75 Years On, Remember Hiroshima
And Nagasaki. But Remember Toyama Too
National Public Radio,
by
Cary Karacas
&
David Fedman
Original Article
Posted By: StormCnter,
8/2/2020 8:18:01 AM
On Aug. 1, 1945, 12-year-old Hideko Sudo went to bed fully clothed and full of worry. For days, air raid alerts had left the coastal city of Toyama on edge, prompting her school's closure. More alarmingly, earlier that day, American planes had rained down leaflets warning of an imminent attack.
Hideko's fears proved well-founded. Despite a sophisticated alert system and a decade of air defense drills, the arrival just after midnight of a wave of B-29 bombers plunged Toyama into chaos. Superfortresses — 173 of them — encountered only sparse antiaircraft fire as they released around 1,500 tons of incendiaries onto the city's center.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Northcross 8/2/2020 8:26:35 AM (No. 497326)
How terrible that we tried to force an end to the war that Japan started. Any thoughts about the Rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March, The Attack on Singapore, the brutal treatment of Allied POW's? Of course not. This is the America hating NPR.
87 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Knotwyrkin 8/2/2020 8:28:11 AM (No. 497328)
Remember that war means you kill more of them than they of you, and the loser does the math and decides to not war any longer.
59 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 8/2/2020 8:30:26 AM (No. 497331)
When you start a war, it’s advisable you not live in a house made of paper....
53 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
richcorey41 8/2/2020 8:31:37 AM (No. 497333)
I guess they shouldn't have bombed Pearl Harbor.
66 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
bpl40 8/2/2020 8:34:36 AM (No. 497338)
The memorial for the victims of the atomic attack on Hiroshima has this inscription "Rest in Peace. May the mistakes of the past never be repeated". What it (deliberately, in my opinion) neglects to say is that the "mistake" is Pearl Harbor , not Hiroshima. As a child of a Japanese PoW, I owe my existence to those attacks. As, I am sure do millions of of Baby Boomers.
48 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Venturer 8/2/2020 8:37:22 AM (No. 497342)
They could have quit when the Germans did.
They had to be smart enough to figure out that with Germany out of it the complete effort of the Allied forces was coming at them , and they were already in bad shape and losing.
There is only one entity that can be blamed for the bombings that stopped the war and that is the Japanese military.
53 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Avikingman 8/2/2020 8:37:40 AM (No. 497344)
Remember they started it.
Anything to end the war and bring our men home. That it took two bombs to force the Japanese surrender is testimony to their then belligerence.
The US helped rebuild Japan, and Europe.
46 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Historybuff 8/2/2020 8:49:41 AM (No. 497359)
Every year at this time, I ask the question:
Did Japan have an atomic program?
The answer is - Yes.
If Japan had gotten there first, who do you think they would have used it on?
I am here today because my father, an Iwo Corpsman, did not have to invade Japan on Nov. 9th.
My wife is here today, because her mother a 12 year old school girl in Japan, did not have to throw herself off the mountain as she was being trained to do.
More Japanese died in the firebombing of Japanese cities than from the two atomic bombs.
The US ordered over a million Purple Hearts minted for the invasion of Japan. They would not need to order more until the first Gulf War.
33 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Turninggrey 8/2/2020 8:56:49 AM (No. 497366)
NPR. Hating America since 1967. LBJ put them into business along with a lot of other "Destroy America" ideas.
Sorry Japan, I think you turned out to be an OK ally and now that the score is settled and you have proven your integrity over the years I personally hold no animosity, BUT there are still plenty of your pre teen rape victims alive scattered across the pacific islands you conquered through cowardly sneak attacks, as well as many young pre teen men that you made watch while their mothers were raped and then fathers killed.
We now protect you from China who should never forgive you. In all honesty, you made Hitler and the SS look like Boy Scouts when it comes to monstrous brutality. I am still not sure how you got a pass on that. Now tell me why I should feel bad about firebombings on a country that was proclaiming they would fight to the last man thus ensuring hundreds of thousands of more American lives lost to reign in your delusions of world domination. You showed us time and again that you would do that. I am not in the slightest bit remorseful of anything we did to win the war in the Pacific. NPR needs to be defunded for its Ameriphobia.
60 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Urgent Fury 8/2/2020 8:57:33 AM (No. 497367)
War articles by academics who would no more put on a uniform and go get shot at than drink a Budweiser or go hog hunting.
