Lamh Foistenach Abu! 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.
The bombs actually saved more Japanese lives than Americans and allies. The invasion of Japan would have seen bloodshed on an unimaginable scale.
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.
Lamh Foistenach Abu! 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.
—uncle, now 92 spent some time (sixty missions,IIRC), over Burma in a B-24 based in India-—dropped lots of high explosives on Jap installations-—
My father served in WWII, in I think, the 1st Cav....He was in the battle of the hedge rows and recieved a bronze star. He never talked to me about his experiences there but when he died my aunt told me some of his stories...Wow...
My father, now deceased, served in the North Atlantic during WWII. The army broke up his outfit after VE Day.
He was home on leave when the bomb was dropped and was quite relieved that the war was over and he wouldn’t have to participate in the invasion of Japan.
So instead of spending that fall on the beaches of Honshu, he was getting processed out of the Army at Indiantown Gap.
My father was in the army and was a diesel mechanic for the supply trains. His unit served under General Patton when he stormed across France. Later on he was sent to Aroostook county (potatoes land and very cold) Maine to serve as a guard in a German POW camp. The prisoners were kept busy cutting down trees and at the trades. One prisoner crafted an exquisite hope chest that is still in the family
From time to time a POW would escape and would eventually be found working in a German restaurant in Boston or NYC. There was no heavy punishment for escaping, it was treated as a joke. This was late in the war when everybody knew Germany was going to be defeated
His ship picked up the American POWs and carried them back to an island with a hospital. They gave them shorts and a t shirt and burned the clothes they had been wearing. Many of them died on the short trip, only a day or two after finally being freed. It was an image that he could see and describe clearly even after 50 years.
God and the war then changed his life again. He caught malaria in the Philippines, which disqualified him from his life long goal of becoming a missionary to China.
While he was still in seminary my Dad started his first church under a tree in a small town in Mississippi. It was the first of over 50 he started, most of which are still active and thriving.
My uncle, who was 13 years older, had become a pilot in the Army Air Corps in the late 1930s. He served throughout WWII and Korea and retired a Colonel in the Air Force.
All his and my mom's letters back and forth were saved. My father wrote shortly before Hiroshima that they were looking at his being in active duty until 1948; i.e., 3 more years.
I've got a collection of letters, mostly sailors, from WWII. One served in the Mariana Islands, wrote that he never knew war could be so awful. I found him and called a few years back, had a good life after the war, said they ran a laundry and organized all the island's population to help. He wouldn't have knows the purpose of the airstrip being built just that something was going on and heavy earth moving equipment, think that got censored.
The above sailor wrote constantly about his girlfriend he'd left behind, made plans. It sustained him. I asked if he married her when he returned home. It turns out that he was Catholic and her father Orthodox and threatened to kill her if she married him. So he married another girl and had a happy marriage, lived in one of the nice suburbs of Chicago. Many of the letters had pieces cut out (censorship), and think they didn't need stamps, used the "franking privilege". Most were postmarked APO with the date and time like some still are now.
Another soldier it was interesting, served at the makeshift hospital in Yokohama which had been a school and where Tojo was brought after his suicide attempt, also the names on the mimeographed schedule for that time. I have a card adressed to Tojo as Your Imperial something enclosed with some fruit. The orderly asked if he could have the card, and Tojo nodded yes. Tojo refused to speak English but was polite. One American soldier gave a live transfusion to save Tojo's life. Then we know what happened to him a couple years later.
Most were routine, one wrote way before Pearl Harbor that he couldn't understand why they were painting the ship black and going out at night with the lights off. That was about May, so that tells me somebody expected something.
Another poignant one was from a poor sailor about to invade an island who was panicked, said some words to the effect that he never expected anything to do anything like that.
One common thread among the more mundane ones was so many were in sick bay with reactions to the vaccine(s) they'd been given.
I've known this modest man since 1994, and I only learned of his service when I was reading an archive copy of the June 4th, 1944 issue of The Toledo Blade and saw a story about his DSC. He was called, he served, and he came home to our little town to live out his life in peace, the peace he helped to restore.
These men were a breed apart.
Those guys were a breed apart - even in their old age they radiated strength & good humor. It was an honor to have met some of them.