Posted on 08/05/2015 5:08:06 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
The News of the Week in Review
Architects for a New Germany and a New Europe (photo) – 13
Defeated Germany under Allied Control (map) – 14
Europe’s Future – 15-16
We Close In – 17
Fifteen News Questions – 18
A Month’s Bombardment of Japan (map) – 19
Sea and Air Assaults Pave Way for Invasion (by George E. Jones) – 20
“Nimitz’ Anti-Co-Prosperity Sphere” (cartoon) – 21
Palestine Issue Forced on Cabinet (by Sydney Gruson) – 23
Answers to Fifteen News Questions – 23
Code Defining War Crimes to Include Aggressive War (by Charles E. Egan) – 24
De Gaulle, Checked at Home, Wins New Prestige Abroad (by Harold Callender) – 25
The New York Times Book Review
The Lives of Winston Churchill, by John Davenport and Charles J.V. Murphy; The Dawn of Liberation: War Speeches by the Right Hon. Winston S. Churchill, compiled by Charles Eade (both reviewed by R.L. Duffus) – 26-28
Iwo Jima: Springboard to Final Victory, by Capt. Raymond Henri, U.S. M.C. (reviewed by Isaac Anderson, writing as I.A.) – 28
The Best Selling Books Here and Elsewhere – 29
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/7/05.htm
August 5th, 1945 (SUNDAY)
CHINA: Chinese troops capture Tanchuk and Hsinning from the Japanese.
MANCHURIA: Mukden: Dr. Marcel Junod, on his way to Tokyo, as the new representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross to Japan, visits the PoW camp. Dr. Junod is appalled at the intimidation of the PoWs, and is especially disturbed that none of the PoW doctors are allowed to talk to him when he insists in visiting the hospital. Dr. Junod also mentions seeing stacks of undistributed Red Cross parcels in the corner of the hut, and asking why they had not been given out to the prisoners. He is informed by the commandant that they were being “saved for later ... at Christmas.” And Major Robert Peaty (the senior British officer) notes in his diary, “No one was allowed contact with [Dr. Junod],” and that all prisoners were sent to the factory some distance away, “[p]resumably to keep them away from the Red Cross visitor.” (151)(Linda Goetz Holmes)
KURILE ISLANDS: USN PB4Y-2 Privateers of Patrol Bombing Squadron One Hundred Twenty (VPB-120) based at NAAF Shemya, Aleutian Islands, attack 2 enemy vessels off Shimushu Island; 3 vessels south of Otomari Zaki, Onekotan Island; and a beached ship on Araido Island.
JAPAN: During the night of 5/6 August, the USAAF Twentieth Air Force dispatches 612 B-29 Superfortresses to fly 1 mining, 1 bombing and 4 incendiary raids against Japan; 2 B-29s are lost.
- Mission 311: 27 B-29s mine the waters of the Sakai, Yonago, Nakaumi Lagoon, Miyazu, Maizuru, Tsuruga, Obama, Najin and Geijitsu areas; 1 other B-29 mines an alternate target.
- Mission 312: 63 B-29s attack the Saga urban area destroying 0.02 sq mi (0.05 sq km), 1.5% of the city; 1 B-29 is lost.
- Mission 313: 92 B-29s hit the Maebashi urban area destroying 1 sq mi (2.59 sq km), 42.5% of the city; 4 others hit alternate targets.
- Mission 314: 250 B-29s attack the Nishinomiya-Mikage urban area destroying 2.8 sq mi (7.25 sq km), 29.6% of the city; 3 others hit alternate targets; 1 B-29 is lost.
- Mission 315: 106 B-29s bomb the Ube Coal Liquefaction Co. facility at Ube destroying 100% of the refining units and destroying or damaging 80% of other structures; 2 others hit alternate targets.
- Mission 316: 64 B-29s attack the Imabari urban area destroying 0.73 sq mi (1.89 sq km), 76% of the city area.
In Japan, 100+ USAAF Twentieth Air Force P-51s strike airfields and military installations in large area around Tokyo, scoring especially effective hits at Katori Airfield; the USAAF Far East Air Force dispatches 330+ B-24s, B-25s, A-26 Invaders, P-47s, and P-51s to pound Tarumizu town, the industrial area on Kyushu and many targets of opportunity on Kyushu and in the Ryukyu Islands.
On Okinawa, HQ 333d Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) and 435th, 460th and 507th Bombardment Squadrons (Very Heavy) arrive at Kadena, Okinawa from the US with B-29s. These are the first Eighth Air Force B-29 units to arrive.
USN submarines sink two Japanese merchant cargo ships in the Pacific.
