Don't screw with us. For if we have to, we'll invent new ways to mess you up.
Big Mo's guns keeping silent watch over Arizona's fallen.
Image from Wikipedia
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Pearl Harbor Day
I know that in this song Rush is scolding us for "going overboard" on Imperial Japan. I don't care if Rush thinks nukes were excessive. Imperial Japan was very unlike modern Japan, and if you ask me, they deserved every bomb that fell on them. Pilot of Enola Gay, riding out of the shockwave...
Don't screw with us. For if we have to, we'll invent new ways to mess you up.
Don't screw with us. For if we have to, we'll invent new ways to mess you up.
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The decision Truman made was correct and timely...There were more nukes scheduled to be dropped as well, but they weren't ready at that moment. The war actually drug on longer than people think. We WILL face this decision again someday...then what?
ReplyDeleteThe choice to deploy the atomic bombs, no matter how horrific, was the right choice for the day. As you point, Imperial Japan was a much different place.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth noting that as President, Truman felt that the decision was his, and his alone to make. He never downplayed that fact, and never second guessed himself.
That was back when politicians were capable of making decisions based upon the situation, not upon their chances of re-election.
Imperial Japanese were no doubt absolute fanatics. If the US had invaded, the death toll would have been horrific for both sides.
ReplyDeleteI have heard people say we were wrong to target civilians and I always counter that the militarists of Japan would have allowed a way many more cilivians to die fighting if it came down to conventional warfare. The people had been brainwashed that the Americans would torture and then kill them if captured. Just look at all the suicides, civilian and military, during the Iwo Jima and Saipan campaigns.
{{Civilian casualties}} Saipan had been seized by Japan after World War I, and thus a large number of Japanese civilians lived there—at least 25,000.[2][unreliable source?] The U.S. erected a civilian prisoner encampment on 23 June 1944 that soon had more than 1,000 inmates. Electric lights at the camp were conspicuously left on overnight to attract other civilians with the promise of three warm meals and no risk of accidentally being shot in combat.
Weapons and the tactics of close quarter fighting also resulted in high civilian casualties. Civilian shelters were located virtually everywhere on the island, with very little difference noticeable to attacking Marines. The standard method of clearing suspected bunkers was with high-explosive and/or high-explosives augmented with petroleum (e.g. gelignite, napalm, diesel fuel). In such conditions, high civilian casualties were inevitable.[10]
Emperor Hirohito personally found the threat of defection of Japanese civilians disturbing.[2][unreliable source?] Much of the community was of low caste, and there was a risk that live civilians would be surprised by generous U.S. treatment. Native Japanese sympathizers would hand the Americans a powerful propaganda weapon to subvert the "fighting spirit" of Japan in radio broadcasts. At the end of June, Hirohito sent out an imperial order encouraging the civilians of Saipan to commit suicide.[2][unreliable source?] The order authorized the commander of Saipan to promise civilians who died there an equal spiritual status in the afterlife with those of soldiers perishing in combat. General Hideki Tōjō intercepted the order on 30 June 1944 and delayed its sending, but it went out anyway the next day. By the time the Marines advanced on the north tip of the island, from 8–12 July 1944, most of the damage had been done.[2][unreliable source?] Over 20,000 Japanese civilians committed suicide in the last days of the battle to take the offered privileged place in the afterlife, some jumping from "Suicide Cliff" and "Banzai Cliff". In all, about 22,000 Japanese civilians died.
Wikipedia
Truman did the correct thing by preventing more blood shed.
The best man at my wedding, albeit many years ago, was the nephew of a proud seaman who perished when his ship, the USS Arizona, went down under Imperial Japanese attack on that day 'that shall live in infamy.'
ReplyDeleteWe have not forgotten.
We will never forget.
The decision to drop the bomb was a sound one. One can Google the plans for the invasion of Japan, Operation Downfall, to see how massive the scale, and therefore the casualties would have been.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Inno.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all who say it was right for Truman to "pull the trigger" on that. No reason to believe we could have "talked" to the Emperor. He was a god. And a liar.
ReplyDeleteI have had it up to here (holding right hand at about 7 feet) with the likes of Rush second-guessing something that nobody else had the nerve to do. Dang Canadians...
Those bombs saved countless American lives ... BOMBS AWAY!
ReplyDelete