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VJ Day Open Thread: ‘My Father Served in World War II’(Tell Your Story)
bigjournalism.com ^ | Aug. 15, 2010 | Frank Ross

Posted on 08/15/2010 5:59:12 PM PDT by PROCON

Today is the 65th Anniversary of VJ Day, or Victory over Japan Day.

Did your Dad or other relatives serve against Japan in WWII?

(Excerpt) Read more at bigjournalism.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: vetscor; vetscorner; ww2; wwii
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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!

1 posted on 08/15/2010 5:59:15 PM PDT by PROCON
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To: PROCON

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.


2 posted on 08/15/2010 6:04:17 PM PDT by centurion316
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To: PROCON

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.


3 posted on 08/15/2010 6:04:35 PM PDT by Cloverfarm (This too shall pass ...)
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To: PROCON

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).


4 posted on 08/15/2010 6:06:32 PM PDT by calex59
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To: PROCON

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


5 posted on 08/15/2010 6:06:58 PM PDT by Biggirl (AZ Is DOING THE JOB The Feds Should Be Doing, ENFORCING The Southern Border! =^..^=)
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To: centurion316
Three generations of Combat Infantryman’s Badges and Purple Hearts.

Awesome!!

Thank you for your Service!!

6 posted on 08/15/2010 6:07:31 PM PDT by PROCON (Independence Day + 42, Let's see how long it lasts!)
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To: centurion316

Yes indeed! Thank you for your service!


7 posted on 08/15/2010 6:09:20 PM PDT by DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis
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To: PROCON
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.
8 posted on 08/15/2010 6:10:17 PM PDT by willk
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To: willk
He passed away in 1984 leaving me to regret not asking him more about his experiences.

Me too, FRiend..:=(

9 posted on 08/15/2010 6:12:02 PM PDT by PROCON (Independence Day + 42, Let's see how long it lasts!)
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To: PROCON

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


10 posted on 08/15/2010 6:13:04 PM PDT by HerrBlucher (In the White House the mighty White House the Liar sleeps tonight.............)
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To: PROCON
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!

11 posted on 08/15/2010 6:13:19 PM PDT by Texas4ever (God is in control!)
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To: PROCON

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.


12 posted on 08/15/2010 6:13:59 PM PDT by Retain Mike
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To: PROCON

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.


13 posted on 08/15/2010 6:14:36 PM PDT by duckworth (Perhaps instant karma's going to get you. Perhaps not.)
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To: PROCON
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!
14 posted on 08/15/2010 6:15:16 PM PDT by ConorMacNessa (HM/2 USN, 3/5 Marines, RVN '69 - St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle!)
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To: PROCON

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.


15 posted on 08/15/2010 6:15:26 PM PDT by Retain Mike
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To: PROCON

—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-—


16 posted on 08/15/2010 6:15:37 PM PDT by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the MSM tells you about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
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To: PROCON

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...


17 posted on 08/15/2010 6:16:14 PM PDT by hstacey (Army Mom...)
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To: Texas4ever
Great story!

Unfortunately, there aren't too many WWII vets left!..:=(

18 posted on 08/15/2010 6:16:20 PM PDT by PROCON (Independence Day + 42, Let's see how long it lasts!)
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To: PROCON

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.


19 posted on 08/15/2010 6:19:03 PM PDT by I_Like_Spam
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To: PROCON

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


20 posted on 08/15/2010 6:19:27 PM PDT by dennisw (2012)
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