What If The Hiroshima & Nagasaki Bombs Not Dropped

WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF THE ATOM BOMBS HAD NOT
BEEN DROPPED ON HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI
War is ugly but it is not the ugliest. Far uglier is the sixty years of criticism, complaints, and condemnation by self-righteous, ignorant people who never ask the question: What would have happened in WWII if the bombs had not been dropped. The answer to that question has been known for a very long time.
The plans for the American invasion of the Japanese home islands in WWII still exist and have been available for many years to anyone who asks the question. There were 420 thousand American soldiers killed in WWII. How many more Americans and Japanese would have been killed if the invasion of Japan had been carried out? How much longer would WWII have continued before the Japanese surrendered? Who, in Japan, could make the decision to stop the war? How many of the fools who condemn the decision to drop the bombs would not exist because their fathers, grandfathers would have been killed in the invasion of Japan?
For sixty years the second-guessers, America last , agenda driven, holier than thou ignorant moralists have never asked the question “what would have happened if the atomic bombs had not been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” The United States’ plans for the invasion of the Japanese home islands still exist as do the Japanese plans for the defense of the expected invasion of their home islands by the allied powers in 1945. The invasion was to begin on the island of Kyushu in November 1945 and the invasion of Honshu at Tokyo in the Spring of 1946. The United States’ expectation was that the war would continue for at least another two years. The reality is that the probability of a much longer war was very high. The truth of the matter has been known since at least 1999 and the data was available for more than twenty years before that. The national WWII monument in Washington shows that 420,000 American soldiers were killed in action in that war. If the atom bombs had not been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the total dead would have been more than doubled. Read the book.
Those pacifists who believe they have the moral high-ground and criticize, complain and condemn dropping the atom bombs that ended the WWII could not be more wrong. There are two kinds of pacifists. Albert Einstein, who asked President Roosevelt to start the development of the atom bomb, was a pacifist who said in 1931 at Cal. Tech. “ I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace….Is it not better for a man to die for a cause in which he believes, such as peace, than to suffer for a cause in which he does not believe“? Nazi Germany needed to be stopped in order to return the world to peace. Einstein thus asked Roosevelt to start the development of the atomic bomb because the Nazis were developing the bomb and were ahead of the United States at the time. The American military has always gone to war to return peace, not to become an imperialist country such as Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and now, imperialist Islam. The other type of pacifist, the one with the signs, believes that doing nothing to keep their liberty, freedom and peace will shame the enemy into stopping their aggression. History shows that they are wrong. They will lose their Liberty, Freedom and Peace by doing nothing. Their actions produce the exact opposite of what they profess to want. The Communist International, Nazi Germany and now Islamic Imperialists rely on the second type of pacifist to do nothing and thus make possible the victory of the aggressors. Many of those today, who enjoy peace, liberty and freedom but condemn the dropping of the atomic bombs would not exist because their fathers or grandfathers would have died in the invasion of Japan battles .

The Supreme War Council.....was making every possible preparation to meet (an American) landing. They proceeded with that plan until the Atomic Bomb was dropped, after which they believed the United States would no longer attempt to land when it had such a superior weapon---that the United States need not land when it had such a weapon, so at that point they decided that it would be best to sue for peace.
Kantaro Suzuki
Prime Minister of Japan
April -August 1945
The following data are abstracted from the book “Downfall” “The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire” Richard B. Frank, Random House, 1999. Dennis J. Weber, October, 2006



CHAPTER 1
TOKYO BURNS--RAID OF MARCH 9-10, 1945

PG. 6 1.7 MILLION JAPANESE KIDS BETWEEN 3RD AND 6TH GRADES SENT TO RURAL AREAS BY MARCH 1945
à 15.8 SQUARE MILES OF TOKYO FLATTENED
à DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT 82% OF TOKYO
PG. 17 BEFORE MARCH 10, 1945 ONLY 1,295 DEAD FROM ALL PREVIOUS AIR RAIDS ON TOKYO
PG. 17 BETWEEN 79,600 AND 100,000 JAPANESE DIED IN ONE NIGHT ON MARCH 10, 1945
PG. 18 THE JAPANESE MILITARY CONCEALED THE MARCH 9,10 RAID ON TOKYO FROM THE JAPANESE POPULATION
à THE JAPANESE PEOPLE WERE NOT TOLD MUCH OF
WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN THE PACIFIC.
PG. 19 SIXTY OTHER JAPANESE CITIES WERE FIRE BOMBED DURING THE RUN-UP TO THE INVASION OF THE HOME ISLANDS.

