I just finished reading Killing The Rising Sun by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard, published by Henry Holt & Co LLC, NYC NY, 1st Edition 2016.
My niece gave it to me as an Xmas present.
Took me 32 hours cover to cover including time for sleep and meals.
Found it to be the best book I have ever read, second only to the Greek New Testament in Greek.
Could not put it down once I started reading it. My sister wants to read it next so I will give it to her tomorrow. Our father was a veteran of WW2 in Europe and he used to shout in his sleep in the middle of the night and I as a small child would get out of bed and go running to his bedside and wake him so that his nightmares would stop.
O'Reilly points out astutely and with meticulous documentation that the US leadership and it's military and naval brass were split on the decision by Truman to drop the two A-bombs. He lists each of them individually and discusses why. Generally speaking the military was opposed to it except for the brass stationed in Washington DC close to Truman. However the rank and file including Tibbitts who dropped the first A-bomb were in favor of it.
O'Reilly tells this story from the viewpoints of several carefully documented first hand witnesses and participants of WW2 in the Pacific including his father.
I can now see having read the book that the USA was hungry and thirsty for a faster victory in Japan since the war in Europe had ended. There was a tremendous fear that Japan would never surrender.
While I agree with the noble view of MacArthur who opposed the use of the A-bombs that civilians should never be killed if avoidable, this point of view was overruled at the time. I do not however agree with MacArthur that Japan should have been invaded. I would have used naval power to isolate and blockade Japan and conventional air power to destroy their factories and food production. However in the end as many or more of the Japanese both military and civilian would likely have died as well by starvation then, so the debate is essentially moot.
So it does not matter whether Truman used the A-bombs or not. Either way many Japanese were going to die in order to end WW2 in the Pacific.
O'Reilly and his dad are correct however, that there is a chance that had the A-bombs not been used, then his father and my father might not have survived WW2. And then he and I might not be here now. The invasion of Japan which MacArthur favored might have cost a million or more American lives.
Those of us who are sons and daughters of WW2 veterans must carry on their legacies and teach what our fathers taught us to our sons, daughters, nephews, nieces and grandchildren so that the lessons of that war are always remembered.
O'Reilly has done a masterful job of this with his book. It will probably stay on the shelves of military history as long as there is a USA.
My niece gave it to me as an Xmas present.
Took me 32 hours cover to cover including time for sleep and meals.
Found it to be the best book I have ever read, second only to the Greek New Testament in Greek.
Could not put it down once I started reading it. My sister wants to read it next so I will give it to her tomorrow. Our father was a veteran of WW2 in Europe and he used to shout in his sleep in the middle of the night and I as a small child would get out of bed and go running to his bedside and wake him so that his nightmares would stop.
O'Reilly points out astutely and with meticulous documentation that the US leadership and it's military and naval brass were split on the decision by Truman to drop the two A-bombs. He lists each of them individually and discusses why. Generally speaking the military was opposed to it except for the brass stationed in Washington DC close to Truman. However the rank and file including Tibbitts who dropped the first A-bomb were in favor of it.
O'Reilly tells this story from the viewpoints of several carefully documented first hand witnesses and participants of WW2 in the Pacific including his father.
I can now see having read the book that the USA was hungry and thirsty for a faster victory in Japan since the war in Europe had ended. There was a tremendous fear that Japan would never surrender.
While I agree with the noble view of MacArthur who opposed the use of the A-bombs that civilians should never be killed if avoidable, this point of view was overruled at the time. I do not however agree with MacArthur that Japan should have been invaded. I would have used naval power to isolate and blockade Japan and conventional air power to destroy their factories and food production. However in the end as many or more of the Japanese both military and civilian would likely have died as well by starvation then, so the debate is essentially moot.
So it does not matter whether Truman used the A-bombs or not. Either way many Japanese were going to die in order to end WW2 in the Pacific.
O'Reilly and his dad are correct however, that there is a chance that had the A-bombs not been used, then his father and my father might not have survived WW2. And then he and I might not be here now. The invasion of Japan which MacArthur favored might have cost a million or more American lives.
Those of us who are sons and daughters of WW2 veterans must carry on their legacies and teach what our fathers taught us to our sons, daughters, nephews, nieces and grandchildren so that the lessons of that war are always remembered.
O'Reilly has done a masterful job of this with his book. It will probably stay on the shelves of military history as long as there is a USA.
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