Posted on 11/14/2009 4:32:27 PM PST by OldDeckHand
Barack Obama: you can dress him up, but you can't take him out. Every time he goes abroad, he embarrasses himself and sells out his country.
In Japan today, Obama gave a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama. He was asked this question, for which he was unaccountably unprepared:
"And to President Obama, you are a proponent of a nuclear-free world, and you've stated, first of all, you would like to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki while in office. Do you have this desire? And what is your understanding of the historical meaning of the A-bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Do you think that it was the right decision?"
To understand how stumbling and ill-prepared Obama's response was, you really have to watch the video. In the end, the reporter repeats the question, did the U.S. do the right thing in bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki? And Obama refuses to answer:
Here's the key part of the transcript:
"... Now, obviously Japan has unique perspective on the issue of nuclear weapons as a consequence of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And that I'm sure helps to motivate the Prime Minister's deep interest in this issue. I certainly would be honored, it would be meaningful for me to visit those two cities in the future. I don't have immediate travel plans, but it's something that would be meaningful to me."
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
Obama is in so far over his head. He bs’d his way into office thinking this was going to be easy. He’s proving to be a total embarrassment at home and abroad
“i think sarah palin would have nailed it.”
If she had given it some thought before hand yes.
Man, do I wish she had a do over for Katie’s question. I’m sure that she’d nail that one also.
obama is so dumb, he doesn’t even know that USA bombed Japan
And what is your understanding of the historical meaning of the A-bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
-—Don’t pi$$ off the Americans.
Do you think that it was the right decision?
-—When you ask that of anyone who suffered under Japanese occupation, they ask in return, “Why did you drop only two?”
Reminds me of Gene Hackman’s line in the movie “Crimson Tide”, after receiving a “complicated” answer from Denzel Washington about whether or not it was a mistake to drop the bombs:
“If someone asks me if we should drop the bomb on Japan, a simple ‘Yes. By all means, sir. Drop that f***er...twice!’”
I don’t disagree with that. It may just be a combination. I am just so scared of this total ineptitude and incompetency. I just think he doesn’t care one whit about this country and its citizens. He certainly doesn’t show that he cares.
Wow. Unfortunately few will see this.
At the Potsdam Conference of 24 July 1945, the Allied position was that the ‘Japanese forces would be disarmed’ Japanese sovereignty would be limited to the four main islands of Japan ‘and such minor islands as we shall determine’ and ‘respect for fundamental human rights’ would be established. The message ended with this: ‘We call upon the Government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The aternative for Japan is complete and utter destruction.’
The implementation of these publically stated objectives required the complete defeat of Japan and it’s occupation. The militarists controlling Japan were determined to resist even unto the destruction of Japan. Prime Minister Suzuki Kantaro was willing to negotiate peace thru Switzerland or the Soviet Union, but War Minister Anami Korechika and the Chiefs of Staff Gen. Umeza Yoshijiro and Adm Toyoda Soemu insisted on ‘ prosecuting the war to the bitter end in order to uphold our national essence, protect the imperial land and (incredibly) achieve our goals of conquest’. The Japanese correctly deduced the objectives of Operation Downfall, the proposed US invasion scheme which was divided into two phases, Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu and Coronet, the invasion of the main island of Honshu.
Accordingly the Japanese prepared Operation Decision (Ketsu-Go) which envisaged the deployment of over 2 million troops along the coast to repel Allied landings, to be reinforced by four million armed forces civillian employees and a civillian militia of old people, school children of both sexes numbering 28 million. An invasion of Japan would have been D-day magnified a thousand times, it would have been Stalingrad from the sea. For instance, The 2nd Marine Division was slated to be in the initial assault. It no longer appears in the plans for Operation Olympic after D-Day + 4. The assumption is that it would have ceased to exist or be combat ineffective. Other units are similarly omitted.
An actual model exists for such speculation, the Battle for Okinowa. Pre invasion Okinowa was populated by 574,368 Okinowans.. Take a trip to Okinawa and visit Peace Prayer Park. It’s easy to find. It is right next to the Suicide Cliffs just down the road a ways from the Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters. There you will see the names of 200,656 men women and children inscribed on black marble slabs who died on that island in the last battle of World War II. Those slabs reveal the following death toll: Japanese 188,136
From other prefectures (soldiers and civilian employees) 65,908
From Okinawa (soldiers and civilian employees) 28,228
From Okinawa (civilians fighting in battles) 56,861
From Okinawa (non-fighting civilians) 37,139
Americans 12,520
Following the battle there was not one thing on the island growing or man-made that was over 24 inches high. The entire population of the island was 574,368 and there were 4.72 artillery shells fired per person during the battle. The land war on Okinawa was soul destroying brutal as American soldiers and Marines doggedly attempted to break the ferocious Japanese resistance. Names like Sugar Loaf and Kakazu Ridge still invoke nightmarish memories from Okinawa veterans. The US Navy suffered the worst pounding in its history, with over 5000 sailors killed and 35 ships sunk by Kamikaze attack.