CHAPTER 2 STRATEGIES OLD STRATEGIES NEW

PG. 28 ONLY INVASION, NOT BLOCKADE COULD INSURE COLLAPSE OF JAPANESE MILITARY
PG. 29 THE JAPANESE MILITARY REFUSED TO SURRENDER
à ATTU ISLAND-----------------98.8% DIED
à TARAWA ISLAND------------99.7% DIED
à MARSHALL ISLANDS---- 98.5% DIED
à KWAJALEIN ISLAND-------98.4% DIED
à SAIPAN ISLAND--------------97%
10,000 JAPANESE CIVILIANS (50% OF POPULATION) REFUSED
INTERNMENT AND DIED ON SAIPAN
JAPANESE MILITARY CONVINCED CIVILIANS THAT “MORE HONORABLE TO TAKE THEIR OWN LIVES”
PG. 30 JAPANESE HOME ARMY IN SEPT. 1944 WAS 3.5 MILLION MEN.
ONE USA SOLDIER DIED FOR EVERY 7 JAPANESE. COULD COST 500,000 KIA AMERICANS. 420,000 KIA IN ALL OF WWII!!
WOUNDED TO KIA RATIO WAS 4 TO 1.
PG. 31 BRITISH FORCES-- 3 TO 5 DIVISIONS PLUS 20 SQUADRONS OF LANCASTER BOMBERS: BUT, NONE BEFORE SPRING 1946.
NO HELP FROM CHINA WAS EXPECTED
RUSSIA FOUGHT JAPANESE IN MANCHURIA: NO HELP UNTIL JAPAN DEFEATED: RUSSIA WANTED NORTH JAPANESE ISLAND FOR WARM WATER SEA PORT.
PG. 33 NO ACTION FROM SPRING 1945 ( OKINAWA ) UNTIL NOVEMBER 1945 INVASION OF KYUSHU AND THEN SPRING 1946 INVASION OF BIG ISLAND, HONSHU IN 1946.
à MOVING TROOPS FROM EUROPE: EFFECT OF POINT
SYSTEM ON TROOP STRENGTH.
PG. 35 UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER MUST COME FROM DECISIVE DEFEAT: UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER FOREIGN TO JAPANESE NATURE. DEFINITION OF UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER MUST BE ACCEPTABLE TO JAPANESE MILITARY OR COMPLETE ANNIHILATION WILL BE REQUIRED.

CHAPTER 3, 4 & 5 ZEPPELINS TO B-29s
LeMAY TAKES COMMAND
FIRE & MUD
PG. 48 BOMBING IN EUROPE MOST SUCCESSFUL TO STOP WAR EFFORT WHEN TRANSPORTATION, RAILROADS, HIGHWAYS, ETC. WERE DESTROYED.
PG. 49 VERY LITTLE WAS KNOWN ABOUT LOCATION OF WAR PRODUCTION FACTORIES IN JAPAN
DESTROYING WAR PRODUCTION USING INCENDIARIES ALSO KILLED A LOT OF CIVILIANS. OFTEN, WAR PRODUCTION WAS IN CIVILIAN HOMES.
PG. 56 THE MARCH 10,1945 FIRE BOMB RAID ON TOKYO PROVED MOST EFFECTIVE. 15.8 SQUARE MILE OF TOKYO BURNED OUT
PG. 68 OKINAWA WAS A HOME ISLAND STATE. JAPANESE LOSSES WERE 76,000. AMERICAN LOSSES WERE 72,358!! ALMOST 1 TO 1!! IF HOME ISLAND INVASION LOSSES CAUSED 1 TO 1 USA LOSSES: THE KIA WOULD BE TREMENDOUS IN INVASION.
PG. 78 JAPAN HAD RUDIMENTARY RAIL SYSTEM AND PRACTICALLY NO GOOD ROAD SYSTEM BETWEEN THE HOME ISLANDS. INVASION WOULD HAVE CAUSED A DISASTER IN FOOD DISTRIBUTION AND AN ESTIMATED 10 MILLION DEATHS BY STARVATION IN THE YEAR AFTER THE INVASION.

