My dad was on Okinawa, preparing for a land invasion of the Japanese islands.
I wonder if I would even be here without Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
My dad was a Bataan Death March and 4 year death camp survivor. In any invasion the POWs would have been the first to be shot to free the guards up for defense.
Those who were not there haven’t a clue.
Mitsuo Fuchida, a Japanese captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and a bomber aviator in the Japanese navy before and during World War II. He is perhaps best known for leading the first wave of air attacks on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
“You did the right thing. You know the Japanese attitude at that time, how fanatic they were, they’d die for the Emperor ... Every man, woman, and child would have resisted that invasion with sticks and stones if necessary ... Can you imagine what a slaughter it would be to invade Japan? It would have been terrible. The Japanese people know more about that than the American public will ever know.”
My father was hospitalized after having been wounded on Okinawa, but he would have been healed in time to take part in the invasion of Japan if that had been needed. He had no doubt that Truman was right to use the atomic bomb.