Free Republic

LITTLE ROCK -- As the country observed the 70th anniversary of V-J Day, a new generation may have to be reminded what V-J stands for -- Victory Over Japan -- and all it took. The years of personal sacrifices and national unity, the courage and perseverance ... all the costs of war to the living and the dead. Arkansas's governor, Asa Hutchinson, presided over this year's observance of the anniversary at the state Capitol, and looked back at a different time when war united instead of dividing us: "That is what was unique about World War II," the governor told...

LONDON, United Kingdom – Today HM The Queen attended a memorial service in central London to mark the 70th anniversary of victory over Japan in World War II. She was guest of honor despite the media having uncovered a plot to blow up the event and kill her. Her attendance at St Martin-In-The-Field church was in sharp contrast to President Barack Obama who did not appear to be commemorating American efforts to defeat the Japanese. Instead he chose to release a list of his favorite songs on the music website Spotify. A move that is likely be seen as disrespectful...

This week was the 70th anniversary of the United States nuking Hiroshima and as expected, there has been plenty of second guessing, attacks on America, and claims that nuking the Japanese wasnÂ’t necessary. Understandably perhaps, thatÂ’s how the Japanese feel. I can tell you that with certainty because back in 2008, the Japanese equivalent of PBS flew me out to New York to be part of an online discussion between a crowd of Americans and a group of people from Hiroshima. Again, perhaps understandably, the tone from the people of Hiroshima was very self-pitying. They asked us to look at...

After long and difficult negotiations, an agreement was recently concluded in Vienna between Iran and six Western powers, including the United States, to curb that nation’s nuclear weapons program. The discussions highlight two stark facts: First, that however difficult the negotiations, implementing the terms of the agreement will be equally if not more challenging. And second, that atomic weapons are relatively easy to manufacture by nations with sufficient scientific and technological expertise. On this last point, it is worthwhile remembering the events of 70 years ago in order to better understand the issues of today. On August 6 and 9,...

Adolf Hitler started World War II by attacking Poland on September 1, 1939. Nazi Germany moved only after it had already remilitarized the Rhineland, absorbed Austria and dismantled Czechoslovakia. Before the outbreak of the war, Hitler's new Third Reich had created the largest German-speaking nation in European history. Well before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese government had redrawn the map of Asia and the Pacific. Japan had occupied or annexed Indochina, Korea, Manchuria and Taiwan, in addition to swaths of coastal China. Attacking Hawaii, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia was merely the logical 1941 follow-up...

Okinawa's ground battle began April 1, 1945, when four American divisions simultaneously assaulted the 65-mile-long island. With two U.S. Marine and two U.S. Army divisions debarking, the attack was one of the Pacific theater's largest amphibious assaults. U.S. commanders, however, were planning another Pacific D-Day, one that would far exceed Okinawa and the Philippines' invasions in scope, complexity and -- yes -- casualties. That would be the war-concluding assault on Japan's home islands. Okinawa's 660 square miles provided America with a big logistics dump and staging area only 350 miles from Kyushu's Southern tip. Japanese leaders knew defeating the U.S....

About how America became involved in certain wars, many conspiracy theories have been advanced -- and some have been proved correct. When James K. Polk got his declaration of war as Mexico had "shed American blood upon the American soil," Rep. Abraham Lincoln demanded to know the exact spot where it had happened. And did the Spanish really blow up the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor, the casus belli for the Spanish-American War? The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, involving U.S. destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy, remains in dispute. But charges that North Vietnamese patrol boats had attacked U.S. warships...

Winston Churchill disparaged Operation Anvil-Dragoon, the Aug. 15, 1944 Allied "second D-Day" invasion of Southern France. Churchill joked that he was "dragooned" into an unnecessary invasion. D-Day, June 6th, had breached Fortress Europe. A French Riviera "pincer" was folly. However, the Allied senior commanders who dragooned the Prime Minister obeyed an old military axiom: Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals study logistics. The Germans destroyed Normandy's Port Cherbourg and blocked Antwerp. Supplies over beaches barely met daily needs. The George Patton-led U.S. 3rd Army's August 1944 armored dash stretched supply capacities. Patton's high tempo strike at the Reich required more gas...

This week Major Theodore Van Kirk, the last surviving Veteran of the Enola Gay that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan, joined the rest of his comrades. His passing is a reminder of why using the atomic bomb was the right thing. In August 1945 the Allied Powers, led by the United States, were at war with Imperial Japan in the latter days of World War II. Japan would not give up. For every ten thousand Japanese soldiers that were killed by the Allies only a minuscule amount gave up; usually in the single digits. We were at...

Seventy years ago—July 23, 1944—signs suddenly appeared at prisoner of war camps in Germany: “ESCAPE FROM PRISON CAMPS IS NO LONGER A SPORT.” Those signs meant the Gestapo had murdered 50 escapees from Stalag Luft III. A terrific film you might watch this summer, “The Great Escape” (1963), commemorates that heroic-turned-tragic adventure. Let’s review the reality, the movie, and the metaphor. The reality: A 33-year-old British air force squadron leader, Roger Bushell, organized the great escape. As “Big X” of the camp escape committee, he proposed that the prisoners dig not one but three tunnels—Tom, Dick, and Harry—so if...

Nearly 70 years ago, on Aug. 1, 1944, Lieutenant General George S. Patton took command of the American Third Army in France. For the next 30 days they rolled straight toward the German border. Patton almost did not get a chance at his summer of glory. After brilliant service in North Africa and Sicily, fellow officers -- and his German enemies -- considered him the most gifted American field general of his generation. But near the conclusion of his illustrious Sicilian campaign, the volatile Patton slapped two sick GIs in field hospitals, raving that they were shirkers. In truth,...

Sometime during the spring of 1944, Allied commanders concluded that their air forces had secured air superiority over an area stretching from Great Britain to central France as well as parts of Belgium and Holland. Driving the German Luftwaffe from western European skies was a costly process paid for with the blood of Allied airmen. Though there was no definitive "air superiority" moment, Allied intelligence confirmed pilot reports. Over France, the Luftwaffe had little stomach for a dogfight. With a few teeth-clenching exceptions (the Korean War's MiG Alley battles), since 1944, American land, sea and air forces have enjoyed...

Seventy years ago this June 6, the Americans, British and Canadians stormed the beaches of Normandy in the largest amphibious invasion of Europe since the Persian king Xerxes invaded Greece in 480 B.C. About 160,000 troops landed on five Normandy beaches and linked up with airborne troops in a masterful display of planning and courage. Within a month almost a million Allied troops had landed in France and were heading eastward toward the German border. Within 11 months the war with Germany was over. The western front required the diversion of hundreds of thousands of German troops. It weakened...

Saturday the 7th of December will mark the seventy-second anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The commemoration of that “date which will live in infamy” brings up memories of more than Pearl Harbor but of the entire American effort in World War II: of the phenomenal production of planes and tanks and munitions by American industry; of millions of young men enlisting (with thousands lying about their age to get into the service); of the men who led the war, then and now seeming larger than life—Churchill and F.D.R., Eisenhower and MacArthur, Monty and Patton; and of the...