CHAPTER 6 THE FUNDAMENTAL POLICY

PG. 83 PHILIPPINES-- JAPANESE ARMY ON LUZON WAS STILL ABLE TO FIGHT: JAPAN HAD THOUSANDS OF PLANES AND MEN TO FLY THEM FOR KAMIKAZE ATTACKS
PG. 83 JANUARY 1945: THE JAPANESE ARMY WAS LARGE AND FORMIDABLE . JAPANESE STRATEGY WAS TO MAKE INVASION OF HOME ISLANDS NECESSARY FOR COMPLETE DEFEAT; EVEN COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF CIVILIAN POPULATION.
PG. 53 JANUARY 1945: THERE WERE ONLY 12 DIVISIONS IN ALL OF JAPAN HOME ISLANDS
PG. 86 THE USA SUCCESS IN OKINAWA FORCED JAPANESE TO HEAVILY REINFORCE KYUSHU.
STARTING IN FEB. 1945:
à FEB. 1945: INCREASING TO 60 DIVISIONS PLUS
22 COSTAL DIVISIONS PLUS 2 ARMORED DIVISIONS
PLUS 34 BRIGADES
à TOTAL INCREASE WAS 1.5 MILLION MEN FOR DEFENSE
à GRAND TOTAL WAS 2.9 MILLION MEN, 292,000 HORSES,
27,500 MOTOR VEHICLES
à THE JAPANESE PLAN WAS CALLED KETSU-GO (DECISIVE
OPERATION)
(A) JAPANESE FIGHTING ARMY
(B) SUICIDE TACTICS BY LAND, SEA AND AIR
(C) ALL CIVILIANS REGARDLESS OF SEX WERE TO BE
USED TO FIGHT INVASION. (IMPERIAL ARMY “THERE
ARE NO CIVILIANS IN JAPAN”
(D) GUERILLA WAR IF JAPANESE POSITIONS LOST
PG. 83 ALL FORCES ON KYUSHU WERE IN PLACE BY EARLY JUNE OF 1945
IMPERIAL WAR JOURNAL: “ …….NO HOPE OF SUCCESS…COURSE IS FOR JAPAN’S 72 MILLION PEOPLE TO SACRIFICE THEIR LIVES…..MAKE ENEMY LOSE WILL TO FIGHT……WE WILL FALL INTO STATE OF RUIN
PG. 90 EMPEROR: DEFEAT: THRONE MAY BE PRESERVED :COMMUNIST REVOLUTION: THRONE MIGHT PERISH
PG. 95 JAPAN FIGHT TO FINISH AND CHOOSE EXTINCTION BEFORE SURRENDER….(JUNE 6) EVEN TO LAST MAN, WOMAN, CHILD
ANY NEGOTIATED PEACE MUST INCLUDE: JAPANESE CONQUERED TERRITORY IN JAPANESE HANDS TILL FREEDOM
PG. 98 THERE WILL BE DISARMAMENT BUT NO OCCUPATION
PG. 102 ANY NEGOTIATED PEACE WAS TO BEGIN WITH RUSSIA, NOT THE USA. RUSSIA AND JAPAN HAD A NON-AGGRESSION PACT STILL IN PLACE.

