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  • #91
    Originally posted by gamercube View Post
    What I don't understand here (and I'm quite ignorant about the US-Japanese side of the war in WWII, so don't jump at me), is that if a land invasion of Germany was possible, the why not Japan? What was there to compel the US to drop a nuke instead of just a full scale land invasion together with the Russians and other allies? From what I understand, the japanese navy was decimated, so there should not have been any problem getting on the island, right?
    The Japaness where prepared to use thier civillian population as suicde troops. As rough as the Russians had it in the east vs the Germans it would have been that and more island by island in Japan. This would ahve all but exterminated the Japanese and caused millions of allied causalites (the 1 million figure was just for Olympic not the whole campaign).

    Every Japanese town and city would have been ruined and the Island never would have recovered. Plus Russia would ahve been involved and would never give the land back (as has been proven) Dropping the bombs prevented all that from happening.

    Comment


    • #92
      Had we not dropped the bombs, then Halsey's words just might have come true.

      "I will not rest until the language of Japanese is spoken only in hell!!!"

      -- William "Bull" Halsey
      "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

      Comment


      • #93
        I am in the "light em' up" camp.

        In a total war of attrition, the United States deployed a bigger hammer

        WW II spawned a radical increase in efficiency of many classes of weapons from knives to balllistic missles. Bigger hammers were the order of the day.

        The fission bombs then available, primitive as they were, represented a radical increase in efficiency.

        IIRC, the Nagasaki strike was carried out by a dozen men in an aircraft that did not cost too much more than a half a million dollars...of course the logtrain and development of the weapon itself were fairly substantial...but in general one aircrew and one aircraft risked for the results of a thousand plane raid...priceless.

        Now that is a very efficient, bigger hammer.

        Slightly OT, but think the moral of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki story is that nuclear weapons are too big.

        The ability to instantly destroy a city does not strike me as having a particularly useful military value though it does lend itself nicely to strategic weapon of terror.

        If we could put a whole bunch of W54 assemblies with variations in casing for glide, earth penetration, laydown, etc. on a B2...well...that might prove to be the acme of efficiency given suitable intelligence inputs.

        Happy Christmas,

        William
        Pharoh was pimp but now he is dead. What are you going to do today?

        Comment


        • #94
          If we had not bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the title of this thread would be "Did the US need to commit genocide to end the war?", with the main point being "You defeated Germany without killing (40/50/60/whatever) percent of the population, why did you in Japan?"
          The more I think about it, ol' Billy was right.
          Let's kill all the lawyers, kill 'em tonight.
          - The Eagles

          Comment


          • #95
            Operation Downfall

            S-2 Note- I apologize beforehand. I've no longer the link but felt that this article, properly attributed, was worth reading in light of the subject.

            Operation Downfall-The Invasion of Japan, November, 1945 "An Invasion not found in the history books" by James Martin Davis, The Omaha World Herald, November, 1987.

            Deep in the recesses of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., hidden for nearly four decades, lie thousands of pages of yellowing and dusty documents stamped “Top Secret”. These documents, now declassified, are the plans for Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan during World War II. Only a few Americans in 1945 were aware of the elaborate plans that had been prepared for the Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands. Even fewer today are aware of the defenses the Japanese had prepared to counter the invasion had it been launched.

            Operation Downfall was finalized during the spring and summer of 1945. It called for two massive military undertakings to be carried out in succession and aimed at the heart of the Japanese Empire. In the first invasion - code named Operation Olympic - American combat troops would land on Japan by amphibious assault during the early morning hours of November 1, 1945. Fourteen combat divisions of soldiers and Marines would land on heavily fortified and defended Kyushu, the southernmost of the Japanese home islands, after an unprecedented naval and aerial bombardment. The second invasion - code named Operation Coronet - would send at least 22 combat divisions against 1 million Japanese defenders on the main island of Honshu and the Tokyo Plain. Its goal: the unconditional surrender of Japan.

