bitterlyclingin
Silver Member
- Aug 4, 2011
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I think it was General Curtis Lemay in a videoquip on one of the Military Channel shows about the Atomic Bombing of Japan who remarked that at one point during the campaign for Guadalcanal the Marines had surrounded a large group of Japanese soldiers whom the Marines offered the opportunity to surrender to, which the Japanese refused, forcing the Marines to subsequently slaughter each man.
On the night of March 9th, 1945 the Army Air Corps launched a fireraid on the City of Tokyo that burned twelve square miles of the city, killed 83,000 people, and left another 150,000 people homeless. The Air Force repeated that tactic on 65 other Japanese cities.
The Home islands were cut off, no food, no fuel, shelter, no raw materials, yet most military leaders felt the only honorable choice was to fight to the last Japanese. The Air Force resorted to dropping leaflets to the Japanese people urging the people to convince their leaders to surrender which horrified the politicians of the time who assumed that if the people had known they were in the process of negotiating a surrender, the people would have revolted against the politicians. Still Japan would not surrender.
When the Emperor went on the air on August 15th, most of the people assumed he was doing so to urge them to continue fighting. Instead it began 'The war has not proceeded to the Japanese People's advantage........The enemy has begun using a most cruel bomb...Continued fighting would only lead to the abolition of the Japanese People.."
Happy Hiroshima Day! (video)
On the night of March 9th, 1945 the Army Air Corps launched a fireraid on the City of Tokyo that burned twelve square miles of the city, killed 83,000 people, and left another 150,000 people homeless. The Air Force repeated that tactic on 65 other Japanese cities.
The Home islands were cut off, no food, no fuel, shelter, no raw materials, yet most military leaders felt the only honorable choice was to fight to the last Japanese. The Air Force resorted to dropping leaflets to the Japanese people urging the people to convince their leaders to surrender which horrified the politicians of the time who assumed that if the people had known they were in the process of negotiating a surrender, the people would have revolted against the politicians. Still Japan would not surrender.
When the Emperor went on the air on August 15th, most of the people assumed he was doing so to urge them to continue fighting. Instead it began 'The war has not proceeded to the Japanese People's advantage........The enemy has begun using a most cruel bomb...Continued fighting would only lead to the abolition of the Japanese People.."
Happy Hiroshima Day! (video)