CHAPTER 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

PG. 203 “MAGIC” WAS DIPLOMATIC CODE BREAKING. JAPANESE IN BERLIN GAVE USA HITLER’S WAR PLANS BECAUSE WE COULD READ JAPANESE CODE MESSAGES
PG. 108 TOTAL OF 13 DIPLOMATIC MESSAGES AFFIRMED THAT, NOT MATTER HOW DESPERATE THE SITUATION, JAPAN INTENDED TO FIGHT TO THE BITTER END. THE “MAGIC” DIPLOMATIC SUMMARY PUBLISHED PLANS FOR REGIONAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES DESIGNED FOR CONTINUED RESISTANCE FROM FRAGMENTED JAPAN AND PREPARATION TO INDUCT BOYS AS YOUNG AS 14 AND UP AMONG JAPANESE COLONISTS IN CHINA!!
THERE WERE SOME “PEACE FEELERS” BUT NONE THAT HAD OFFICIAL BACKING. “ We have received no peace offer from the Japanese Government, either through official or unofficial channels. Conversations relating to peace have been reported to the Department from various parts of the world, but in no case has an approach been made to this (USA) government, directly or indirectly, by a person who could establish his authority to speak for the Japanese Government. And in no case has an offer to surrender been made. In no case has this government been presented with a statement purporting to define the basis upon which the Japanese government would be prepared t conclude peace…. The nature of the purported “peace feelers” must be clear to everyone. They are the usual moves in the conduct of psychological warfare by a defeated enemy. No thinking American, recalling Pearl Harbor, Wake, Manila, Japanese ruthless aggression elsewhere, will give then credence. Japanese militarism must and will be crushed… the policy of this government has been is, and will be unconditional surrender.
PG. 126 THE “POINT SYSTEM” ALLOWED INDIVIDUAL USA SOLDIERS TO RETURN HOME. SOME UNITS HAD ONLY THE COMMANDING OFFICER LEFT!! ALL OTHERS HAD RETURNED HOME.
PG. 126 ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE TO MOVE AND RETRAIN TROOPS FROM EUROPE TO ASIA FOR INVASION. GERMAN TACTICS WERE DIFFERENT FROM JAPANESE TACTICS. “THE CAPITULATION ON AUGUST 14, 1945 SAVED OUR NECKS!!
PG. 130 JULY 1945: MANILA HAD: LABOR FORCE OF 300,000; 5 MILLION TONS OF SUPPLIES; 37,500 HOSPITAL BEDS; ALL FOR THE INVASION OF JAPAN.
PG. 133 A WIDELY QUOTED ESTIMATE THAT BETWEEN 500,000 AND ONE MILLION AMERICANS WOULD DIE BY THE END OF THE WAR. IWO JIMA AND OKINAWA WERE A CLUE TO KNOW THE WAR WOULD PROGRESS
PG. 135 SUCCESS NEEDS 3 USA DIVISIONS FOR EVERY ONE JAP DIVISION.
MAY 1945, USA THOUGHT THAT 9 USA DIVISIONS WOULD FACE 3 JAPANESE DIVISIONS---THIS WAS A MISTAKE--JAPAN HAD 50 DIVISIONS!!!
PG. 136 BUT, BY JUNE 26,1945 THE ESTIMATE WAS 8 JAPANESE DIVISIONS AND 350,000 JAPANESE SOLDIERS
THE NOVEMBER, 1945 INVASION, OLYMPIC, PREDICTED 514,072 CASUALTIES WITH 174,556 KIA.
PG. 137 PROJECTED USA CASUALTIES FOR OLYMPIC PLUS CORONET WAS 1,202,005 TOTAL INCLUDING 314,619 KILLED IN ACTION. THESE NUMBERS ARE ONLY FOR GROUND FORCES LANDING ON KYUSHU AND DO NOT INCLUDE ANY NAVY, AIR FORCE OR SUNKEN TROOP SHIP TRANSPORTS FROM EUROPE!!
PG. 142 TOTAL USA ASSAULT TROOPS WAS PLANNED AT 76,700 MEN ON THE GROUND.
PG. 133 QUOTED: 500,000 TO 1 MILLION AMERICANS WOULD DIE.