            With the exception of the British Pacific Fleet, Operation Downfall was to be a strictly American operation. It called for using the entire Marine Corps, the entire Pacific Navy, elements of the 7th Army Air Force, the 8th Air Force (recently deployed from Europe), the 10th Air Force, and the American Far Eastern Air Force. More the 1.5 million combat soldiers, with 3 million more in support or more than 40 percent of all servicemen still in uniform in 1945 - would be directly involved in the two amphibious assaults.

            Casualties were expected to be extremely heavy. Admiral William Leahy estimated that there would be more than 250,000 Americans killed or wounded on Kyushu alone. General Charles Willoughby, chief of intelligence for General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific, estimated American casualties from the entire operation would be one million men by the fall of 1946. Williughby’s own intelligence staff considered this to be a conservative estimate.

            During the summer of 1945, America had little time to prepare for such an endeavor, but top military leaders were in almost unanimous agreement that an invasion was necessary. While a naval blockade and strategic bombing of Japan was considered to be useful, MacArthur, for instance, did not believe a blockade would bring about an unconditional surrender. The advocates for invasion agreed that while a naval blockade chokes, it does not kill; and though strategic bombing might destroy cities, it leaves whole armies intact. So on May 25, 1945, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after extensive deliberation, issued to MacArthur, Admiral Chester Nimitz, and Army Air Force General “Hap” Arnold, the top secret directive to proceed with the invasion of Kyushu. The target date was set for after the typhoon season.

            President Truman approved the plans for the invasion July 24. Two days later, the United Nations issued the Potsdam Proclamation, which called upon Japan to surrender unconditionally or face total destruction. Three days later, the Japanese governmental news agency broadcast to the world that Japan would ignore the proclamation and would refuse to surrender. During this same period it was learned - via monitoring Japanese radio broadccasts - that Japan had closed all schools and mobilized its schoolchildren, was arming its civilian population and was fortifying caves and building underground defenses.

            Operation Olympic called for a four pronged assault on Kyushu. Its purpose was to seize and control the southern one-third of that island and establish naval and air bases, to tighten the naval blockade of the home islands, to destroy units of the main Japanese army and support the later invasion of the Tokyo Plain.

            The preliminary invasion would begin October 27 when the 40th Infantry Division would land on a series of small islands west and southwest of Kyushu. At the same time, the 158th Regimental Combat Team would invade and occupy a small island 28 miles south of Kyushu. On these islands, seaplanes bases would be established and radar would be set up to provide advance air warning for the invasion fleet, to serve as fighter direction centers for the carrier-based aircraft and to provide an emergency anchorage for the invasion fleet, should things not go well on the day of the invasion.

            As the invasion grew imminent, the massive firepower of the Navy - the Third and Fifth Fleets - would approach Japan. The Third Fleet, under Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, with its big guns and naval aircraft, would provide strategic support the operation against Honshu and Hokkaido. Halsey’s fleet would be composed of battleships, heavy cruisers, destroyers, dozens of support ships and three fast carrier task groups. From these carriers, hundreds of Navy fighters, dive bombers and torpedo planes would hit targets all over the island of Honshu.

            The 3,000 ship fleet, under Admiral Raymond Spruance, would carry the invasion troops. Several days before the invasion, the battleships, heavy cruisers and destroyers would pour thousands of tons of high explosives into the target areas. They would not cease the bombardment until after the landing forces had been launched.

            During the early morning hours of November 1 the invasion would begin. Thousands of soldiers and Marines would pour ashore on beaches all along the eastern, southeastern, southern and western coasts of Kyushu. Waves of Helldivers, Dauntless dive bombers, Avengers, Corsairs, and Hellcats from 66 aircraft carriers would bomb, rocket and strafe enemy defenses, gun emplacements and troop concentrations along the beaches.

