The Atomic Bomb: It Was Always Right

This week Major Theodore Van Kirk, the last surviving Veteran of the Enola Gay that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan, joined the rest of his comrades. His passing is a reminder of why using the atomic bomb was the right thing.

In August 1945 the Allied Powers, led by the United States, were at war with Imperial Japan in the latter days of World War II. Japan would not give up. For every ten thousand Japanese soldiers that were killed by the Allies only a minuscule amount gave up; usually in the single digits.

We were at war because Japan launched war, first against China in 1931, then with another sneak attack against China in 1937, and finally in December 1941 with sneak Japanese attacks against the US at Pearl Harbor and sneak attacks against the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in other areas of the Pacific.

It was during the war that the United States began to develop an atomic bomb, largely in response to the urging of Albert Einstein who warned President Roosevelt, in 1939, about Germany’s attempts to make an atomic weapon.

Japan was a tough enemy. Surrender was seen as more than even disgrace; it was a dishonor to the Japanese Emperor, who was the Japanese God. The Japanese were allies of the Nazis. Comparing the two, the Nazis were evil but also methodical. The Nazis were fanatical about only one thing; the elimination of the Jews, a practice they kept up to the literal ending of the war in Europe in May of 1945. The Germans were a tough enemy but they were, by World War II standards, in their military operations, somewhat practical especially when Hitler was ignored. Germans did surrender by the hundreds of thousands years before the war ended. This was not the case of Imperial Japan and in fact Japanese non surrender got worse the closer we got to the shores of Japan. The Japanese soldier was fighting not just for their buddy, their family, or their homeland; they were fighting for their God.

The United States was inching closer to Japan in early and mid-1945. The island campaigns of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, the latter an island of mere miles, resulted in tens of thousands of casualties. The Japanese began going beyond even fanatical resistance to suicidal resistance by crashing their planes into American ships. Even then there was no hope for Japan. American submarines had nearly run out of targets, having surrounded Japan, and were reduced to shelling fishing boats and even targets on land. American planes were firebombing Japanese cities into oblivion. Japan was alone and starvation was a realistic possibility but they would not give up. Japan would have to be invaded.

Operation Downfall was the code name for the invasion of Japan. It was to be the largest and deadliest military operation of all time. If you saw Saving Private Ryan, the first stage of the invasion of Japan, Operation Olympic, was projected to be twice as large and twice as bloody as the invasion of Europe on D Day. The second stage of the invasion of Japan, Operation Coronet, was to be almost three times as large as D day and with even greater casualties than the first phase of the invasion of Japan.

Unlike D Day, the topographic composition of Japan made the landing locations obvious. Japan knew where we were going to land and they were ready for this last stand. Even children were taught in the ways of the sword and the spear so they could kill at least one American before they too would die for their Emperor. This happened with Japanese children in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and throughout Japan.

To save American and Japanese lives and end the war, President Truman ordered the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Tens of thousands were instantly killed by the bomb dropped from the Enola Gay, the plane navigated by Maj. Van Kirk. The Japanese still did not surrender. Their military council was divided on surrendering. Three days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki also killing tens of thousands. More would die of radiation poisoning in years ahead.

The war council still was divided on surrendering but some Japanese officers looked to end the war and asked the Emperor to use his divine authority to stop the killing. The Soviet Union had entered the war against Japan, American planes were destroying what little was left of other Japanese cities, and an American POW told his captors that the next atomic bomb would be dropped on Tokyo.

It took the personal intervention of the Emperor to end the war. Even after their God had intervened and said to the Army that the war must end, some Japanese were not ready to give up. A group of Army officers launched a failed coup against the Emperor, ostensibly to save their God from shame. After the coup failed the Emperor spoke on radio to tell his people to surrender. It was the first time the Japanese people had ever heard his voice. Many of the Japanese soldiers who did not get the word from the Emperor continued to fight in isolated Pacific pockets until the mid-1970’s, almost 30 years after the end of the war.

Any argument from leftist leadership that we should not have used the bombs, against this fanatical an enemy, shows why leftist leadership is not fit to teach our students.

The leftists are fools when it comes to the atomic bomb debate. They argue that the bomb was dropped because of Soviet entry into the war on Japan on August 9, the day Nagasaki was bombed. What the leftists conveniently leave out is that the bomb was shipped to the Pacific before the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan and that the United States asked the Soviet Union to enter the war against Japan.

Another common leftist argument is the bombs were dropped in quick succession in order to stop the Soviet Union from invading Northern Japan. This argument is laughable because the bombs were dropped three days apart and then Truman put a halt on further usage after August 9, leaving five days between the dropping of the second bomb and the end of the war.

Finally, leftists say how could you kill so many people? This is a typical argument from those who have never had to make such a decision as Truman did or other decisions of life and death. Truman was faced with kill now and hopefully end the war or have even more killed on both sides by not using the bomb. (Leftists apparently forget that even their beloved Soviet Union entered the war against Japan. Soviet lives were saved too by Truman.)