PG. 146 TRUMAN NEVER GIVEN UNAMBIGUOUS ESTIMATE OF NUMBER OF CASUALTIES FOR OLYMPIC, THE INVASION OF KYUSHU ALONE.
PG. 161 ALL ALLIED POW WOULD BE KILLED IF INVASION STARTED
PG. 163 FROM 1931 TO 1945: 17,222,500 CIVILIANS MURDERED.
EACH MONTH OF WAR GAVE BETWEEN 100,000 AND 250,000 CIVILIAN DEATHS. THE ATOM BOMBS AVOIDED ALL THESE ADDITIONAL DEATHS
PG. 177 NOVEMBER INVASION WOULD FACE 14 FULLY EQUIPPED JAPANESE DIVISIONS ON THE BEACHES, BUT WE EXPECTED ONLY THREE.
PG. 184 SUICIDE PLANES TO HIT ALLIED TROOP TRANSPORTS. AT WAR’S END JAPAN HAD 4,800 PLANES (ARMY) AND 5,900 PLANES (NAVY). NOT ALL KAMIKAZE.
PG. 186 ALLIED ESTIMATE WAS 5,350 KAMIKAZE PLANES; POSTWAR DATA SHOWED 7,500 KAMIKAZE PLANES AVAILABLE
PG. 188 ALL STUDENTS ABOVE GRADE 6 WERE MOBILIZED.
PG. 188 SCHOOL GIRL ISSUED AN AWL TO USE TO KILL AMERICANS
PG. 188 NO UNIFORMS ISSUED TO CIVILIANS
PG. 188 INTERCEPTED JAPANESE RADIO MESSAGES SAID THERE WERE “NO CIVILIANS IN JAPAN”. COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF CIVILIANS WOULD BE NECESSARY.
PG. 189 THE CIVILIAN MOBILIZATION CREATED A HUGE POOL OF MEN AND WOMEN TO PERFORM…. ULTIMATELY COMBAT JOBS. ADDING TENS OF MILLIONS TO STRENGTH OF GROUND COMBAT UNITS AND GUARANTEEING HUGE CIVILIAN CAUSALITIES. JAPAN MILITARY MASTERS WILLFULLY CONSIGNED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF JAPANESE COUNTRY MEN TO DEATH. MOREOVER, BY DELIBERATELY ELIMINATING ANY DISTINCTION BETWEEN COMBATANTS AND NON-COMBATANTS, THEY WOULD COMPEL AMERICANS TO TREAT ALL JAPANESE AS COMBATANTS OR FAIL TO DO SO AT THEIR PERIL, IT WAS A RECIPE FOR EXTINCTION!!!!!
PG. 191 TOTAL JAPANESE COMMITTED TROOPS ON KYUSHU WAS AT LEAST 500,000 TROOPS. USA WAS TO USE 380,000 TROOPS FOR INVASION OF KYUSHU. THE USA WOULD BE AT A DISADVANTAGE.
PG. 194 IF A MERE 10% FATALITY RATE IS ASSUMED FOR JAPANESE FORCES, THE TOTAL COMES TO 580,000 TO 630,000 FOR INVASION OF KYUSHU ALONE!!
PG. 196 But a military yardstick is not the critical historical measurement of Ketsu-Go versus Olympic. The Japanese comprehended astutely that they need not repulse Olympic to attain their overarching political objective: to find the American threshold in casualties that would induce American policy makers to parley for terms to the taste of Japanese militarists. Moreover, they correctly perceived that this threshold comprised not just the raw number of losses in Olympic but also the implications those casualties carried for the rest of the war. The Japanese did not have to reach the ultimate American threshold; they needed only to convince U.S. policy makers and the public that the bloodletting on Kyushu foretold an unbearable ultimate cost.
PG. 196 The American tolerance for casualties was never thus tested, so it cannot be certified, but there are several benchmarks form which it can to judged. First, with total battle death for the war at 292,751, each additional 29,275 dead increased the war’s cost by 10 percent. Moreover, and perhaps more telling, the highest death total for any one month of the war---20,325 in March 1945--could have been exceeded easily in the first thirty days of Olympic. Because battle casualties fell in great disproportion on combat