            The Eastern Assault Force, consisting of the 25th, 33rd and 41st Infantry Divisions, would land near Miyasaki, at beaches called Austin, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, and Ford and move inland to attempt to capture the city and its nearby airfield. The Southern Force, consisting of the 1st Cavalry Division and Americal Division would land inside Ariake Bay at beaches labeled Desoto, Dusenberg, Essex, Ford, and Franklin and attempt to capture Shibushi and to capture the city of Kanoya and its airfield. On the western shore of Kyushu, at beaches Pontiac, Reo, Rolls Royce, Saxon, Star, Studebaker, Stutz, Winton, and Zephyr, the V Amphibious Corps would land the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Marine Divisions, sending half of its force inland to Sendai and the other half to the port city of Kagoshima. On November 4, the reserve force, consisting of the 81st and 98th Infantry Divisions and the 11th Airborne Division, after feigning an attack off the island of Shikoku, would be landed - if not needed elsewhere - near Kaimondake, near the southernmost tip of Kagoshima Bay, at beaches designated Locomobile, Lincoln, LaSalle, Hupmobile, Moon, Mercedes, Maxwell, Overland, Oldsmobile, Packard and Plymouth.

            Olympic was not just a plan for invasion, but for conquest and occupation as well. It was expected to take four months to achieve its objective, with three fresh American divisions per month to be landed in support of that operation if needed. If all went well with Olympic, Coronet would be launched March 1, 1946.

            Coronet would be twice the size of Olympic, with as many as 28 American divisions landing on Honshu. All along the coast east of Tokyo, the American 1st Army would land the 5th, 7th, 27th, 44th, 86th, and 96th Infantry Divisions along with the 4th and 6th Marine Divisions. At Sagami Bay, just south of Tokyo, the entire 8th and 10th Armies would strike north and east and attempt to go as far as Yokohama. The assault troops landing south of Tokyo would be the 4th, 6th, 8th, 24th, 31st, 32nd, 37th, 38th, and 87th Infantry Divisions, along with the 13th and 20th Armored Divisions. Following the initial assault, eight more divisions - the 2nd, 28th, 35th, 91st, 95th, 97th, and 104th Infantry Divisions and the 11th Airborne Division - would be landed. If additional troops were needed, as expected, other divisions redeployed from Europe and undergoing training in the United States would be shipped to Japan in what was hoped to be the final push.

            Captured Japanese documents and post war interrogation of Japanese military leaders disclose that information concerning the number of Japanese planes available for the defense of the home islands was dangerously in error. During the sea battle at Okinawa alone, Japanese kamikaze aircraft sank 32 Allied ships and damaged more than 400 others.

            But during the summer of 1945, American top brass concluded that the Japanese had spent their air force since American bombers and fighters daily flew unmolested over Japan. What the military leaders did not know was that by the end of July the Japanese had been saving all aircraft, fuel and pilots in reserve, and had been feverishly building new planes for the decisive battle for their homeland.

            As part of Ketsu-Go, the name for the plan to defend Japan, the Japanese were building 20 suicide takeoff strips in southern Kyushu with underground hangers. They also had 35 camouflaged airfields and nine seaplane bases. On the night before the expected invasion, 50 Japanese seaplane bombers, 100 former carrier aircraft and 50 land-based army planes were to be launched in a suicide attack on the fleet. The Japanese had 58 more airfields on Korea, western Honshu and Shikoku, which also were to be used for massive suicide attacks.

            Allied intelligence had established that the Japanese had no more that 2,500 aircraft of which they guessed that 300 would be deployed in suicide attacks. In August 1945, however, unknown to Allied intelligence, the Japanese still had 5,651 army and 7,074 navy aircraft, for a total of 12,725 planes of all types. Every village had some type of aircraft manufacturing activity. Hidden in mines, railway tunnels, under viaducts and in basements of department stores, work was being done to construct new planes. Additionally, the Japanese were building newer and more effective models of the Okka - a rocket-propelled bomb much like the German V-1, but flown by a suicide pilot.

            When the invasion became imminent, Ketsu-Go called for a fourfold aerial plan of attack to destroy up to 800 Allied ships. While Allied ships were approaching Japan, but still in the open seas, an initial force of 2,000 army and navy fighters were to fight to the death to control the skies over Kyushu. A second force of 330 navy combat pilots were to attack the main body of the task force to keep it from using its fire support and air cover to protect the troop carrying transports. While these two forces were engaged, a third force of 825 suicide planes was to hit the American transports. As the invasion convoys approached their anchorages, another 2,000 suicide planes were to be launched in waves of 200 to 300, to be used in hour-by-hour attacks.

