Posted on 07/15/2015 5:10:30 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
The News of the Week in Review
Fifteen News Questions – 13
Agenda for Big Three Conference: One World (by Herbert L. Matthews) – 14-15
“Meeting of the Architects” (cartoon) – 15
Japan’s Homeland Struck by Air and Sea (map) – 16
Air Lessons of Europe Used in Bombing Japan (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 17
Senate to Avoid Rows to Speed Charter Vote (by James B. Reston) – 18
“No Talk – Unconditional Surrender” (cartoon) – 19
Answers to Fifteen News Questions – 19
The Charter: Four Views (cartoons) – 20-21
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/6/15.htm
July 15th, 1945 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The West End lights up again, ending over 2,000 nights of blackout and dim-out.
BELGIUM: Brussels: King Leopold repeats his refusal to abdicate.
FRANCE: SHAEF is disbanded. (Jean Beach)
SINGAPORE: Submarine HIJMS I-502 (ex-U-862) commissioned. (DS)
JAPAN: During the night of 15/16 July, XXI Bomber Command B-29s fly one mining and one bombing mission without loss.
- Mission 269: 26 B-29s mine waters at Naoetsu and Niigata, Japan and Najin, Pusan, and Wonsan, Korea; one other mines an alternate target.
- Mission 270: 59 B-29s bomb the Nippon Oil Company at Kudamatsu and the facility is almost completely destroyed; three others hit alternate targets.
- 104 Iwo Jima-based P-51s attack airfields and other tactical targets at Meiji, Kagamigahara, Kowa, Akenogahara, Nagoya, and Suzuko, Japan claiming 13-4-20 aircraft in the air and on the ground; three P-51s are lost.
58 Far East Air Forces B-24s hit airfields at Tomitaka and Usa. 25 B-24s pound Kikaiga-shima, Amami Islands, Miranoura on Yaku-shima, Osumi Islands, and an airfield on Tamega Island.
The home islands of Japan are attacked by the US Navy.
- Hundreds of carrier-based aircraft of Task Force 38 (TF 38) attack air bases, shipping and rail targets on Hokkaido and northern Honshu Islands, Japan; 23 Japanese ships are sunk. After the attacks, TF 38 withdraws to refuel.
- Task Unit 34.8.2 (Rear Admiral Badger) with battleships IOWA, MISSOURI, WISCONSIN, light cruisers DAYTON and ATLANTA, and eight destroyers bombard the steel and iron works at Muroran, Hokkaido, firing 860 rounds. (Keith Allen)
U-181, in Japanese hands since May 6, 1945 is renamed as I 501. U-195, in Japanese hands since May 6, 1945 was renamed as I 506. U-219, in Japanese hands since May 6, 1945 is renamed as I 505. (DS)
CANADA: Corvettes HMCS Timmins and Thorlock paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.
Corvette HMCS Midland and HMC ML 083 paid off Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Kamaishi (the name means "kettle stone") had been producing iron and steel since the beginning of Japan's industrialization in the 1860s; it's discussed here, though you'll have to scroll up one page in the book to read the whole thing. The iron works themselves would have easily been within striking distance of carrier planes; with large enough guns they might have been hit by destroyers.
I did read somewhere that the planes targeted the steel mills, but the concussions from the bombing started kitchen fires that would have destroyed the town.
“Carry out your agreement and you won’t get talked to like that.”
Too bad Harry was a democrat.
Mitsubishi, the first company owning up to enslaving POWs, although without monetary reparations.
I think Mitsubishi waited 70 years to let nature take its course to resolve all those messy reparations issues.
How cynical. They actually have hearts of gold. It just took that long for their paperwork to filter through their bureaucracy. Every i crossed and every t dotted, or however they do it in Japanese, doncha know.
Fascinating account.
I’d never heard of that either.
BTW, I got a retweet from Gary Sinese, which pushed my views count to over 12k in a few hours.
かよー @kayo_bi 2m2 minutes ago
かよー retweeted Dirk Deardorff
こないだニュースでやってた、釜石が戦時中に攻撃受けたっていう話の、アメリカ側の記事かな？これ？
何書いてあるかは、さっぱりわからんが。
かよー added,
Dirk Deardorff @dwdeardorff
@USNavy @GarySinise @WWIIToday @WWIImuseum 7/15/45: 3rd Fleet attacks Japan-pgs 2-3 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3312059/posts …
Indeed, they probably employed that one-finger typing ploy used by Ambassador Nomura to delay the final ultimatum, a couple hours before Pearl Harbor:-0
Way cool, Homer. It’s too bad in a way, though. You should have had 12K reading these threads every day for the past six or seven years.
(Has it really been that long?)
Admiral Shafroth, commander of the Hokkaido bombardment squadron, was part of a distinguished Denver family. John Sr. was a Michigan Law graduate from Missouri who decided to go West to make his fortune and was an early pioneer. He became a Congressman, Governor and Senator. John Jr. attended the Naval Academy and became a career officer. Other Shafroths were or are still active in the community and the practice of law.
I have discovered in reading these threads an awful lot of interesting things happened in the War that I didn’t know from reading the standard histories.
So, by now that was a well-practiced endeavor. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Ec. 1:9
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