Posted on 08/02/2014 8:08:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
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 war because Japan launched war, first against China in 1931, then with another sneak attack against China in 1937, and finally in December 1941 with sneak Japanese attacks against the US at Pearl Harbor and sneak attacks against the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in other areas of the Pacific.
It was during the war that the United States began to develop an atomic bomb, largely in response to the urging of Albert Einstein who warned President Roosevelt, in 1939, about Germany’s attempts to make an atomic weapon.
Japan was a tough enemy. Surrender was seen as more than even disgrace; it was a dishonor to the Japanese Emperor, who was the Japanese God. The Japanese were allies of the Nazis. Comparing the two, the Nazis were evil but also methodical. The Nazis were fanatical about only one thing; the elimination of the Jews, a practice they kept up to the literal ending of the war in Europe in May of 1945. The Germans were a tough enemy but they were, by World War II standards, in their military operations, somewhat practical especially when Hitler was ignored. Germans did surrender by the hundreds of thousands years before the war ended. This was not the case of Imperial Japan and in fact Japanese non surrender got worse the closer we got to the shores of Japan. The Japanese soldier was fighting not just for their buddy, their family, or their homeland; they were fighting for their God.
The United States was inching closer to Japan in early and mid-1945. The island campaigns of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, the latter an island of mere miles, resulted in tens of thousands of casualties. The Japanese began going beyond even fanatical resistance to suicidal resistance by crashing their planes into American ships. Even then there was no hope for Japan. American submarines had nearly run out of targets, having surrounded Japan, and were reduced to shelling fishing boats and even targets on land. American planes were firebombing Japanese cities into oblivion. Japan was alone and starvation was a realistic possibility but they would not give up. Japan would have to be invaded.
Operation Downfall was the code name for the invasion of Japan. It was to be the largest and deadliest military operation of all time. If you saw Saving Private Ryan, the first stage of the invasion of Japan, Operation Olympic, was projected to be twice as large and twice as bloody as the invasion of Europe on D Day. The second stage of the invasion of Japan, Operation Coronet, was to be almost three times as large as D day and with even greater casualties than the first phase of the invasion of Japan.
Unlike D Day, the topographic composition of Japan made the landing locations obvious. Japan knew where we were going to land and they were ready for this last stand. Even children were taught in the ways of the sword and the spear so they could kill at least one American before they too would die for their Emperor. This happened with Japanese children in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and throughout Japan.
To save American and Japanese lives and end the war, President Truman ordered the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Tens of thousands were instantly killed by the bomb dropped from the Enola Gay, the plane navigated by Maj. Van Kirk. The Japanese still did not surrender. Their military council was divided on surrendering. Three days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki also killing tens of thousands. More would die of radiation poisoning in years ahead.
The war council still was divided on surrendering but some Japanese officers looked to end the war and asked the Emperor to use his divine authority to stop the killing. The Soviet Union had entered the war against Japan, American planes were destroying what little was left of other Japanese cities, and an American POW told his captors that the next atomic bomb would be dropped on Tokyo.
It took the personal intervention of the Emperor to end the war. Even after their God had intervened and said to the Army that the war must end, some Japanese were not ready to give up. A group of Army officers launched a failed coup against the Emperor, ostensibly to save their God from shame. After the coup failed the Emperor spoke on radio to tell his people to surrender. It was the first time the Japanese people had ever heard his voice. Many of the Japanese soldiers who did not get the word from the Emperor continued to fight in isolated Pacific pockets until the mid-1970’s, almost 30 years after the end of the war.
Any argument from leftist leadership that we should not have used the bombs, against this fanatical an enemy, shows why leftist leadership is not fit to teach our students.
The leftists are fools when it comes to the atomic bomb debate. They argue that the bomb was dropped because of Soviet entry into the war on Japan on August 9, the day Nagasaki was bombed. What the leftists conveniently leave out is that the bomb was shipped to the Pacific before the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan and that the United States asked the Soviet Union to enter the war against Japan.