            By mid-morning of the first day of the invasion, most of the American land-based aircraft would be forced to return to their bases, leaving the defense against the suicide planes to the carrier pilots and the shipboard gunners. Carrier pilots crippled by fatigue would have to land time and time again to rearm and refuel. Guns would malfunction from the heat of continuos firing and ammunition would become scarce. Gun crews would be exhausted by nightfall, but still the waves of kamikazes would continue. With the fleet hovering off the beaches, all remaining Japanese aircraft would be committed to nonstop suicide attacks, which the Japanese hoped could be sustained for 10 days.

            The Japanese planned to coordinate their air strikes with attacks from the 40 remaining submarines from the Imperial Navy - some armed with Long Lance torpedoes with a range of 20 miles - when the invasion fleet was 180 miles off Kyushu. The Imperial Navy had 23 destroyers and 2 cruisers which were operational. These ships were to be used to counterattack the American invasion. A number of the destroyers were to be beached at the last minute to be used as anti-invasion gun platforms.

            Once offshore, the invasion fleet would be forced to defend not only against the attacks from the air, but would also be confronted with suicide attacks from the sea. Japan had established a suicide naval attack unit of midget submarines, human torpedoes and exploding motorboats. The goal of the Japanese was to shatter the invasion before the landing. The Japanese were convinced the Americans would back off or become so demoralized that they would then accept a less-than-unconditional surrender and a more honorable and face-saving end for the Japanese.

            But as horrible as the battle of Japan would be off the beaches, it would be on Japanese soil that the American forces would face the most rugged and fanatical defense encountered during the war. Throughout the island-hopping Pacific campaign, Allied troops had always out numbered the Japanese 2 to 1 and sometimes 3 to 1.

            In Japan it would be different. By virtue of a combination of cunning, guesswork, and brilliant military reasoning, a number of Japan’s top military leaders were able to deduce, not only when, but where, the United States would land its first invasion force. Facing the 14 American divisions landing at Kyushu would be 14 Japanese divisions, 7 independent mixed brigades, 3 tank brigades and thousands of naval troops. On Kyushu the odds would be 3 to 2 in favor of the Japanese, with 790,000 enemy defenders against 550,000 Americans.

            This time the bulk of the Japanese defenders would not be the poorly trained and ill-equipped labor battalions that the Americans had faced in the earlier campaigns. The Japanese defenders would be the hard-core of the home army. These troops were well-fed and well equipped. They were familiar with the terrain, had stockpiles of arms and ammunition, and had developed an effective system of transportation and supply almost invisible from the air. Many of these Japanese troops were the elite of the army, and they were swollen with a fanatical fighting spirit.

            Japan’s network of beach defenses consisted of offshore mines, thousands of suicide scuba divers attacking landing craft, and mines planted on the beaches. Coming ashore, the American Eastern amphibious assault forces at Miyazaki would face three Japanese divisions, and two others poised for counterattack. Awaiting the Southeastern attack force at Ariake Bay was an entire division and at least one mixed infantry brigade.

            On the western shores of Kyushu, the Marines would face the most brutal opposition. Along the invasion beaches would be the three Japanese divisions, a tank brigade, a mixed infantry brigade and an artillery command. Components of two divisions would also be poised to launch counterattacks. If not needed to reinforce the primary landing beaches, the American Reserve Force would be landed at the base of Kagoshima Bay November 4, where they would be confronted by two mixed infantry brigades, parts of two infantry divisions and thousands of the naval troops.