troops, battle casualties ashore of only 92,500--a number well within Japanese capabilities --would double the losses for the entire war among the assault divisions. This carried dire implication for combat effectiveness and morale. Any soldier or Marine infantryman slated for Olympic who believed the atomic bomb saved them from death or wounds had solid grounds for this belief. The other men earmarked for Olympic, whatever their job, would have become unwilling participants in a gigantic and deadly game of kamikaze roulette where random chance determined who lived and who died. Marshall, Macarthur, Truman recoiled from such casualties. Japanese field commanders had a sound grasp of Ketsu-Go’s purely military prospects. Major General Masakazu Amano, Chief of Operations, Imperial General Headquarters after the war: “We were absolutely sure of victory. It was the first and the only battle in which the main strength of the air, land and sea forces were to be joined. The geographical advantages of the homeland were to be utilized to the highest degree, the enemy (USA) was to be crushed, and we were confident that the battle would prove to be the turning point in political maneuvering. Lieutenant General Seizo Arisue, explained after the war, “ If we could defeat the enemy in Kyushu or inflict tremendous losses, forcing him to realize the strong fighting spirit of the Japanese Army and people, it would be possible, we hoped, to bring about the termination of hostilities on comparatively favorable terms. I.E. NO UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. In the debate over the end of the Pacific conflict, Americans customarily relate the invasion of the Home Islands to the decision to use nuclear weapons to halt the war. This perspective, however, misses the role the invasion played in continuing the war. The leaders of the Imperial Army eld the reasonable conviction that American morale could be broken in an invasion. Ending the war thus demanded that the Imperial Army’s faith in Ketsu-Go must be shattered. That faith was shattered by the atomic bombs.
CHAPTER 13
PG. 216 ULTRA--MILITARY CODE BREAKING INTELLIGENCE.
PG. 216 “AUTHORITY OF EMPEROR ONLY FORCE TO ENSURING SURRENDER OF ALL JAPANESE FORCES. TWO MILLION JAPANESE MILITARY SCATTERED ACROSS ASIA AND PACIFIC.
PG. 230 TOGO’S JULY 21, 1945 REPLY: With regard to unconditional surrender we are unable to consent to it under any circumstances whatever. Even if the war drags on and it becomes clear that it will take much more than bloodshed, the whole country as one man will pit itself against the enemy in accordance with the Imperial Will so long as the enemy demands unconditional surrender. It is in order to avoid such a state of affairs that we are seeking a peace, which is not so-called unconditional surrender, through the good offices of Russia…. Therefore, it is not only impossible for us to request the Russians to lend their good offices in obtaining a peace without condition, but it would also be both disadvantageous and impossible, from the standpoint of foreign and domestic considerations, to make an immediate declaration of specific terms.

