Posted on 08/06/2011 4:13:19 PM PDT by Shalmaneser
“After Biak the enemy withdrew to deep caverns.
Rooting them out became a bloody business which reached its
ultimate horrors in the last months of the war.
You think of the lives which would have been lost in an invasion of Japan’s home islands
– a staggering number of Americans but millions more of Japanese..."
(Excerpt) Read more at brucelewis.com ...
And a democrat president who made that decision, yet.
My dad was a radioman Marine who trained on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. He was on an invasion troop ship steaming to Japan when the bombs dropped. Instead of invading, he became part of the occupation force. My Mom’s wedding dress was made from a silk parachute for their 1947 wedding. Both gone now and I miss them terribly. Thank God for the bombs.
I have interviewed dozens of WWII vets who served in the Pacific Theater and each one of them, without fail, has indicated that had the atomic bombs NOT been dropped they would not be there then to talk about their life experiences in the war. They knew the Japanese military and society were capable of tremendous levels of self-sacrifice (i.e sepuku whilst taking out an American GI) for the Emperor. They thanked the Air Force for dropping the bomb and for the Japanese for finally coming to their senses.
don’t forget about the 100,000’s of American, British, Australian POW’s never mind innocent Chinese families that were dying yearly as they were worked to death as slave labor across indochina, burma, siam, nanking, etc....
What is your source for the list?
they actually made two copies of the recording by hiroheto announcing surrender- they had to hide the recordings overnight as they tried to assassinate the emperor’s keeper who had hid the recordings for safe measure so they could be broadcast the following day....forget about the fact jap planes attacked the next day- japs butchered 100’s of American POW’s held in camps in anger when they got word of the surrender...the Russians were more concerned about total surrender by japan then the emperor, which is why they would’ve massacred the Japs- they wanted the Japs out of what would soon be communist controlled Chinese territory...
if Jap atrocities were broadcast the way nazi atrocities are still broadcast today, Japan would be a third world country...
“The last one surrendered in 1974”
I recall seeing that reported on the evening news when it happened.
Demanding little creatures.
Harry Truman - probably the last, truly, citizen President.
Thank you for that courageous post.
“Hiroshima, we did it once, we can do it again.”
Actually, we did. It was called Nagasaki.
As a friend once said, “No more Hiroshimas? Easy. No more Pearl Harbors.”
The Japanese had up to 5000 zeros held in reserve on the home islands. The civilians were being armed with bamboo spears and satchel charges.
Invasion plans called for using atomic bombs to blow open beachheads then pour troops through.
The estimates of a million US and millions of Japanese dead are entirely plausible.
“The last one surrendered in 1974”
I remember that news clip, too. I remembered thinking that this guy would have had no idea about all that had happened in the world since 1945. The looked a bit stunned overall. I wondered what he’d be like in about a month.
I only see a couple of folks you call fools who opposed the Bomb.
The Navy rejected and refused to take part in any invasion of Japan read your history.
Ike hated Truman and knew he would be elected POTUS just because took the liberal stand to insure his election.
1. The jackass Douglass MacArthur (dude who got more of our
men killed than any field general in WWII)
2. Curtis LeMay (what can you say)
3. a couple ding bat liberal goverment critters.
4. The rest lost jobs because the war ended!
Its possible Japan would have been turned into a waste land for years to come with very few Japanese left alive.
Don’t forget the Japanese had the most advanced biological and chemical weapons program in the world at that time. They spent years perfecting it in China. I have no doubt they would have used these weapons on Allied invaders.
Also, the original plan for the invasion of Japan included dropping two Atomic bombs on the most southern of the Japanese mainland islands prior to the invasion. Imagine that: Two Atomic weapons detonated to clear the beaches and then into that radioactive mess the invasion force would land.
A further plan was to continue to hit Japan with Atomic weapons prior to landing invasion forces as they moved North.
Now toss in the Russians coming in from the North and their scorched earth policy.
I’m convinced Japan would have been a smoking ruin from one end to the other.
Suspect ol' Harry would be considered damn near a right wing extremist these days.............
Let me pose a general question...
If the Japs had the bomb in 1945, do you think for a moment they would have hesitated using it on the US???
The Emperor should have been hanged with Tojo..
Son of a Flying Tiger who swept the Japs from Chinese airspace.
In the book ‘ The Last train from Hiroshima’. The story is told of a ground zero survivor, he lost his glasses and then realized he could now see without them. The blast had cured his eye sight. He left Hiroshima for Nagasaki and survived the attack there as well !
Certainly true.
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