[Tax-chick]

My great-uncle, after combat all across the Pacific, including New Guinea, Philippines, and Okinawa, was going to be in the first wave to hit Japan.

He said they told him his unit would take “at least” 95% casualties ... probably just because you’re probably going to have one fluke survivor somehow, if the unit’s big enough.

[fatnotlazy]

My dad served in Europe and North Africa. He had orders for the Pacific theater, but as he and the other men were about to ship out, the bomb was dropped, the war was over and obviously, Dad and his unit were spared from having to fight over there. His brother was already on the ship headed for the Philippines. Then the order came to turn back — the war was over.

My parents and relatives from that generation always credited President Truman with making the difficult and necessary decision to drop the bomb. As a result, many GI lives were saved.

Ok, Truman was a Democrat. But unlike the pseudo Democrat (communist) in the White House today, Truman could make the hard decisions without worrying about what do-gooders and other whiners think.