Posted on 08/08/2022 9:35:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
After the ship left Okinawa, Dad’s Div Officer said the island of Japan would be much worst. The Wadsworth (DD516) will again be on the tip of the sword for the invasion.
My father was in Sasebo taking walking wounded prisoners to hospital ships in the harbor 3 weeks after Nagasaki was bombed. The USS Wadsworth, provided a Deuse.5 truck and took Dad and anyone off duty who wanted to see what the “new” bomb could do.
Dad never told any siblings he was in Nagasaki, the only reason he told me was because I was telling him about removing the reactor head for re-fueling and how the dose was less than the highest dose I got in the Navy. Then Dad asked me how much dose I think he got from his Nagasaki trip. I said Dad I never knew you were in Nagasaki, Dad shrugged his shoulders then recalled several descriptions from pristine countryside to devastation.
Dad died in 2001, 79yo from smoking - COPD, so the background rad was prob not too bad. He said that close to the city the people clearing the streets and salvaging equipment from the few remaining buildings had the look of death in their face. Those were prob the ones who hadn’t died from rad poisoning yet.
Dad was a firm believer that Truman saved his life and Truman’s decision saved millions of lives.
“The hell with allowing unconditional surrender, we should have kept dropping bombs until every rat-bastard was fried, boiled, or otherwise incinerated.”
_____________________________________________________________
Macoozie,
You’re really a hard boiled unforgiving extremist!
I REALLY LIKE THAT!
Their medical experiments on living human beings made Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz Death Camp’s, ANGEL OF DEATH, look like Mother Teresa!
My grandfather would have probably been one of those dead GI’s and I wouldn’t be here.
Truman and the entire joint chiefs would have been hunted and strung up for getting half a million GI’s get needlessly slaughtered.
The Tokyo fire bombing raid killed more civilians than the bombs.
Read Richard Frank’s book, “Downfall” concerns only the last few months of war in the Pacific and the decision to drop the Bombs.
+1
5.56mm
My uncle fought on Okinawa and knew he and others soldiers would be on the transports headed to Japan and knew their ticket would be punch d there.
Many grown men wept openly when they heard of the japs surrendered because of the bomb. Including my uncle.
They finally found their “safe space” /sarc.
Jon Stewart proves the nce again what an ignorant ass he is and pretending to care about American soldiers. I dare him to said that they were led by a war criminal?
“If we had not used the atomic bombs on Japan, my father would have likely been killed during the invasion and I would not have been born to post this. That’s about the size of it.”
Further to your point, if the atomic bombs had not been dropped on Japan, a more powerful one would have been used later in some other conflict. The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while firecrackers compared to weapons yet to come, demonstrated the destructive power of these weapons.
In the past, I have had Japanese students for the weekend. (I live in NE NJ) I usually took them on the Circle Line Tour to see Manhattan. (fun trip) The tour starts near a military boat that was destructive to Japan. One time I offered an apology that they had to see that ship and one time a student said “Oh -— we’ve forgiven you” I was speechless!
I worked with a guy who was on a ship waiting to invade Japan. He felt he was living on borrowed time and sat at his desk on Aug 6th crying about how close he came to dying.
Japanese Intransigence Provoked the Atomic Bombs
The Kokutai principle played a decisive role for Japanese surrender in August 1945. Influential Japanese lived within a spiritual/political fabric of Emperor, citizen, land, Bushido, ancestral spirits, government, and Shinto religion. Subjected to this authority average citizens forfeited individuality to a collective soul defining Japan and awaited the Empire’s decrees. With such national unity committed to Total War beneath the slogan of “Honorable Death of a Hundred Million” the atomic bombs were no longer indiscriminate or disproportional.
By January 1944 Hirohito foresaw inevitable defeat and appointed a Peace Faction. However, his government conducted political kabuki through twenty months of continuous defeats, fire bombings of over 60 cities, looming starvation, and 1.3 million additional Japanese deaths.
As the political factions reached impasse the atomic bombs allowed Hirohito to speak the “Voice of the Crane” in the sweltering palace bunker. The bombs became a force of nature; equivalent to an earthquake or typhoon against which even a god/king was impotent. Only Imperial submission to such a catastrophe could match the disgrace of surrender following 2,600 years of martial invincibility.
Only Hirohito could submit because he held the heaven created Imperial throne. He would bear the unbearable, conclude the war, and transform the nation. The War and Peace Factions could then relent, and no one would lose face. All remained within the fabric of Japanese from all eras who had sacrificed for Emperor and Empire. Only then did Japan contact Swiss and Swedish foreign offices to commence the negotiations leading to surrender.
Partial bibliography:
Hell to Pay, D. M. Giangreco
Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, David Bergamni
Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring, Gordon Prange
The Secret Surrender, Allen Dulles
Hirohito, Edward Behr
A quote by film director Akira Kurosawa illustrates the transformation of that generation of Japanese people, who before were resigned to the slogan “Honorable Death of a Hundred Million”.
“When I walked the same route back to my home (after the Emperor’s broadcast), the scene was entirely different. The people in the shopping street were bustling about with cheerful faces as if preparing for a festival the next day. If the Emperor had made such a call (to follow the above slogan) those people would have done what they were told and died. And probably I would have done likewise. The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self-sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life. We were accustomed to this teaching and had never thought to question it….In wartime we were like deaf-mutes.”
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, Herbert P. Bix
Well done.
No kidding. I haven’t even seen his name on toilet paper for a long time.
Good post.
Thank you.
It was obvious you have taken the time to seriously consider the issue.
On the other side of the “aisle” however, it is pretty apparent they never do.
LOL, my dad gave a speech back in 1995 (50th anniversary of the dropping of the bomb) on Memorial Day in our town, and made a comment that if we had more of those bombs, we should have used them earlier.
Next day in the paper: “US NAVY VETERAN SAYS WE SHOULD HAVE USED MORE A-BOMBS ON THE JAPANESE” or something like that.
I don’t think it bothered my dad much, though. He was one of those who would have likely been involved in Operation Downfall graduating as an Ensign at the beginning of July and heading to the West Coast.
When you cowardly sucker-punch a naval base of a super power, sometimes payback comes with compound interest. They got the sizzle, not the steak.
I believe it. These were strong men who already went through hell and were prepared to go through it again.
Not soi bois who got mayo instead of mustard on their hotdogs.
Greatest generation indeed.
He’s still a loser so you’re not missing anything.
If WW2 happened today the democrats would support Germany and Japan. They would hobble every step we would make to defeat the enemy. They are doing this now with allowing millions of illegals to invade our country.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.