Posted on 08/09/2014 1:11:12 AM PDT by right-wing agnostic
Saturday marks the 66th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima – devastating acts that helped bring World War Two to a close. (Three days after Hiroshima, Nagasaki was similarly battered).
The attacks – the only time nuclear weapons have ever been used in world history to date – killed tens of thousands of people and shocked the planet with the scale of their destruction.
There has been much controversy over the decision to bomb Japan and some speculation that it might have been racially motivated (given that the U.S. military did not drop such weapons on European civilian targets).
Anti-Japanese discrimination was widespread in the United States long before the war, as exemplified by immigration restrictions the government imposed upon the Japanese (as well as other Asians).
However, the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by the Imperial Japanese military threw that animosity into overdrive that lasted well after the second world war.
About 120,000 Japanese-Americans were rounded up into internment camps during the war, while propaganda was mass- produced that depicted the Japanese as subhuman and extremely cruel and depraved.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
“... Prisoners took over the camp and organized, sending out scouting patrols that eventually met up with Americans on the ground near Nagasaki, through which the camp’s prisoners that could travel then evacuated by ship. ...”
Additionally, Imperial Japan maintained a large number of POW camps in Korea and mainland China. Word among US forces then preparing for invasion of the Home Islands, was that the Imperial government had already let the Allies know (by informal back-channel diplomatic contacts, one surmises) that the moment the first Allied soldier set one foot on the Home Islands, every last POW would be put to the sword.
The precipitous surrender evidently caught would-be POW executioners by surprise. But the Imperial Japanese were not above playing the victims even then: all camp guards and administrators outside the Home Islands instantly cut off what spare rations the POWs had been getting, stopped every bit of meager support and care they’d been providing. Allied authorities, properly alarmed, made vigorous protests but were told by Japanese counterparts, “Hey, we just surrendered to you. We’re the victims here! These people aren’t our problem. You figure it out.”
The Allies had not yet deployed any occupation forces to any spot that had been under Imperial Japanese control, and no matter how upset they might become, they were in no position to compel behavior by Japanese forces: “Feed those POWs or we’ll ... ???”
No Allied airlifter bases were sufficiently close to these camps to airlift supplies. Allied warships (submarines excepted) were many days’ steaming time from any coast in question, and in any case had no capability to airlift any supplies so far inland (carrier aircraft hadn’t the range nor load capabilities).
Every possibility loomed, that huge numbers of POWs might starve before rescuers could get there. What to do?
Then someone suggested it: use USAAF’s B-29s.
The largest bombers then in operation, they were the only aircraft with the range, payload, and numbers to get there, drop supplies, and come back.
And so the most powerful bomber force ever to drop munitions in anger loaded up and ventured forth on a mission of mercy to aid POWs, mere days after applying the last touches to the “rain of ruin from the air” President Truman had promised the Imperial Japanese.
“Never forget the internment camps for Japanese - Americans !”
sushiman ought to work on his own memory.
Some Italian-Americans were put in camps, circa 30,000.
By some accounts, Germans were too in slightly smaller numbers. A fair number of citizens of German descent still live, who lived through it all and were convinced that if they put a foot wrong, they’d get taken to a camp next. I’ve heard their stories direct from survivors.
If sushiman’s point is that the United States did not live up to its “ideals” during time of war, I concede. I remark only parenthetically that unpleasantness happens. The forum might already know:
1. Before WWII a number of nativist/heritage/solidarity groups existed, recruiting American descendents of immigrants, unapologetically proclaiming approval of and support for the actions of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. In no way can it be called idle fancy, to have suspected a Fifth Column threat from these groups.
Before America’s entry into the First World War, Arthur Zimmermann, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the government of Imperial Germany, told the American ambassador to Berlin that “We have half a million reservists already trained and inside your borders. Don’t try anything funny (like allying with Britain).” Pretending that every such sentiment and attitude was gone before 1941 would be foolhardy.
On 7 December 1941, an individual of Japanese descent was a foreman on a sugar plantation on one of the smaller Hawaiian islands. When he saw the Imperial Japanese Naval strike force fly by, he was heard to say, “It’s about time!” or something similar. With invasion imminent (by his reckoning), he pulled a gun and began ordering the workers about to welcome the IJN Marines. A burly native fieldworker proceeded to beat the guy to death. Sound crazy? I thought so too, but it appeared on History Channel some years ago; cited as evidence even the Left, which produces most of HC’s content, is unable to wish away.