30 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
LanceLink1 8/2/2020 8:57:49 AM (No. 497368)
NPR once again fails to provide all the facts and fails to deliver an honest objective report. Instead we get another America is evil opinion piece.
Placing your moral equivalence of today on events that took place seventy five years ago without framing the knowledge and beliefs of that time is bad journalism. But then again it is NPR so what do you expect?
Imprecise bombing from the higher altitudes caused by the jet stream was a new phenomenon not anticipated with the deployment of the then state of the art B-29. LeMay countered this by bombing from eight thousand feet which negated the advantage of the new Superfortress and inevitably the loss of many planes and more importantly their crews. With these mounting losses, the resilient fanaticism of the Japanese people and the desire to let the world (i.e. our Russian "ally") know conventional war is changing combined with the post Pearl Harbor unconditional surrender mood of the country at that time nobody gave the firebombings a second thought.
So today for NPR to view these events through their lens of pious condemnation is laughable. Especially when it is taxpayer funded money losing organization..
35 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 8/2/2020 8:57:55 AM (No. 497370)
People forget that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were three days apart, and even after the Japanese surrender, elements of the Japanese military tried to mount a coup to overthrow the Japanese government.
24 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Jethro bo 8/2/2020 9:00:07 AM (No. 497374)
If targeting civilians during war is now a crime, can we tear down statues of Sherman?
13 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Rob_NC 8/2/2020 9:14:41 AM (No. 497398)
As I read these comments I wonder what the future holds.
The next Hitler and allies may succeed.
War is hell...
9 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
chance_232 8/2/2020 9:18:36 AM (No. 497404)
I'm not familiar with Toyama, but have read up on the firebombing of Tokyo. The death and destruction was on a scale that is mind boggling in its intensity and numbers. We are not talking about a few dozen bombers, but hundreds dropping hundreds of thousands of bombs, incinerating 15 square miles in one attack. The fire bombings on Japan were on a scale that would be impossible to pull off today.
I wont condemn or defend the tactics. Warfare was conducted differently before the 24/7 new broadcasts, and in a time where populations largely supported their country's war efforts. Before bombers, tanks and artillery. Entire populations were put to the sword or enslaved after surrender.
When waging war, the goal is to destroy your enemies ability and will to wage war in the quickest and most efficient manner possible. Thats why Japan attached Pearl Harbor in a per-emptive attack who's purpose was to destroy the US Pacific fleet to cripple our war fighting ability and to demoralize the population in an effort to kill our will to fight.
Any coutry no prepared to wage all out war and do whatever is necessary to win, loses before it starts.
27 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
BarryNo 8/2/2020 9:24:33 AM (No. 497412)
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were brutal, yes. Terrifying, yes. Demoralizing, oh, yes.
They were meant to be. They were not a mistake. And they saved about ten million lives, becasue Japan surrendered instead of resisting MacArthur's Southern invasion. A lot of people, American and Japanese are alive today, because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
34 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
sanspeur 8/2/2020 9:28:19 AM (No. 497418)
as a brat of the 330 Bomb Group stationed in Guam , I salute the brave Americans who toiled & fought in our defense . The Japanese deserved every bit of vengeance for their their two sided war .They invaded their Asian neighbors with unimaginable atrocities and attacked the US in stealth . maybe FDR knew of their treachery beforehand but the whole world knows of our heroic response .
After the war we were one of the families occupying Japan and rebuilding her . My Dad came home , so many didn’t,
npr is a treacherous morally bankrupt psy op upon a country that should be better & proudly served by telling the true story of our brave men & women .
37 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
rikkitikki 8/2/2020 9:29:06 AM (No. 497419)
Without intending to, the article gives another justification for dropping 'the bomb.'
Even after the destruction of their major cities, the Japanese were still unwilling to surrender. It was only after the two Atomics, which promised their utter annihilation, that they capitulated.
War is hell, and the whole 'superior race' thing is a fiction, as Japan found out the really hard way.
26 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
czechlist 8/2/2020 9:29:29 AM (No. 497421)
I visited Japan in 1971 and Nagasaki that August 26 years after Fat Man's devastation. There was a verdant park at ground zero where the plaque on the obelisk stated nothing would grow for 75 years. The city was quite beautiful with only museums and a Peace Park as reminders of the bombing. No victors have ever been as forgiving and generous as the USA. Most conquerors would leave the vanquished in their rubble to fend for themselves but the US rebuilt Japan (and Germany) and they became economic rivals. Just as slavery, it ended, it's over, and nothing can change history. I wonder if Cary and David had grandfathers in uniform in 1945.