CHAPTER 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21
HIROSHIMA BOMB KILLED 43,000 SOLDIERS PLUS 290,000 CIVILIANS
ATOMIC BOMBS: “LITTLE BOY” WAS A PLUTONIUM BOMB; “FAT MAN” WAS A URANIUM BOMB.
PG. 292 THE JAPANESE ARMY MINISTER SAID; “ONE ATOMIC BOMB COULD DESTROY 6 SQUARE MILES, WHICH WAS EQUIVALENT TO 2000 B-29 S EACH WITH 300 CONVENTIONAL BOMBS OF 500 POUNDS EACH….THE AMERICANS APPEARED TO HAVE ONE HUNDRED ATOMIC BOMBS…WHILE THEY COULD DROP THREE PER DAY. THE NEXT TARGET MIGHT WELL BE TOKYO!!
IN REALITY, WE, AMERICANS HAD ONLY TWO OPERATIONALLY
READY BOMBS! OTHERS WERE BEING BUILT.
PG. 295 AUGUST 10, 1945; THE EMPEROR’S STATEMENT; I have given serious thought to the situation prevailing at home and abroad and have concluded that continuing the war can only mean destruction for the nation and prolongation of bloodshed and cruelty in the world. I cannot bear to see my innocent people suffer any longer. Ending the war is the only way to restore world peace and to relieve the nation from the terrible distress with which it is burdened. I was told by those advocating a continuation of hostilities that by June new divisions would be placed in fortified positions at Jujukuri-hama ( the beaches east of Tokyo) so that they would be ready for the invader when he sought to land. It is now August and the fortifications still have not been completed. Even the equipment for the divisions which are to fight there is insufficient and reportedly will not be adequate until after the middle of September. Furthermore, the promised increase in the production of aircraft has not progressed accordance with expectations. There are those who say that the key to national survival lies in a decisive battle in the homeland. The experiences of the past however, show that there has always been a discrepancy between plans and performance. I do not believe that the discrepancy is the case of Kujukuri can be rectified. Since this is the shape of things, how can we repel the invaders?? (At about this point, he also made specific reference to the greatly increased destructiveness of the atomic bomb). It goes without saying that it is unbearable for me to see the brave and loyal fighting men of Japan disarmed. It is equally unbearable that others who have rendered me devoted service should now be punished as instigators of the war. Nevertheless, the time has come when we must bear the unbearable…… I swallow my own tears and give my sanction to the proposal to accept the Allied proclamation on the basis outlined by the Foreign Minister.
PG. 302 TRUMAN KNEW THAT USA HAD ONLY TWO BOMBS, THAT MORE WERE BEING BUILT. ONLY TWO BOMBS WERE ON TINIAN ISLAND, READY TO BE DROPPED.
PG. 320 ON AUGUST 15, THE EMPEROR BROADCAST TO THE JAPANESE PEOPLE THE DECISION TO ACCEPT UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER:
PG. 321 IN A HOSPITAL IN HIROSHIMA, DR. HACHIYA STOOD STUNNED: AT FIRST PEOPLE WHISPERED, THEN BEGAN TO SHOUT!!
“ONLY A COWARD WOULD BACK OUT NOW!”
“THERE IS A LIMIT TO DECEIVING US!”
“I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN BE DEFEATED”
“WHAT HAVE WE BEEN SUFFERING FOR!!?
“THOSE WHO DIED CANNOT GO TO HEAVEN IN PEACE NOW”!
THE HOSPITAL SUDDENLY BECAME AN UPROAR……MANY WHO HAD BEEN STRONG ADVOCATES OF PEACE AND OTHERS WHO HAD LOST THEIR TASTE FOR WAR WERE NOW SHOUTING FOR THE WAR TO CONTINUE!! THE ONE WORD-- SURRENDER-- HAD PRODUCED A GREATER SHOCK THAN THE ATOMIC BOMBING OF OUR CITY
SURRENDER--à THE HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI BOMBS CONVINCED THE JAPANESE MILITARY THAT THE AMERICANS DID NOT NEED TO INVADE JAPAN. COMPLETE DESTRUCTION AND DEATH COULD BE ACCOMPLISHED WITHOUT INVASION.
IF NO INVASION THEN KETSU-GO WAS USELESS AND NO HONORABLE DEATH
POSSIBLE.
BECAUSE TOKYO WAS NOT ATOM BOMBED, THE EMPEROR WAS STILL ALIVE
EMPEROR’S DECLARATION OF SURRENDER WAS OBEYED BY ALL JAPANESE FORCES EVERYWHERE. (WITH SOME GRUMBLING)
PG. 322 AFTER THE WAR, AND AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION, IT BECAME KNOWN THAT STALIN’S AMBITIONS INCLUDED MANCHURIA, KOREA, AND ALSO PARTS OF THE JAPANESE HOME ISLANDS. THE ATOMIC BOMBS MAY WELL HAVE AVOIDED A CONFRONTATION BETWEEN THE USSR AND THE ALLIES IN THE FAR EAST. IF THE BOMBS HAD NOT BEEN DROPPED, THE WORLD’S MAP WOULD BE FAR DIFFERENT THAN WHAT WE SEE TODAY.
THE WAR WAS OVER
PG. 360 “FINALLY, THE DEATHS ACTUALLY INCURRED IN ENDING THE WAR WERE NOT GRATUITOUS . AMERICAN GOALS, ALL DURING THE WAR, WERE NOT SIMPLY VICTORY BUT PEACE. HAD AMERICAN LEADERS IN 1945 BEEN ASSURED THAT JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES WOULD PASS TWO GENERATIONS IN TRANQUILITY AND STILL LOOK FORWARD WITH NO PROSPECT OF FUTURE CONFLICT, THEY WOULD HAVE BELIEVED THEIR HARD CHOICES HAD BEEN VINDICATED ---AND SO SHOULD WE.

