Bombs

Q: Does the United States have to take all the responsibility for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

A: Japanese fanaticism must take its share of the blame.

A question was brought up some time back in the Daily Dunklin Democrat about the ever controversial atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Then a few days ago TV's History Channel ran a documentary on the Battle of Okinawa that threw a light on the subject.

Okinawa was the last major battle of World War II. Okinawa is only 350 miles from Kyushu on the southern tip of the Japanese mainland. This strategic location would give U.S. bombers easy access to all Japanese cities, and become the logical staging area for an invasion of Japan.

It was at Okinawa that Japan dramatized what had been a continuation of national lunacy that had been present in every militant confrontation between themselves and U.S. forces.

It was the lunatic policy of no surrender under any circumstance; that it was an obligation and an honor to die for emperor and country.

Although it became a long and bloody task, U.S. soldiers and marine gradually took over Okinawa, making it hopeless situation for the Japanese. It was then yhey conducted the national policy of lunacy.

Already 3,000 Japanese kamikaze pilots had crashed to their deaths against U.S. ships. Japanese soldiers on Okinawa launched a series of suicidal banzai charges, with U.S. soldiers accommodating them. Japanese soldiers dug into caves and refused to come out. They were incinerated in those holes. Mass suicide became common for Japanese soldiers, and Okinawa civilians, whom the Japanese had convinced our soldiers would rape and murder.

It is problematic, but no reason not to assume, that if the Japanese had chosen to walk out with their hands up, as many as 75,000 to 80,000 Japanese soldiers could have lived their lives out. From a military standpoint, they would also have become a burden on U.S. resources.

Instead 107,000 Japanese soldiers chose to die on Okinawa. We lost 12,000 soldiers and sailors. 100,000 civilians also perished on Okinawa.

U.S. decision makers looked at Okinawa, as well as the suicidal pattern for the Japanese throughout the Pacific War. The significant difference at Okinawa was the scope of fanaticism.

President Harry S. Truman said that de did not want to see an Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other. It was then he made the decision to drop the first atomic bomb.

Base on U.S. determination, and Japanese fanaticism there is little doubt that an invasion of Japan would have cost the lives of several million people. Even after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese Admiral Ohnishi said, if 20 million people were ready to die for Japan we could still win this war.

Only the emperor's intervention stopped some planned coups to take over the government and not surrender. This could have led to virtual annihilation of Japan.

There were more people killed on just Okinawa than the combined deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.