point says the bombs accomplished little. Supposedly Roosevelt’s decree of unconditional surrender was compromised away by allowing Japan to keep their Emperor. However, Imperial Japan abandoned its heritage by accepting the Potsdam Declaration provisions demanding the Emperor’s and government’s authority be subject to the Supreme Allied Commander. The Japanese people’s free expression would determine ultimate government, eradicating multi-millennial Imperial characteristics. An approximate Western historical disruption would be displaying the bones of Jesus at the Vatican.

My dad, whose funeral was a year ago today, was a medic (pharmacists mate second class) at the Aeia Naval Hospital in Honolulu. He helped lots of guys who were dying and chopped up. Never talked much about it. In his later years he was pretty much anti-war.

My father enlisted on his 18th birthday (28FEB1945)in the Navy - he went to radioman school and was serving in a clerical position when the war ended. But for the dropping of the A-Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he would have been deployed for the invasion of Japan. Had that occurred, I probably would never have been born. As it was, my father was called up in the Korean War after having gone to college under the GI Bill, and served on a destroyer, USS Borie, DD-704 - which cleared the minefields for the Inchon landing. He then stayed in the Navy, was commissioned in the Medical Service Corps and served until 1969, when he retired. He was on the ground in Vietnam in 1964-65. His last official act in the Navy was to present me with my Purple Heart on 25Aug1969, about an hour before his retirement ceremony. We are all very proud of him, and obviously endorse the dropping of the bombs. The Japanese sowed the wind at Pearl Harbor and reaped the whirlwind at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Their atrocities are worthy of unusual note. Rape of Nanjing, Bataan Death March - Kamikazes - I could go on at length. The bombs were a quick and necessary end to the war - saved untold numbers of American as well as Japanese lives.

Lamh Foistenach Abu!