2. The relocation to camps of Americans of Japanese descent was dreamed up by Franklin Roosevelt’s Brain Trust, approved by FDR, and prosecuted with zeal by Earl Warren. Yes, that’s the very same Earl Warren who later ascended to the Supreme Court. None of these guys could be confused with a backward-looking, benighted conservative.
3. Ugly things happen. They happen more often during wars. Repetitive? Possibly. It bears repeating, if only because such a large number of citizens still believe that wars can be done quickly, nicely, on the cheap, in a hurry, without blunders.
The Japanese-American camp situation has not been played up because anyone owns a sense of outrage, social justice, or fairness. It’s been done because the Left enjoys guilt pushing, and it became just one more way to extort cash from the public.
“Never forget the internment camps for Japanese - Americans !”
sushiman ought to work on his own memory.
Some Italian-Americans were put in camps, circa 30,000.
By some accounts, Germans were too in slightly smaller numbers. A fair number of citizens of German descent still live, who lived through it all and were convinced that if they put a foot wrong, they’d get taken to a camp next. I’ve heard their stories direct from survivors.
If sushiman’s point is that the United States did not live up to its “ideals” during time of war, I concede. I remark only parenthetically that unpleasantness happens. The forum might already know:
1. Before WWII a number of nativist/heritage/solidarity groups existed, recruiting American descendents of immigrants, unapologetically proclaiming approval of and support for the actions of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. In no way can it be called idle fancy, to have suspected a Fifth Column threat from these groups.
Before America’s entry into the First World War, Arthur Zimmermann, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the government of Imperial Germany, told the American ambassador to Berlin that “We have half a million reservists already trained and inside your borders. Don’t try anything funny (like allying with Britain).” Pretending that every such sentiment and attitude was gone before 1941 would be foolhardy.
On 7 December 1941, an individual of Japanese descent was a foreman on a sugar plantation on one of the smaller Hawaiian islands. When he saw the Imperial Japanese Naval strike force fly by, he was heard to say, “It’s about time!” or something similar. With invasion imminent (by his reckoning), he pulled a gun and began ordering the workers about to welcome the IJN Marines. A burly native fieldworker proceeded to beat the guy to death. Sound crazy? I thought so too, but it appeared on History Channel some years ago; cited as evidence even the Left, which produces most of HC’s content, is unable to wish away.
2. The relocation to camps of Americans of Japanese descent was dreamed up by Franklin Roosevelt’s Brain Trust, approved by FDR, and prosecuted with zeal by Earl Warren. Yes, that’s the very same Earl Warren who later ascended to the Supreme Court. None of these guys could be confused with a backward-looking, benighted conservative.
3. Ugly things happen. They happen more often during wars. Repetitive? Possibly. It bears repeating, if only because such a large number of citizens still believe that wars can be done quickly, nicely, on the cheap, in a hurry, without blunders.
The Japanese-American camp situation has not been played up because anyone owns a sense of outrage, social justice, or fairness. It’s been done because the Left enjoys guilt pushing, and it became just one more way to extort cash from the public.
I hadn't heard that. The Japs did deploy flea bombs against the Chinese, however.
They also launched some 9300 balloon-born firebombs into the jet stream flowing across to North America, the intent being to ignite forest fires and cause general mayhem. The journey was expected to take three days. The balloons had a control system that vented hydrogen if the balloon got too high and cut loose ballast if it got too low and to release the payload after three days. The Japs expected about ten percent of the balloons to make it, and at least 300 did.
On March 10, 1945, one of the balloons caused a power outage affecting the Hanford nuclear reactor cooling system, but a backup system took over.
On May 5, 1945, another balloon caused the only fatalities of the war in the continental US. Elsie Mitchell and five children were killed when they came upon a balloon bomb while looking for a picnic spot in the Oregon woods.
And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street!
Yep, sorry Oregon not Colorado.
The other point was Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa was a prelude to an attack on the Japanese mainland. Bitter and brutal with heavy American losses. The Japs would have fought mercilessly to the death for every foot of land.
As long as you don’t call it an ‘Atomic Bomb’ - a truly useless designation.
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