People extrapolate from 48,000 American and 230,000 Japanese casualties at Okinawa to 500,000 American and millions of Japanese casualties for mainland invasions. Those estimates could have vastly understated the actual causalities. Japan’s 374,000 mountainous square miles mathematically enables over 500 defensive redoubts comparable to General Ushijima’s formidable Okinawa constructions such as those on the Shuri line that inflicted most Okinawa losses. The War Faction adopted the motto of “100 million Japanese deaths” for planning final mainland battles. Besides kamikazes, redeployed Kwantung divisions, and bamboo spears for civilians, the allies faced biological warfare. Occupation searchers uncovered large stockpiles of viruses, spirochetes, and fungus spores throughout rural Japan. One delivery plan directed Japanese to infect themselves and then surrender. The “Greatest Generation” and their parents would have been enraged to discover a political cabal who satisfied their moral orthodoxy by condemning over 500,000 Americans who might otherwise have been saved.
Other consequences of other than a rapid end to the war were the slow starvation of the Japanese people. Their island nation’s food supplying merchant fleet was at the bottom of the Pacific, with 5 million tons of it put there by the thoroughly successful American submarine campaign. In the summer of 1945 Field Marshal Terauchi had openly ordered prison camp commanders to slaughter the Allied prisoners in their control (who were dying at a 33% death rate) at the onset of the invasion. The brutal Japanese occupations of the conquered Asian nations were killing tens of thousands of civilians a month in China, Malaysia, Burma, Singapore, the Solomons, Thailand, and anywhere that the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere sent its soldiers, inflamed by the Japanese militarist’s corrupted code of Bushido to rape, pillage and kill without mercy. Millions of Asian civilians were killed and others in China served as guinea pigs for Unit 731’s depraved medical experimentations into human vivisection, disease infestation and other atrocities more horrifying than the vilest of Josef Mengele’s worst inspirations. Japanese scientists performed tests on prisoners centering on the plague, cholera, smallpox, botulism and other diseases. This research led to the development of the defoliation bacilli bomb and the flea bomb used to spread the bubonic plague. Some of these bombs were designed with ceramic (porcelain) shells, an idea proposed by Shiro Ishii in 1938.
These bombs enabled Japanese soldiers to launch biological attacks, infecting agriculture, reservoirs, wells and other areas with anthrax, plague-carrying fleas, typhoid, dysentery, cholera and other deadly pathogens.
Additionally, infected food supplies and clothing were dropped by planes into areas of China not occupied by Japanese forces. These activities continued until war’s end.
The Japanese had concocted a plan to launch M6A1 Seiran floatplane bombers from their huge I-400 class subs to drop bombs loaded with biological agents such as plaque and Anthrax on the West Coast of the US. The ships had sailed with a target date of 15 August 1945. Only the end of the war on 14 August occasioned their recall before they reached landfall.
In the afternoon of August 14, Japanese radio announced that an Imperial Proclamation was soon to be made, accepting the terms of unconditional surrender drawn up at the Potsdam Conference. That proclamation had already been recorded by the emperor. The news did not go over well, as more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers stormed the Imperial Palace in an attempt to find the proclamation and prevent its being transmitted to the Allies. Soldiers still loyal to Emperor Hirohito repulsed the attackers.
That evening, General Anami, the member of the War Council most adamant against surrender, committed suicide. His reason: to atone for the Japanese army’s defeat, and to be spared having to hear his emperor speak the words of surrender.
Foreign minister Shidehara wrote, “If we continue to fight back bravely, even if hundreds of thousands of noncombatants are killed... there would be room to produce a more favorable international situation for Japan.”
“Due to the nationwide food shortage... - it will be necessary to kill all of the infirm old people, the very young, and the sick.
Admiral Onishi: “If we are prepared to sacrifice 20 million Japanese lives in kamikaze effort, victory will be ours.”
“With luck, we will repulse the invaders before they land.” - General Yoshijiro Umezu
“Who can be 100% sure of defeat?” - War minister General Anami
All said in the August 9th meeting of the 6 man ‘Supreme Council for the Direction of the War’ held in Tokyo. I would ask that you carefully consider the date as you ponder the Japanese willingness to surrender.
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