This is what leftism does; it plants seeds in people leading them to believe that America is somehow responsible for all the evils in the world, even when America has achieved victory and done well. They will even do it even with World War II, which no sane person can argue with our participation in. They are shameful and are a disgrace to the generation that made it through the Depression and fought, and won, World War II.

Knowing leftist emotion, if the bomb had not been used on Japan, and millions of American casualties occurred, along with tens of millions of Japanese casualties, the leftists would say that we should have used the bomb to alleviate the suffering of the war. Such as the argument of those who were protected by the Enola Gay.

Ask any living soldier from the Pacific, and those were ready to be shipped there from Europe and the USA, who is still alive whether they were happy the bomb was dropped they will respond with “Thank God the bomb was dropped.”

President Truman was an independent thinker and not a man to be pushed around. His desegregation of the armed forces and recognition of the new State of Israel were evidence of that. He was also a combat veteran. He knew the carnage of war and understood that hard decisions need to be made in war.

It will be interesting to see where the history books, backed by their common core allies and government employee teachers, go with teaching the atomic bomb in years ahead. Before all the Veterans of World War II had even begun to die in large numbers, the leftist jargon against usage of the bomb began. They have spared not even Truman, though Truman was a democrat, for their blind rage knows no bounds. It will get worse once all of the generation that made it through the Depression, and won the war, have passed away.

This is why we should, loudly and boldly, teach that it was right to drop the bomb and why. This is why we should honor the military service of Theodore Van Kirk and those who dropped the atomic bombs. They saved the lives of many of our readers, in America, Japan, and elsewhere.

To Major Theodore Van Kirk we say thank you. It was a tough mission, but you can rest well. You saved countless lives. Welcome home from your final mission. Your comrades are waiting.

There is plenty to be gained militarily by destroying the factories and workers that produce the bombs,bullets,fuel and equipment,even the food, of the enemy.

By war's end, our production was utterly overwhelming; tens of thousands of plans, dozens of aircraft carriers.

If there is no army left, that materiel is useless.

Their navy would not be able to transport any supplies to forces on other islands. The materiel would just pile up.

The accuracy of our air force in bombing is often cited as a reason for being unable to bomb military targets, such as such weapons stockpiles.

But as I've said before, air supremecy is key. If bombers meet no resistence, they can come in low enough on a clear day to be very accurate. That means not 20,000 ft, not 10,000 ft, that means 1,200 feet, 1,500 feet, good visibility, not to much wind. If 5,000 dive bombers came and did low-level attacks all day, with no disturbance from any enemy fighters because we had 1,000 P-51s in the air at the same time, they'd have eliminated whatever they were attacking.

This is exactly what our military has been doing since the first Gulf War over 20 years ago, they just don't need as many bombers because they have very few targets, relatively, and they are very accurate. Our air forces keep our ground forces safe, and the same tactics were well-known in WWII.

If any time you get a battalion-strength outfit all in one place and start moving towards the enemy ground positions, airplanes come over and bomb them to bits, it's tough to fight.

This was the situation at Okinawa. I suggest that you read up on the fight for Okinawa and see how “easy” that went despite the Japanese being cut off from supplies.

I read somewhere that the last two Japanese soldiers left on Iwo Jima surrendered in 1949. That's not a typo ... 1949. Did the U.S. forces on Iwo Jima face massive military casualties between 1945 and 1949 just because those two dudes were willing to hold out for four years after Japan surrendered? Of course not. Japan wasn't in a position to carry out any serious military threats against the U.S. by the time August of 1945 rolled around.

Thanks for the correction, my memory is getting bad.

First there was START under GHW Bush, then the Moscow treaty under GW Bush, then the new START under Obama.

There were 29 no votes in the senate, I guess mostly NeoCons. The Realists were pushing it with Kissinger, George Schultz, James Baker, Colin Powell, and Condi Rice front and center

“Contrary to popular belief, it actually was and is possible to hit military aircraft installations. “

You must get your ideas of what was possible from Hollywood.

‘Precision bombing’ in WWII parlance meant that you hit somewhere close to what you were aiming for.

In theory the top secret Norden bombsight was capable of delivering a bomb to within 75 feet of the target. In actual practice bomb accuracy was only within 1,200 feet of the target. And not every plane was equipped with a Norden sight.

When Naval aircraft attempted to hit a ship they would employ dive bombing or skip bombing and a lot of hope. The Air Force relied on the Norden sight and a whole lot of planes.

Did the U.S. forces on Iwo Jima face massive military casualties between 1945 and 1949 just because those two dudes were willing to hold out for four years after Japan surrendered? Of course not.

No, the US faced those massive casualties in March of 1945 because the other 21000 buddies of these two were wiling to hold out. Must the entire population of Japan be exterminated through death from above and starvation below to make you bomb haters happy?

We had casualties because we kept ground attacking, throwing men at incredibly well-fortified positions.

“Take that hill”, etc.

