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2023-08-04 Home Front: WoT

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Posted by Frank G 2023-08-04 08:58|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top

#1 Nanking? Deep in the darkest part of the memory hole is the Massacre of Manila. It's been put there by the usual Marxist 'historians' cause it cuts in the hysteria over the bombs. That was the American territory of the Philippines which was already scheduled prior to Dec '41 for independence.

Posted by Procopius2k 2023-08-04 11:50|| 2023-08-04 11:50|| Front Page Top

#2 Another memory hole victim: The Imperial Japanese Unit 731 [wiki]: "Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in lethal human experimentation and biological weapons manufacturing during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II. The unit is estimated to have killed between 200,000 and 300,000 people." If they could have they would have killed more, many more.

Posted by magpie 2023-08-04 12:28|| 2023-08-04 12:28|| Front Page Top

#3 Gerard Vanderluen (RIP) had a recurring post about wild stuff in Japanese culture: "The Japanese. Nuked too much or not enough?"

Posted by M. Murcek 2023-08-04 12:30|| 2023-08-04 12:30|| Front Page Top

#4 #2 I believe Fauci's CDC and NIH have been using that as a template.

Posted by Procopius2k 2023-08-04 13:02|| 2023-08-04 13:02|| Front Page Top

#5 Unfortunately, we didn't have a third bomb.
With the Trinity test, and two dropped in Japan, the estimate was likely three months before another was ready.

Posted by ed in texas 2023-08-04 13:13|| 2023-08-04 13:13|| Front Page Top

#6 ...The 2nd Marine Division was - with all honor and respect to the other services - quite likely the toughest and most battle-hardened unit in US service at the time. It would have gone in with the first wave of OLYMPIC.

And the casualty estimates, declassified years later, expected 2MARDIV to be utterly combat ineffective by D+10. The survivors would have been split up as replacements for other units.

And Dr. Compton mentions something that the US military in general tried to ignore (And General MacArthur and his staff refused to even acknowledge) - that the Japanese turned out to have a very good idea of where we were going to land. They weren't stupid; they knew what kind of terrain was required for an amphibious landing and they knew beaches like that were few and far between in Japan. All their forces were concentrated on those beaches, and it would have been awful. MacArthur also refused to have any airborne divisions involved...because he simply didn't like them.

Also forgotten is that FDR may have turned down the use of gas, but Harry Truman wasn't going to. And even if the first two bombs hadn't worked, the plan was to use EIGHT MORE BOMBS during the assault on Tokyo.

More lived were saved by the damned things than were ever lost.

Mike

Posted by MikeKozlowski 2023-08-04 14:43|| 2023-08-04 14:43|| Front Page Top

#7 /\ I remember reading 5-to-6 months before the next nuclear weapon was shipped and delivered to Saipan/Tinian and a pipeline producing another weapon every 3-to-4 months thereafter. Saipan is a long way from Oak Ridge...

Posted by magpie 2023-08-04 14:48|| 2023-08-04 14:48|| Front Page Top

#8 The bombs, plus MacArthur's stewardship, saved millions of lives, stopped the Soviets from enslaving half the island for fifty years and made Japan our BEST ally in the world today.

Posted by Regular joe 2023-08-04 15:56|| 2023-08-04 15:56|| Front Page Top

#9 my wife's father was on duty as the radioman on the USS Maryland on December 7th. Stayed below decks for hours until the water rose so high the radio equipment was about to be submerged.

Then was aboard a different Navy ships during the battle of Quadalcanal and Okinawa.

His ship, the Pasadena by then, was slated to take part in the assault on mainland Japan. They all KNEW their chances of surviving would be slim, having experienced the Kamikaze attacks off Okinawa.

When the news came to them of the dropping of the atomic bombs, EVERY man on the Pasadena wept...they knew their lives had been spared.

My father-in-law then got to witness the surrender in Tokyo harbor...through binoculars from the Pasadena.

I'm so proud of that man...since deceased.

p.s. the Navy arranged for us to scatter his ashes as close as possible to the mooring site of the Maryland on December 7th. The Missouri is moored there now, so they literally took us right up to the hull of the Missouri in a launch, and we scattered his ashes there. He has a plaque at Punchbowl cemetery, over which my brother-in-law blew taps...during which everyone in sight stopped and bowed their heads.

My wife is alive because the bombs were dropped...and thus my kids and grandkids. God bless the decision to do so!!

Posted by Boss Slomogum9954 2023-08-04 15:58|| 2023-08-04 15:58|| Front Page Top

#10 I used to be ambivalent about nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then I read a book called Downfall by Richard B. Frank.
1. Many more Japanese civilians were killed in the firebombing of Tokyo and other cities.
2. Many, many civilians were being trained to resist the invasion. Civilian casualties would have been tremendous.
3. If the nukes hadn't worked, the next step would have been bombing the railroad bridges that brought food to the cities. This would have caused mass starvation.

Posted by Rambler in Virginia 2023-08-04 16:21|| 2023-08-04 16:21|| Front Page Top

#11 There is an excellent British series called World at War. At the very end of the episode Japan, they have Japanese newsreel film of Japanese school girls practicing drill with knifes at the end of bamboo sticks.

Posted by Procopius2k 2023-08-04 17:59|| 2023-08-04 17:59|| Front Page Top

#12 Japanese school girls...

Anybody remember the roadside 'coke' kids in Vietnam? They would use safety razors on bamboo poles against the passing open top jeeps.

Posted by Skidmark 2023-08-04 20:06|| 2023-08-04 20:06|| Front Page Top

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