            All along the invasion beaches, American troops would face coastal batteries, anti-landing obstacles and a network of heavily fortified pillboxes, bunkers, and underground fortresses. As Americans waded ashore, they would face intense artillery and mortar fire as they worked their way through concrete rubble and barbed-wire entanglements arranged to funnel them into the muzzle of these Japanese guns. On the beaches and beyond would be hundreds of Japanese machine gun positions, beach mines, booby traps, trip-wire mines and sniper units. Suicide units concealed in “spider holes” would engage the troops as they passed nearby. In the heat of battle, Japanese infiltration units would be sent to reap havoc in the American lines by cutting phone and communication lines.

            Some of the Japanese troops would be in American uniform, English-speaking Japanese officers were assigned to break in on American radio traffic to call off artillery fire, to order retreats and to further confuse troops. Other infiltrators with demolition charges strapped on their chests or backs would attempt to blow up American tanks, artillery pieces and ammunition stores as they were unloaded ashore. Beyond the beaches were large artillery pieces situated to bring down a curtain of fire on the beach. Some of these large guns were mounted on railroad tracks running in and out of caves protected by concrete and steel.

            The battle for Japan would be won by what Simon Bolivar Buckner, a lieutenant general in the Confederate army during the Civil War, had called “Prairie Dog Warfare.” This type of fighting was almost unknown to the ground troops in Europe and the Mediterranean. It was peculiar only to the soldiers and Marines who fought the Japanese on islands all over the Pacific - at Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Prairie Dog Warfare was a battle for yards, feet and sometimes inches. It was a brutal, deadly and dangerous form of combat aimed at an underground, heavily fortified, non-retreating enemy. In the mountains behind the Japanese beaches were underground networks of caves, bunkers, command posts and hospitals connected by miles of tunnels with dozens of entrances and exits. Some of these complexes could hold up to 1,000 troops.

            In addition to the use of poison gas and bacteriological warfare (which the Japanese had experimented with), Japan mobilized its citizenry. Had Olympic come about, the Japanese civilian population, inflamed by a national slogan - One Hundred Million Will Die for the Emperor and Nation - was prepared to fight to the death. Twenty-eight million Japanese had become a part of the National Volunteer Combat Force. They were armed with ancient rifles, lunge mines, satchel charges, Molotov tails and one-shot black powder mortars. Others were armed with swords, long bows, axes and bamboo spears. The civilian units were to be used in nighttime attacks, hit and run maneuvers, delaying actions and massive suicide charges at the weaker American positions. At the early stage of the invasion, 1,000 Japanese and American soldiers would be dying every hour.

            The invasion of Japan never became a reality because on August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Within days, the war with Japan was at a close. Had these bombs not been dropped and had the invasion been launched as scheduled, combat casualties in Japan would have been at a minimum in the tens of thousands. Every foot of Japanese soil would have been paid for by Japanese and American lives. One can only guess at how many civilians would have committed suicide in their homes or in futile mass military attacks.

            In retrospect, the 1 million American men who where to be casualties of the invasion, were instead lucky enough to survive the war. Intelligence studies and military estimates made 50 years ago, and not latter-day speculation, clearly indicate that the battle for Japan might well have resulted in the biggest bloodbath in the history of modern warfare. Far worse would be what might have happened to Japan as a nation and as a culture. When the invasion came, it would have come after several months of fire bombing all of the remaining Japanese cities. The cost in human life that resulted from the two atomic blasts would be small in comparison to the total number of Japanese lives that would have been lost by this aerial devastation.

            With American forces locked in combat in the south of Japan, little could have prevented the Soviet Union from marching into the northern half of the Japanese home islands. Japan today could be divided much like Korea and Germany. The world was spared the cost of Operation Downfall, however, because Japan formally surrendered to the United Nations September 2, 1945 and World War II was over. The aircraft carriers, cruisers and transport ships scheduled to carry the invasion troops to Japan, ferried home American troops in a gigantic operation called Magic Carpet.