30 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
sternben 8/2/2020 9:46:15 AM (No. 497442)
Underhanded criticism by commie NPR
21 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
udanja99 8/2/2020 9:48:06 AM (No. 497445)
No, NPR. How about we remember the men of the USS Arizona instead?
Japan started it. We ended it.
33 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
red1066 8/2/2020 9:51:30 AM (No. 497450)
The invasion of Japan's mainland would have caused even more death and destruction then a couple of nukes. Estimates of killed and wounded on both sides, would have exceeded a million. So many casualties were expected from and invasion of Japan's mainland, that the number of medals manufactured for such an invasion are still used today. Purple hearts and such presented to soldiers over the last 50 years, were made in case we had to invade Japan. The bombing of Japanese cities prior to the dropping of the atomic bombs caused more damage then the atomic bombs. The leaders of Japan were offered a chance to surrender, but did not do so. The U.S. just chose the method to end the war that would have caused the fewest casualties to U.S. personnel.
20 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
MDConservative 8/2/2020 10:12:06 AM (No. 497476)
Total War is exactly that...end of discussion.
10 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
WV.Hillbilly 8/2/2020 10:12:11 AM (No. 497477)
They started it, we finished it.
14 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
TruthFetish 8/2/2020 10:21:42 AM (No. 497497)
What #18 (and mebbe others) said: the atom bombs ended the war, the fire bombings, not so much. When your enemy burns down your house, you will fight that much harder. Even after moving into a tent.
There was NO political will to even speak of surrender in 1945 Japan. Fire bombings would have gone on, and on, and on.
The blunt force of not one, but two and perhaps many more obliterations of cities was what it took to make possible Japanese surrender. . . saving tens of millions of Japanese lives that would have been lost in a conventional invasion.
10 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
beancounter 8/2/2020 10:25:28 AM (No. 497503)
Let’s not forget that they slaughtered 100,000 civilians in Manila just a few months earlier, let alone what the Japanese did the previous 10 years.
21 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
Mizz Fixxit 8/2/2020 10:31:35 AM (No. 497509)
Snowflake writers have no standing to judge WW2 American strategy and tactics. Unless Karacas and Fedman are 1st or 2nd generation Americans, their great grandfathers were of military age in 1945. There is likelihood those men would have participated in an invasion of the Japanese mainland, estimated at 1 million casualties, if the USA had chosen that option, and there were two options only —- firebombings and atom bombs, or invasion. Thus, it can be speculated that the writers would not be here to publish a self-righteous, dishonest hit piece from the blind perspective of a liberal.
18 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
LadyHen 8/2/2020 10:47:19 AM (No. 497535)
These "journalists" need to read a few accounts of the brutality of the Japanese, against Koreans, Chinese, all of SE Asia, those in prison camps. Talk to some people who were in those countries and in those camps, men, women, children. Then get back to us.
The Japanese drive to win at all costs and their religious belief in their own superiority made them more deadly even than the Germans. Yes it was horror. All war is horror.
14 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
snakeoil 8/2/2020 11:20:10 AM (No. 497575)
Don't have a photographic memory but General Curtis LeMay put it like this: War is about killing people. When you kill enough people the war stops.
8 people like this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
dirtyjersey 8/2/2020 11:49:57 AM (No. 497606)
I am alive because we dropped the bombs. My father was in the 4th Marine Division on Iwo Jima. His sister helped build the bomb that saved his life.
The Japanese would not surrender after the fire bombing of Tokyo, or the first atomic bomb. The emperor chose this path. Blame him.
10 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
cor-vet 8/2/2020 1:28:45 PM (No. 497722)
Stated simply, "If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch!" America was the big dog that Japan couldn't run with. I spent part of the early 60s in Japan and it was an enjoyable experience. We also hosted a Japanese exchange student in the mid 80s, and we still stay in touch with her. She was and is a really sweet person. That doesn't negate the fact that they started it and we finished it.
7 people like this.
Reply 32 - Posted by:
Deepthinker 8/2/2020 2:05:28 PM (No. 497765)
Amen #28
These apologists need to remember Manila.
