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Comments
Thanks for the insights. I will likely see the movie.
Depending on the boys ages maybe they hang back but I think you will like it.
I was at a WWII museum last year and came across a display that blew me away. I consider myself a bit of a military historian (I have a Minor in History, and Marines are obsessed with military history), but I never knew the extent of the US bombing of Japan prior to the use of the Atomic Bomb. I knew we firebombed Tokyo and had dropped bombs over other cities in Japan.....but I had no idea how extensive it truly was.
“Firebombing Japan” 67 Cities: 1945 | The Pop History Dig
Scroll down a bit and check the list of major Japanese cities that we destroyed. I think the number is 67. Most of them estimated to have been destroyed by 50% or greater. Absolutely stunning. Death tolls estimated at 500,000. And still no signs of surrender. The graphic gives a US city comparable....imagine 99% of Chattanooga destroyed, 50% of Sacramento, 70% of Boston, 50% of NYC, 55% of Baltimore....just astounding death and destruction!
"Absolutely stunning. Death tolls estimated at 500,000. And still no signs of surrender."
Key quote in your post!
Yeah Japanese leadership made the decision to surrender months before the atomic bomb but never communicated that to the allies since they weren’t in agreement on the terms of surrender. They really dropped the ball there
There are so many "what ifs" in WWII, in both theaters.
Wow, I majored in history as an undergrad, which in no way makes me an expert but kinda represents my interest in WW2. I knew we bombed them heavily, but I wasn’t aware of that amount of damage inflicted before the big ones.
I do remember researching that Japan had almost immediately decided to surrender and end the war after Hiroshima, but unfortunately things didn’t go well. Turmoil, lines of communication etc…. Terrible tragedy in hindsight, war is hell!!! I don’t envy any that had to make decisions regarding these events.
I didn’t know that, but it’s not surprising considering what was going on. It’s also not extremely surprising that they dropped the ball for a few months. Culture and Leadership there was much different than anything most of us understand.
When we dropped the atomic bombs and Japan finally accepted that we had atomic weapons (they didn’t believe it at first because they also failed at developing them like Germany) their Minister of War and supreme council member General Anami wanted to continue the war because in his mind he thought nuclear annihilation of Japan would be the best way for Japan to end
Interesting thought. Good thing not many listened to him.
Yeah, I remember reading about Anami. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I guess possibly you are hinting at Seppuku as far as a way to end the war, in his mind I guess. I don’t mean this in the literal sense, just the mind of one in his position as it relates
Yeah I think he likened the Japanese people dying out entirely by atomic weapons to the death of a flower. Weird dude. He only accepted surrender when the emperor commanded it and then he committed seppuku the day after.
edit found the quote with some context:
However the Japanese leadership had no way to know the size of the United States' stockpile, and feared the United States might have the capacity not just to devastate individual cities, but to wipe out the Japanese people as a race and nation. Indeed, Anami expressed a desire for this outcome rather than surrender, asking if it would "not be wondrous for this whole nation to be destroyed like a beautiful flower".
Yeah, sad to think about. But it in a very strange way makes sense considering things we aren’t familiar or comfortable with. I’m not condoning it by any means, but I’m not understanding of traditional Japanese culture either.
Can’t say I understand it either but I think anyone willing to sacrifice an entire nation for glory is pretty bad. Not to mention all the biological experimentation on humans and forced sex slavery
Very true, culture or not, at some point we are all human beings. There is no excuse for that. I absolutely agree
Wow, thanks for posting. Yeah weird dude for sure. Culture or not, I think modern mental health DRs or professionals probably have a unique group to include him into.
My grandfather told me that in his prison camp, the Japanese guards would strap a POW face-down and naked on a table, put a fire hose up to his rectum and then turn it on full blast and watch him die in excruciating pain. Part of it was that in the Japanese world view, surrender to preserve your life was cowardly, so they had no respect for the men they had cpatured. As an honor-based culture, the concept of instrinsic value of an individul life did not exist; you were only as worthy as your hoonorable actions for the good of society as a whole.
I’ve read things similar to that train of thought. Hard to argue with someone that was actually in a Japanese POW camp.
The Japanese weren’t some noble samurai warriors as legend and movies suggest. They were systematically committing crimes against humanity against the Chinese and Koreans and everyone else they conquered or captured. If they’d had nuclear weapons, they 100% would have used them for conquest and subjugation. We used the bomb to stop those crimes and their conquest. Yes, it’s sad that it took such a huge and imprecise weapon on civilians to bring them to their knees, but that’s their fault and shame, not ours.
Don’t December 7th if you don’t want to get August 6th!
The Japanese thought of themselves as the Master Race. Foreigners were a lower species of human. Defeat was inconceivable. Defeat was worse than death.