The USS Billfish sinks the 1,091 ton Kori Maru off the Kwantung Peninsula with a four torpedo spread (three hits) (Henry Sirotin 101)
MARIANAS ISLANDS: Seven US aircraft take off tonight for Japan, including the Enola Gay, heading for Hiroshima armed with an atomic bomb.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Granby paid off Halifax, Nova Scotia.
U.S.A.: President Truman approves the use of the atomic bomb against Japan. (William L. Howard)
Thank you so much, Homer!
Have we dropped the bomb yet?
Imabari was Japan's equivalent of what Concord/Kannapolis, NC used to be, the hub of the nation's textile industry: to this day, Imabari is primarily known in Japan for its towels, though as with Concord, that industry has moved overseas.
The only other reason to bomb the town would be because of the shipbuilding, but as far as I can tell there were no military vessels built there. (The company website is here.) Of course, Imabari didn't get bombed, and it continued as one of the places for shipbuilding during Japan's heydays in the 60s and 70s.
And how do I know all this? Because since 1995 it has been the sister city of Lakeland, FL, ten miles from my home. I wonder if it occurred to anyone in 1945 that such things would happen in 1995.
But as I typed yesterday (with incorrect times, for which I apologize), the bomb explodes over Hiroshima at 8 AM August 6, which would be 7 PM NY time today, August 5. More on this tomorrow...
MacArthur is going to be totally bummed out very soon.
See replies #4 & #9.
Countdown! (To Hiroshima)
“Yale Is Urged to Stress Religion” was a great read!
One thing I wish they had added to the map of Japanese target cities was a 1500 mile arc from the air bases in the Marianas. 1500 miles is about the maximum effective range of the B 29 if its carrying any kind of payload. If you look at the string of cities (and targets) stretching from Yawata on Kyushu to Tokyo, it forms a line of cities, which is just inside that 1500 mile arc.
Thanks for doing this, Homer. It has been so enlightening to read the real-time stories and news from the war. Today’s paper is obviously especially important because tomorrow “the curtain goes up.”
I’m participularly interested in the discussion of the upcoming invasion because my Dad was somewhere in the Pacific 70 years ago today as part of the invasion force being amassed. The planned invasion of Japan was going to be much larger than the invasion of Normandy. Where was all the materiel being stored? There seems to be little written about the invasion plans and preparations because it was all eclipsed by the event of Aug. 6.
Toland’s account of what the crew knew differs from Richard Rhodes account in “The Making of the Atomic Bomb.” Toland states the crew had been told three days earlier. Rhodes states that Tibbets did not tell the crew it was an atomic bomb until they were on the way to Hiroshima. The crew may have known it was a really big bomb of a new type, but had not been specifically told it was an atomic bomb.
According to Rhodes, while en route to Hiroshima, Tibbets was checking on the crew in the rear of the plane when the discussion turned to what they were carrying. One of the crewmen, tailgunner Robert Caron, guessed “a chemist’s nightmare,” then guessed “a physicist’s nightmare.” Tibbets resonded with “not exactly,” which after a moment’s reflection caused Caron to ask “Sir, are we splitting atoms today?” At that point Tibbets decided to tell the crew that they were carrying an atomic bomb, the first to be dropped from an airplane.
It’s not clear if the crew really understood what an atomic bomb was, how it worked or all of the research and engineering that went into building it. But they knew it was different from any other weapon ever created.
I tend to give more weight to Rhodes than Toland, for the reason that Rhodes’ book concentrated exclusively on the atomic bomb and his research was exhaustive. Toland, a fine historian, did not concentrate on one specific aspect of the war but rather the war against Japan as a whole. To the extent Toland wrote “The Rising Sun” with any specific focus, it was upon the doings of the Japanese in prosecuting the war. For those insights, his book is invaluable. But on this one point of when the crew of the Enola Gay were told it was an atomic bomb, I give the nod to Rhodes.
I wonder how long it took for any real understanding of what had hit Hiroshima to permeate the consciousness of the Japanese people as a whole.
Thumper story (pdf) very good read, the crew did lots of stripping. Engines had names.
http://prairiebombers.org/eng/Army-Air-Fields/Kansas-AAF/Pratt/497th-BG/Documents/Thumper-A-B-29
Good Thumper B-29 Question:
http://www.armyairforces.com/B29-Thumper-question-m186445.aspx
B-29 Survivors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_Boeing_B-29_Superfortresses
Tomorrow, which because of the International Dateline will actually be at 6:15 PM EST this evening (08:15 on August 6 in Japan).
Yale is Urged to Stress Religion as Curb on Intellectual Anarchy.
Read the article critically. This was a national trend to close or merge the depts. of theology into the department of religion.
http://www.jackspipe.com/2005/12/29/religion-vs-theology/
The subject matter of theology proper is God; the subject matter of religion is man.
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