Minimum 100,000 civilians dead. Nipples cut off rape victims before their gut was slit.
A total rampage by the Japanese.
7 people like this.
Reply 33 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 8/2/2020 2:42:13 PM (No. 497789)
And we taught the tyrants of the world such a lesson that there has been no repeat of German and Japanese world wide aggression. If the punishment is not sufficient, it does not deter the crime. Our response seems to have been what was needed. Hopefully the lesson won't need to be repeated.
3 people like this.
Reply 34 - Posted by:
Heil Liberals 8/2/2020 2:59:00 PM (No. 497799)
An Iwo Jima veteran who did occupation duty after Japan surrendered told me that Japanese homes were full of ceramic grenades and other IEDs. He said that had the U.S. invaded the Japanese islands, they would have had to slaughter people left and right while enduring tens of thousands of combat casualties. As horrific and indiscriminate as the nuclear weapons were, they eventually saved millions of Japanese lives.
6 people like this.
Reply 35 - Posted by:
OhioNick 8/2/2020 3:34:54 PM (No. 497828)
Don't forget that there was imminent Japanese plan to attack San Diego with biological weapons, which according to estimates would have killed 400,000 Americans.
I have zero guilt about the bombing of Japan.
3 people like this.
Reply 36 - Posted by:
49 Ford 8/2/2020 4:02:22 PM (No. 497845)
I know NPR has an agenda, but this piece serves the purpose of reminding us of the true human cost of war for all those concerned.
The bombing of Toyama was ghastly. So were the attacks of August 6 and 9. But they were necessary. God, what a world.
1 person likes this.
Reply 37 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 8/2/2020 5:20:52 PM (No. 497890)
It is quite likely that my best friend and his siblings would have never existed if the bombs hadn't been dropped. Why am I forced to support NPR and PBS?
2 people like this.
Reply 38 - Posted by:
Italiano 8/2/2020 5:29:23 PM (No. 497897)
We haven't won one since then.
0 people like this.
Reply 39 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 8/2/2020 5:34:03 PM (No. 497902)
NPR/PBS not much difference... a bunch of guilt-ridden whities trying to get the warm and fuzzy kumbaya feelings pandering to leftists and minorities.
The Japanese enlisted men were chained to the floor of their caves in Iwo Jima, along with their machine guns, making it impossible for them to escape or surrender. If an officer saw them trying to remove the shackles he would shoot them himself. This was why we had to turn them into crispy-critters with flame throwers. The Japanese enlisted soldiers were just chaff to be thrown away, while the officers could be expected to go to their "glorious deaths" for the Emperor, their "living god." This is what Japan had to be utterly destroyed, so that they could shake off that Bushido code and Emperor worship, otherwise they would never come into the 20th century.
Check the stock film clip/photo of Hiroshima and the infamous "clock tower." Notice it is still standing while little stands around it? See #3's comment above. Bamboo and rice paper do not make for durability. Look at Japan today and try to find houses made of said materials.
The firebombing of Tokyo was so bad that it started a "Fire Tornado" in which tens of thousands died. The Fire Chief had to commit 'seppuku' over the incident, since he had ordered thousands into an area where they could not escape the fire, which was literally a "hell on earth" in consuming everything. This event would have been repeated a hundred times over by just the preparation for invasion. Would that have been worth it?
My FIL was on board the ship headed for the invasion of Japan when peace was announced. He told me about the "tough as nails" Marine Raiders aboard ship who during the war were 'cool as cucumber' killers who actually broke down in tears at the news. Even they knew it was suicide to invade Japan.
Maybe these pantywaist NPR/PBS reporters & reporterettes should first ask veterans who were THERE and witnessed the horrors Japanese Officers inflicted on Allied soldiers, as well as their own, before they release their, "Question EVERYTHING the U.S. has ever done," brand of yellow-Commie-journalism?
3 people like this.
Thank goodness we had alpha males back then. I was friends with an older woman who would become so angry about the Japanese and Pearl Harbor. She said "You don't know how they treated soldiers and the horrible things they did" Another friend, who was there, said "We were kids who got off that ship and didn't know what was coming"
To think the country is defunding the police and letting spoiled children burn down cities today.
Be afraid. Very afraid. The enemy never sleeps and they wait.
0 people like this.