Another common leftist argument is the bombs were dropped in quick succession in order to stop the Soviet Union from invading Northern Japan. This argument is laughable because the bombs were dropped three days apart and then Truman put a halt on further usage after August 9, leaving five days between the dropping of the second bomb and the end of the war.
Finally, leftists say how could you kill so many people? This is a typical argument from those who have never had to make such a decision as Truman did or other decisions of life and death. Truman was faced with kill now and hopefully end the war or have even more killed on both sides by not using the bomb. (Leftists apparently forget that even their beloved Soviet Union entered the war against Japan. Soviet lives were saved too by Truman.)
This is what leftism does; it plants seeds in people leading them to believe that America is somehow responsible for all the evils in the world, even when America has achieved victory and done well. They will even do it even with World War II, which no sane person can argue with our participation in. They are shameful and are a disgrace to the generation that made it through the Depression and fought, and won, World War II.
Knowing leftist emotion, if the bomb had not been used on Japan, and millions of American casualties occurred, along with tens of millions of Japanese casualties, the leftists would say that we should have used the bomb to alleviate the suffering of the war. Such as the argument of those who were protected by the Enola Gay.
Ask any living soldier from the Pacific, and those were ready to be shipped there from Europe and the USA, who is still alive whether they were happy the bomb was dropped they will respond with “Thank God the bomb was dropped.”
President Truman was an independent thinker and not a man to be pushed around. His desegregation of the armed forces and recognition of the new State of Israel were evidence of that. He was also a combat veteran. He knew the carnage of war and understood that hard decisions need to be made in war.
It will be interesting to see where the history books, backed by their common core allies and government employee teachers, go with teaching the atomic bomb in years ahead. Before all the Veterans of World War II had even begun to die in large numbers, the leftist jargon against usage of the bomb began. They have spared not even Truman, though Truman was a democrat, for their blind rage knows no bounds. It will get worse once all of the generation that made it through the Depression, and won the war, have passed away.
This is why we should, loudly and boldly, teach that it was right to drop the bomb and why. This is why we should honor the military service of Theodore Van Kirk and those who dropped the atomic bombs. They saved the lives of many of our readers, in America, Japan, and elsewhere.
To Major Theodore Van Kirk we say thank you. It was a tough mission, but you can rest well. You saved countless lives. Welcome home from your final mission. Your comrades are waiting.
Hamas has (repeatedly) declared war on Israel. Last year, they announced that they would open "the Gates of Hell" to allow Israel to be destroyed.
OK.
The cure for this is not a cease fire.
The cure is to give them the war they crave, and give it to them until they don't want it any more.
“After Germany bombed Pearl, Japan then declared war on us.”
Was that when John Belushi was president?
Don’t start one with America, at least.
Unless you are of such high moral understanding that losing your position and maybe your life would be good for your fellow country men, since the USA loves to kick ass, as we send them some U.S. Male and afterward we’ll smile, buy the survivors drinks and ask “Hey, can we just get along now?” And then we rebuild the place.
One bomb to turn the place into Dresden seems more efficient than sending thousands of planes to do it and lose thousands of Americans.
What is the alternative to X and Y that I am obviously missing? It seems to me that X was dropping the bombs, which we did, and Y would have been a conventional invasion of Japan. What was Z; what was the other alternative to bring the war to a conclusion?
They weren’t yellow anymore after we dropped the bomb.
We turned em charcoal gray....
Had not the A bomb been used and the invasion which was already planned to begin with MacArthur in charge. Most of us elder folks, their would be children and grandchildren would not exist the fathers to be would have been killed. Of course some of these bleeding heart liberals and “feel gooders” would not be around either and that would have been a plus.
War is messy and many die, including women and children. Nations need to think hard before starting a conflict. The result is never good and never has been.
Thought he was the U.N. ambassador but, you may be right...
Thanks. Those were three of the most famous examples but I believe there were many others like them.
