On December 7th, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attacked Pearl Harbor without warning. In plain old English, we got japped.
What followed was 3 years, 7 months, and 29 days of bloody war between the Axis and the Allies.
My father served in the US Coastguard during WWII, and he didn't like it much. I think his attitude about the Germans and the Japanese rubbed off on me a little, but that's to be expected I guess.
On August 6th, 1945, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima and flattened it. When that failed to achieve the desired effect, on August 9th, 1945, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb (Fat Man), this time on Nagasaki.
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| Little Boy (used without permission) |
On August 15th, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki, the Japs gave it up, and on September 2nd, the Japanese government signed the instrument of surrender, officially ending the war.
There's still a certain amount of controversy over the necessity of using the atomic bomb on Japan. During high school, the relevant facts were not pointed out to us, such as the the planned invasion of Japan and the year long preparation for that invasion by conventional bombing, which destroyed something on the order of 65 cities in Japan. Then there was the warning from President Truman, who essentially told Emperor Hirohito that if he didn't surrender, he wasn't going to believe what would happen next - not even while it was happening.
The Emperor didn't, and we did - twice. And that was that. Game over.
In 1984 the truth came out about the Japs experimenting on human beings during the war. When I discovered the fiendish activities perpetrated by the Japs at Unit 731 and Unit 100 (see here, here, and here), I advocated dropping a third atomic bomb, just on general principles.
The one thing that I learned from studying World War II is this: Anyone who doesn't believe in God and Divine intervention should study WWII in detail, then explain just how we managed to win without Divine intervention. There were so many times that the enemy could have beaten us and didn't that it goes far and away beyond coincidence.
So today on the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, I thank the Lord that we won this one.
3 comments:
Mad Jack:
If I were to ascribe a particular trait of the AMERICAN fighting man during WW2 is that we had more of ONE thing the enemy didn't have enough of...GRIT!
We proved that we could surmount some pretty decent odds (against us) and come out the better on the other side (Bastogne comes to mind).
The D-Day landing itself was in jeopardy on our beaches, but we overcame and fought on, despite the losses.
In the 'Nam, we got caught with our drawers down during Tet, but proved we could fight right back.
We actually won every battle, and yet, "lost" the war, thanks to politicians.
The more that politicians get their fingers in the pie of warfare, the more unpredictable the outcome.
America should never fight to a draw...we fight to win.
(but that's just my thoughts)
Very good post.
Stay safe out there.
My thought process on this has always been: You don't think we should have dropped the bombs, go get a copy of the book Japan's Imperial Conspiracy. Read what those bastards did to Nanking. If you don't want to drop another one on the spot, you aren't worth my time.
Bob G: Thank you. If the country goes to war, or enters any type of military action, the leader(s) of our country should decide what the victory conditions are - and those conditions should be pretty easy for anyone to understand. Having accomplished that, turn the entire business over to the generals and tell them to win. Offer whatever support they say that they need in order to win. The victory conditions will be achieved.
CW: I hadn't wanted to bring up Nanking, but you're quite correct. And yes, anyone who has studied WWII and the Japanese actions, and who doesn't believe we should have used nuclear weapons really isn't worth talking to.
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