Moral of the story: Don’t start a war with the United States, especially with a surprise attack. My late father was one of the millions of soldiers, sailors and Marines almost certainly saved by those two explosions. He was on Okinawa, ready to take part in the attack on the main islands of Japan. Today, we’d probably apologize to a country that attacked us.
We apologize to Muzzies everyday.
Every time I think about it, I thank God President Truman made the decision that he made. I doubt that I'd be here if he had not.
If we didn’t drop this bomb, I would probably never had been born. My dad ran General Douglas MacArthurs bar in Tokyo, rather than being killed on Japans beaches in 1946.
Many do not know if this is good or bad, me being born, that is. lol
My dad had the best job in the service, he has always contended. He has always been real happy with the whole bombing thing.
My dad was also on Okinawa with the 319th BG already flying missions over Japan and this was following a full tour in the ETO. The loss and extreme suffering experienced by Soldiers and Marines against the fanatical Japanese convinced them all that invading Japan would have been a nightmare of death. When I was an enlisted Marine I had the chance to talk with some of the Marines who fought their way across Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and on other islands and they all were convinced that the bombs ended the war and saved a large part of their generation.
Fewer were killed with the two bombs than in the Rape of Nanking or in the firebombings of Japanese cities. Which is worse, the low-ball estimated loss of a million+ on both sides or the few hundred thousand lost in the bombings?
They were warned by the planner of the Pearl Harbor attack that it was a mistake to attack the U.S. but they didn’t listen and they suffered the consequences.
My grandfather was there. On the Hancock. It’s been great going through his war journal during the last days of the war.