I read your critique and wonder where were you and what was your war standing as to use of the bombs. I was up front on Leyte preparing to get the job(end of the war) done.
I think they stand out because Japan could not win when they were fought. We had everything we needed during them, although during Peleliu and Iwo, fast attack carriers left the scene early reducing the numbers and types of aircraft suited for close support. Likely because of the impending Okinawa op and the fact that the defenses would have to be reduced by the artilleryman, engineer and finally the infantryman. I guess they were too stupid to see that had they remained, the Japanese would have been ‘easily’ rooted out by their actions.
Their Magic Thinking prevents them from reasoning things through.
I had a history teacher at a high school tell me we fought the Germans, not the Japanese in WWII. Sad.
“Mass murder is never right. Just BC we were in the winning side is not an excuse for not holding war crimes.”
As far as I can tell war IS mass murder. Slaughter. Butchery. Killing is killing.
Firebombing of German cities too. The deaths from the firebombings over the years killed far more civilians than the two bombs did.
The story is that an Allied bomb hit the barn of some farm near a German factory. That gave Hitler the excuse to send his V2 to London, as we had started attacking “civilians”. Not sure how true it is.
After the fighting on Okinawa(?), with Japanese civilians killing themselves, and military fighting to the death, many thought it would be the same on Japan. Lots of dead on both sides. But mainly Japanese.
Bookmarked
Iwo Jima was shelled by air and naval bombardment for three days covering the entire island and yet we still had 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead. It’s hard to imagine that a single ant could have survived the bombardment but the Japanese did and fought like hell for 35 days.
The argument that "the U.S. had to drop atomic bombs on Japan because an invasion of the Japanese mainland would have cost [thousand/millions/etc.] of lives of U.S. military personnel" is predicated on the assumption that an invasion of the Japanese mainland would have been necessary, or even a legitimate option at all.
I contend that there is a very unhealthy relationship between a citizen and his government when you have millions of servicemen who are willing to engage in this kind of military action just because some @ssholes in Washington, D.C. think it's a good idea. There is no principle of liberty in a free nation that would ever compel someone to follow orders like this without even being reflective about what was really at stake.
There's a reason why the same "Greatest Generation" that fought World War II oversaw the subsequent military debacles in Korea and (even worse) Vietnam, and was part and parcel of the moral and social collapse of America that began in the 1960s. Most of the leadership from that "Greatest Generation" was anything but.
“It would have been long-term but very inexpensive, especially in terms of American lives.”
A long-term fight would have seemed very expensive to the American GIs who were killed or maimed doing the fighting.
The American casualty rate in August 1945 was running 7,000 a week. Just 12 more weeks of war would have generated 84,000 American casualties, about equal to that of Hiroshima alone.
The Japanese fought harder as the war approached the home islands. In Okinawa civilians had been recruited to fight and they committed mass suicide as the island was conquered. American war planners understood that the fight for the home islands would be even more intense and the casualty rate would be even higher.
“There was no urgency to any ground invasion.”
And this is known to you how, exactly?
“Japan could have been blockaded at that point and the rest of its air forces and naval forces destroyed.”
This was the situation at Okinawa. I suggest that you read up on the fight for Okinawa and see how “easy” that went despite the Japanese being cut off from supplies.
“It was all over, but the Japanese war lords would not recommend surrender yet.”
I read an interesting article in the Rafu Shimpo on one of the atomic bomb anniversaries, it might have been the 50th. The day after Hiroshima the Emperor convened his war council. To discuss surrender? Of course not. He wanted to know how soon Japan could have its own bomb to drop on the American invaders.
But the Nagasaki bomb took the air out of this bravado. The Japanese had no idea of how many bombs that we had but figured out that the first one wasn’t a fluke. And that we would keep dropping them until we ran out or reloaded. Fortunately for all involved the Emperor and his warlords saw the light once it appeared to them in the form of mushroom clouds and they surrendered, something unimaginable only days before.
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