In 1945 Japan was kaput, it was over. No navy = no support for ground troops. The whole “empire” was all separated by ocean. No navy = impotent.

Just keep sweeping airplanes from the sky until you can part 20 carriers right off the Japanese coast.

Rushing in to “charge” enemy positions before the overwhelming force has arrived is going to cost lives.

If some kamakazi divisions want to live in caves in Okinawa for 10 or 20 years, let them.

Take your time, gradually burn them out from the air. Send the infantry home.

The kamakazis will be stuck inside their underground fortresses. Slap up a sign and call it an American POW camp.

The American infantrymen can be home and getting on with life.

Our air forces keep our ground forces safe, and the same tactics were well-known in WWII.

We didn't have the equipment then that we do now. Nor the C3ISR to do what you suppose. Hidden enemy artillery would still be pounding the friendlies ashore. In previous battles, those positions had to be burned out, the holes sealed. Not in the effects column of airborne ordnance, it falls to men, not equipment.

Ironically, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings pretty much rendered the massive U.S. casualties on Iwo Jima in March 1945 — and later on Okinawa — a complete waste of lives on both sides. The B-29s that flew the bombing missions to Japan were stationed in Tinian, which is more than 1,200 miles southeast of Okinawa. The U.S. didn’t need those islands to win the war after all.

If you can wait for good weather (in such a siege the enemy is going nowhere, and no help is on the way for them, so you can wait till the cows come home), and you have no opposing aircraft (cuz 5,000 P51s have swept them from the sky), and there is no AA fire coming from the ground (cuz every time something pops you bomb it until it’s dead)...

then you have a “milk run”. You come in straight and level at 1,000 to 1,500 feet, drop precisely where and when you want.

Bomb accuracy within 1,200 feet from the target is not the case in those conditions.

I’ve said this in every post I think - AIR SUPREMECY FIRST.

Which is what we had at war’s end.

Then bombing accuracy is no problem.

The U.S. didn’t need those islands to win the war after all.

A perspective provided by hindsight. Didn't have the bombs during Iwo. Can't just decide to attack Okinawa tomorrow, takes time to plan and get the logistics in line.

Iwo Jima in March 1945 — and later on Okinawa — a complete waste of lives on both sides.

Again, hindsight. If the bombs had fizzled, they would have had to be taken in any case. If 'ifs' and buts' were candy and nuts.

then you have a “milk run”. You come in straight and level at 1,000 to 1,500 feet, drop precisely where and when you want.

Except for those milk runs where before the AA had held their fire, the aviation commander kept his planes on the ground previously. There was no over-arching intel gathering system, the US was surprised at the Jap OOB after the surrender. The History Channel made a buck off the discrepancy of where we thought the Japs were and where they really were in terms of men and material.

Time and life doesn't stop so the Japanese can be starved to the last man.

Japan would not starve AT ALL.

There farms were not and did not need to be bombed.

They were on rations because they were supplying their overseas ground forces.

If they had been blockaded, no food would have left Japan.

What do you think we did on the Continent ?

There was AA all over and Luftwaffe all over.

We just kept chipping away at them. Everyone knew that it was game over.

However, instead of focusing exclusively on AA and Luftwaffe, we diverted enormous materiel and effort into bombing other things.

If we had made it the first order of business to finish off the Luftwaffe, the skies would be ours to support our ground troops.

Same thing would have worked against Japan.

That’s why that is the way we do things nowadays.

It works.

We would never ever today send in divisions of ground forces, leaving them very exposed to air attack, with significant numbers of enemy aircraft in the area and our air forces still trying to win the airspace.

We win the airspace first. If it flies, it dies.

How else, then, would the war have ended? The Japanese had already made clear, in the battles on the various Pacific islands, that they would fight to the last man, woman, and child. Even after the second bomb was dropped, most of the Japanese high command wanted to continue to fight. It was only the courageous statement by the Emperor that convinced the military command to give up the fight before a devastating final invasion occurred.

...when this was far from the most effective way of seizing those islands...

I don't know about you but my knowledge of military tactics catapulted me to the lofty rank of SP5 many years ago.Perhaps you were a Major General,thus far outranking me.But whatever rank you achieved in the Armed Forces I'd *love* to hear how *you* would have done it.

That is Monday morning quarterbacking in the extreme. The islands were taken in anticipation of a full scale invasion, at a time when it was not at all certain that the Manhattan project would succeed as a weapons project or, if successful in that sense, as a compelling reason for the Japanese to surrender.

For all you naysayers out there, tell me how many NET lives would have been spared if the US were forced to invade Japan instead of using atomic weapons?

I’ll give you a clue since you obviously don’t have one. A very large NEGATIVE number.

http://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/2009/08/estimating-casualties-in-the-invasion-of-japan-julyaugust-1945.html

“And so what on earth are we left with, really? 200,000+ American and 2 million Japanese casualties, plus untold destruction, in an atom bombless attack on the Empire.”

You and your ilk are idiots of the highest order.

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