Black Holes, Used Cigarettes, Pisshill Olympics

BLACK HOLES, SECOND-HAND CIGARETTE BUTTS, AND THE PISS-HILL OLYMPICS

Being born in the Great Depression is often thought to be a source of poverty, social trauma and a very poor start in life. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Jobs were scarce, money was always in short supply and the birth rate was much reduced. Fewer births led to fewer people competing for available jobs in the 1950’s. However, the Great Depression did make entertainment a do-it-yourself activity, especially for boys. Fortunately, the social worriers, micro-management of children by parents, and regimented entertainment activities for kid did not exist. The usual, and excellent, policy by parents was benevolent neglect. We loved the chance to do our own thing. We made our own entertainment which leads to the topics of Black Holes, Second-Hand Cigarette Butts and especially the Piss Hill Olympics.
The accepted wisdom says that Black Holes (celestial variety) were discovered in the relatively recent past. However, Depression kids discovered Black Holes years before 1950! Allow me to explain. Black Holes do not allow even light to escape from the hole. There is nothing as black (hence no light) as a piss hole in a snow bank.
A short way from our homes, at the bottom of a down grade hill, in a small valley, was the Dead Horse Woods. The Dead Horse Woods was a group of scrubby trees, roughly in a circle, that, by legend, was the result of a dead horse being buried (or dying) there. The legend must be true because every boy believed and repeated the legend. At various times of the year, especially in winter, the Dead Horse Woods was a gathering place for the Depression Era boys. You can think of it as a substitute for a pool hall in more recent times. The usual ritual was to build a fire and then roast some apples obtained from Crocker’s or Quinn’s orchard. The hot roasted (burned ?) apples were eaten and then after a short discussion of school, girls, and teachers, it was time to put the fire out. We were all serious Boy Scouts, so putting the fire out was rigid policy. The simplest way to put the fire out was to pee on it. There was usually four of us (all brothers and cousins ) so the volume needed to extinguish the embers was available. You have no idea of the explosion of steam (loaded with piss fragrance ) and ash when four boys are all peeing on a fire at the same time. Additionally, in the winter, some attention was paid to making piss holes in the snow bank. If you were careful to keep a steady stream, you could make a hole in the snow that was quite small in diameter. Now, when ambient light is bounced around in a small diameter piss hole in a snow bank, the light waves get trapped in the white, refracting, random snow pack. Any light present gets lost in the snow particles and never finds its way back out of the piss hole. Thus, the discovery of Black Holes that even light cannot escape from. We never published the finding in a scientific journal, but it makes an interesting bit of physics I think. We also experimented with making messages in the snow, but the volume of piss was usually not sufficient after putting out the fire. Messages like Merry Christmas, were attempted but we usually ran out of piss volume too soon. Merry Xmas was possible however.
Warm weather was the occasion for many other activities. One of them was to hunt for cigarette butts under the bleacher stands by the softball diamonds in Kindleberger park. This was in WWII time, so the butts were usually smoked down to just a nub. We collected the butts, picked out the big ones (long ones) and tried our first attempts at grown-up smoking. It wasn’t too bad. The warm weather dried out the butts so that we could light them and smoke whatever tobacco remained. Once in a while we found a cigar butt, but those were usually too chewed up to be much use. When the cigarette butt hunt ended we took to smoking orchard weed, a dried, hollow, grass stem about 4 or 5 inches long. One end of the hollow weed stem was lit and the other end puffed on like it was a cigarette. Have you ever inhaled smoke and fire from the lit end of a dried, hollow bit of orchard grass. No? You have not lived yet! In summary, we were smoking grass, smoke and fire many years before it became popular in the drug culture. Thus, so far, we were way ahead of our time in discovering Black Holes and smoking “weed”.
Virginia Ave. was a dirt road in the thirties, but eventually it was asphalted (black-topped) which brings us to the Piss Hill Olympics. The black-topped roads were all graded so that the rain would run off to the side and not make puddles. The Virginia Ave. hill was the venue of the Piss Hill Olympics. All of us, usually four, would line up across the road at the top of the hill and then pee to see who could make the piss run down the hill the farthest. Now, the center position in the road was the best because if careful attention was paid to where the stream was directed, it was easier to make the piss run down the hill the longest distance. The guys on the left and right flanks had the problem of their streams running to the side of the road too soon and not going very far down the hill. However, all was not lost. With enough volume and force, the guys on the flanks could make their pee stream intercept the center stream and join with it. Since all nature wants to go the lowest energy state, the combined streams would re-direct the center-of-the-road stream so that both steams were headed down, but to the side of the road. The winner, if the center stream could be intercepted, was usually the one who did not have his stream intercepted. There were four of us, so the redirected center and two flank streams often allowed the forth pisser to claim victory. The stream would get about a quarter way down the hill before it dried out enough to stop running. We never kept track of the record, but I am sure that it was at least 30 feet. The one with the biggest bladder and pee volume had a distinct advantage but it was not possible to make some kind of handicap allowance, so the Piss Hill Olympic competition was always a “scratch league”.
The clothes situation was another great leveler of kids. Today’s Goodwill and Salvation Army stores did not exist but there were rummage sales put on by church groups and community fund raising efforts. The standard boys pants were either bib overalls or rummage sale knickers that the elastic that held up the knees was worn out. Picture the golf knickers of the 1920’s and you get the idea. The knickers were tough corduroy that never wore out. It was the elastic in the knees that wore out. We dragged the corduroy knickers in the gravel to wear them out, but no luck. The light weight modern fabrics did not exist yet. Shirts were a mix of pullovers or button downs. We did not know that we were supposed to be discontented with life and any disadvantages in life had no effect because nobody told us that our station in life was the fault of society and needed correcting. It did not need correcting. Those who were trying to destabilize society are the ones who needed correcting.
Popular wisdom says that poverty is the cause of social ills. Don’t believe it!! If poverty was the cause of social problems, then children in the Great Depression should have been the worst of any ever seen. Instead, the children of the 1920’s and 1930’s to about 1940 are the ones who came of age in the 1950’s and formed the greatest peace time expansion in United States history. The children born from the 1940’s to the 1950’s grew up in solid homes, with two parents ( mother and father), were well educated and had relatively few social problems. That lack-nothing cohort is also the one that gave birth to the Me-Generation of the 1960’s. It is not poverty that causes social ills and it is not throwing money at such problems that will solve those social ills. The problem is the lack of responsibility by parents and leaders. The comic strip writer Kelley who said “ We have met the enemy and they are us” was correct.
Older Wiser