            In the fall of 1945, in the aftermath of the war, few people concerned themselves with the invasion plans. Following the surrender, the classified documents, maps, diagrams and appendices for Operation Downfall were packed away in boxes and eventually stored at the National Archives. These plans that called for invasion of Japan paint a vivid description of what might have been on of the most horrible campaigns in the history of man. The fact the story of the invasion of Japan is locked up in the National Archives and is not told in our history books is something for which all Americans can be thankful.
            "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
            "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

            Comment


            • #96
              S-2,

              an excellent article.

              there is a book, Death is Lighter than a Feather, by David Westenheimer, which details what might have happened if operation downfall faced off against operation ketsu-go. exhaustively researched.

              http://www.amazon.com/Death-Is-Light.../dp/0929398904

              IIRC the book ends with a successful (albeit extremely extremely bloody) operation olympic, with the emperor surrendering prior to operation coronet (the one part of the book i don't think would have occurred).

              certainly, if american losses were that high, both the outraged, war-weary, and dare i say it, rather racist american public of the time (fueled by propaganda) would most likely have demanded the slaughter of the japanese to the last man, woman, and child.

              after all, in our own timeline, polls already showed 13% of the american public calling for just that.

              honestly, the japanese of all people should acknowledge that as horrific as it was, the atomic bombs saved them from utter destruction. in fact, the effects of the bomb were such that it allowed the american populace to accept macarthur's (overly, IMHO) generous occupation and screwed-up war criminal trials.
              There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

              Comment


              • #97
                Originally posted by S-2 View Post
                S-2 Note- I apologize beforehand. I've no longer the link but felt that this article, properly attributed, was worth reading in light of the subject.

                Operation Downfall-The Invasion of Japan, November, 1945 "An Invasion not found in the history books" by James Martin Davis, The Omaha World Herald, November, 1987.

                Deep in the recesses of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., hidden for nearly four decades, lie thousands of pages of yellowing and dusty documents stamped “Top Secret”. These documents, now declassified, are the plans for Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan during World War II. Only a few Americans in 1945 were aware of the elaborate plans that had been prepared for the Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands. Even fewer today are aware of the defenses the Japanese had prepared to counter the invasion had it been launched.

                Operation Downfall was finalized during the spring and summer of 1945. It called for two massive military undertakings to be carried out in succession and aimed at the heart of the Japanese Empire. In the first invasion - code named Operation Olympic - American combat troops would land on Japan by amphibious assault during the early morning hours of November 1, 1945.
                Actually, the invasion known as Operation Olympic(if it had occurred) would have taken place even later.

                On 4 October 1945, a typhoon was spotted developing in the Caroline Islands and tracked as it moved on a predictable course to the northwest. Although expected to pass into the East China Sea north of Formosa on 8 October, the storm unexpectedly veered north toward Okinawa. That evening the storm slowed down and, just as it approached Okinawa, began to greatly increase in intensity. The sudden shift of the storm caught many ships and small craft in the constricted waters of Buckner Bay (Nakagusuku Wan) and they were unable to escape to sea. On 9 October, when the storm passed over the island, winds of 80 knots (92 miles per hour) and 30-35 foot waves battered the ships and craft in the bay and tore into the quonset huts and buildings ashore. A total of 12 ships and craft were sunk, 222 grounded, and 32 severely damaged. Personnel casualties were 36 killed, 47 missing, and 100 seriously injured. Almost all the food, medical supplies and other stores were destroyed, over 80% of all housing and buildings knocked down, and all the military installations on the island were temporarily out of action. Over 60 planes were damaged as well, though most were repairable. Although new supplies had been brought to the island by this time, and emergency mess halls and sleeping quarters built for all hands, the scale of the damage was still very large. If the war had not ended on 2 September, this damage, especially the grounding and damage to 107 amphibious craft (including the wrecking of four tank landing ships, two medium landing ships, a gunboat, and two infantry landing craft) would likely have seriously impacted the planned invasion of Japan (Operation Olympic).

                http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq102-6.htm

                Comment


                • #98
                  Astralis Reply

                  I believe that I read Westenheimer's book in my youth, mistaking him with (variously) John Hersey and John Toland. Why, I don't know. It was only recently that I discovered my mistake.

                  I remember, though, thinking just how realistic and horrific it seemed. Almost without question my father, who's good fortune in breaking his leg in basic, September 1944, would have found himself ass-deep in the blood. I doubt that there would have been anything quite like it in World War II, nor before. Neither Nanking, Stalingrad, nor any other battlefield would have replicated the end-to-end horror which invading Japan certainly guaranteed.

                  The prospect of a divided Japan with a communist north is interesting, also. It has significant future implications for both the Korean War and the Cold War.
                  "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
                  "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

                  Comment


                  • #99
                    kansas bear, the Japanese government are covering up the Nanjing massacre. when i went to the massacre memorial in febuary a japanese man aproached my group, crying and apoligising for the massacre. because he never had any idea it had happened, i also heard that information is not available on the internet and that it is not covered at school.
                    die, no0b

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by S-2 View Post
                      S-2 Note- I apologize beforehand. I've no longer the link but felt that this article, properly attributed, was worth reading in light of the subject.
                      S-2, here's a couple of links to different re-prints of this article should you need them. The third is also a nice outline of Coronet and Olympic

                      http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro.../downfall.html
                      http://www.waszak.com/japanww2.htm

                      http://www.ww2pacific.com/downfall.html
                      In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

                      Leibniz

                      Comment


                      • Y.E.S. they were right in dropping the bomb, and if they didn't surrender after the first two then I for one have no qualms if they had to drop more till they saw the light. Am I being selfish? Damn right.

                        Winners are grinners, losers make their own arrangements.
                        No sea too rough, no muf* too tough.

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by RedArmySurplus View Post
                          kansas bear, the Japanese government are covering up the Nanjing massacre. when i went to the massacre memorial in febuary a japanese man aproached my group, crying and apoligising for the massacre. because he never had any idea it had happened, i also heard that information is not available on the internet and that it is not covered at school.
                          That is correct. The Japanese government systematically "forget" to mention the various warcrimes committed by their beloved "heroes" during WW2, especially the Nanking massacre and the infamous human experiments conducted in Manchuria.

                          Their text books don't take responsibilities for starting the war, nor do they mention anything about how the IJA invaded various Asian countries.

                          Germans had the balls to face the crimes committed by some of their crazed relatives in the past. Not the Japanese. Germans are still paying for their crimes against humanity. It's difficult to get the Japanese to admit starting the war, let alone getting an apology from them.
                          "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

                          Comment


                          • In all reality, the time to get the Japanese to apologize for anything is long past. Those who were guilty and/or responsible are gone and I, for one, would never punish the son for the sins of the father.

                            There is no need nor desire to forgive the son ... but that does not mean that we are going to forget and the son better know that we are not going to forget.

                            Comment


                            • Drop the bomb? Yes. I came into this late so please forgive me. War is about killing people. Whether you "mist" them at a hundred meters or get splattered at one meter the result is the same. Every new weapon (if it works) is scorned as barbaric.

                              Civilian targets? Guernica was condemned as a atrocity but only a few short years later the same tactic was used by both sides as a matter of course. When the Bible says "they were put to the sword", it doesn't mean all noncombatants were evacuated and only high value military targets were destroyed. It means they killed EVERYBODY. If you can't accept that then you need to find a new line of work.
                              Reddite igitur quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
                              (Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's)

                              Comment


                              • Originally posted by sappersgt View Post
                                Drop the bomb? Yes. I came into this late so please forgive me. War is about killing people. Whether you "mist" them at a hundred meters or get splattered at one meter the result is the same. Every new weapon (if it works) is scorned as barbaric.

                                Civilian targets? Guernica was condemned as a atrocity but only a few short years later the same tactic was used by both sides as a matter of course. When the Bible says "they were put to the sword", it doesn't mean all noncombatants were evacuated and only high value military targets were destroyed. It means they killed EVERYBODY. If you can't accept that then you need to find a new line of work.
                                I don't know if I accept the bible as an authoritative source on what military/political policy should be in a time of war. According to the bible, god killed everyone except Noah (and a few lucky animals) because they were "bad" -- including 2 month olds, 2 year olds etc. I think there's a fundamental difference between the bible as great literature, and the bible as a yardstick for military policy.

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