David B. writes:
What's the difference between the History of U.S. foreign policy and
progaganda? What is the difference between historical facts and
patriotic myths? These two sentences ask the same question.
Clark, could you possibly provide a more biased, less credible source
for this issue than AIR FORCE MAGAZINE? I don't think so. Its like
trusting Texaco to fairly analyze the enviromental impact of oil spills.
Its like depending on NRA to address gun control without bias. Its like
relying on the fox to gaurd the hen-house. Its like trusting Sylvester
to babysit tweetybird. It was the Air Force, after all, who dropped
those bombs and we should hardly be suprized that they would seek to
justify it, both before and after the fact.
Historians make bad soldiers and soldiers make bad Historians. Its that
simple. Can you image the disasters we'd encounter if every Private in
every fox hole were an intellectual? We'd lose every battle. The
disaster is equally devistating when minds trained in duty, loyalty and
obedience get into the business of writing History. AIR FORCE MAGAZINE
is about the last place one should look for an unbiased view. JUDGEMENT
AT THE SMITHSONIAN is about the battle between Historians and VETERANS
groups. If the battle were between two sets of Historians I might take
it more seriously. Veterans and the publishers of military magazines
have a serious conflict-of-interest problem here, don't you think?
Clark writes:
David, I anticipated your objection to my use of the Air Force as a means
of rebutting Nobile. I have some more to say about that. In the meantime I
will call your attention to the fact that some 55 years of hindsight is
not, in this case, a good way to judge the facts during WW11. Our current
mindset dictates that such a bombing operation is wrong out of hand. This
was not the case 55 years ago
Our experience with Japan dated back to 1931 when they invaded Manchuria.
In 1937 (I think) they invaded China and killed a million or so people. In
one case two sergeants competed to see who could behead the most Chinese in
an hour. There is also somewhere a famous photo of an Australian military
man on his knees with his hands tied behind his back and about to be
beheaded by a Japanese. You should use your history skills to locate that
photo and get it into the history books. It would give a more accurate
impression of what was actually going on.Their treatment of the Chinese was
also brutal and inhuman. Surely you have heard of the Bataan Death March in
which our troops and civilians who had retreated to the Bataan Peninsula
were captured. During this time they were trying to put together something
they called "The Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere". It would have
encompassed all of the western Pacific plus eastern mainland China and down
through the south pacific to include New Guinea. It was in pursuit of this
that they attacked Pearl Harbor and pretty well wiped out our Pacific
fleet.
During the war the Japanese were operating under the code of Bushido which
decreed that they would not surrender but would die fighting even if it was
barehanded.
The battle of Iwo Jima cost the Marines 6800 dead and 20,000 wounded.
Only 200 Japanese out of 20,700 remained alive. They refused to surrender.
In the battle of Okinawa, after the remaining Japanese had been driven to
the southern tip of the island, the military commanders ordered the troops
to fight to the last and die, then they, themselves committed suicide.
Most of the Japanese, over 70,000, died fighting. About 10,000 Soldiers,
civilians and Okaniwan auxilaries surrendered. The largest number to do so
in the war. At least 80,000 civilians died. About 150,000 overall. About
the same as died from the two bombs.
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword
"Honor was bound up with fighting to the death. In a hopeless
situation a Japanese soldier should kill himself with his last
hand grenade or charge weaponless against the enemy in a mass
suicide attack. But he should not surrender. Even if he were
taken prisoner when he was wounded and unconscious, he 'could
not hold up his head in Japan' again; he was disgraced; he was
'dead ' to his former life." Ruth Benedict.
FIGHTING THE KAMIKAZE
The U.S.Navy suffered its heaviest losses of the entire war
at Okinawa, mainly from kamikaze attacks. Although the mass
suicide attacks failed to drive off the U.S.fleet, they severely
shocked the Allies. Fearing the psychological effect of the
kamikaze, U.S.military commanders ordered a news blackout on
reports of the suicide attacks. The blackout lasted until the
end of the Okinawa fighting. To the ships' crews, the experience
confirmed Japanese fanaticism and offered a grim foreboding of
what they would face in an invasion of the home islands.
So you can see that today you have no experience with which to evaluate the
decisions that were taken then. Today I will agree with you and say that
maybe we could have found a better way but at the time there seemed to be
no better way. Imagine how you would react if you were facing another
Okinawa the size of Japan.
I said that the Russians declared war but did no fighting. I find that
they did. They made massive attacks in Manchuria and Korea. This was on
August 8th or 9th. After the Hiroshima bomb had been dropped. So again I
say, you have no experience with which to properly evaluate our actions in
1945.
Now, back to the question of Nobile's "Judgement at the Smithsonian". I
will attach a copy of a review of the book that appeared in USA Today.
Enola Gay exhibit: Back to script
You've heard all the controversy. Now read the script.
For anyone left unsated by the media's blanket - some say biased -
coverage of the Smithsonian Institution's Enola Gay exhibit, Philip
Nobile's new book is a must-read.
Judgment offers the original ''uncensored'' script of National Air
and Space Museum's exhibit on World War II's atomic bombings of Japan.
The book does not include the exhibit photographs, which critics
charged created a sympathetic picture of Japanese victims. Nobile says they
were too expensive for his small publisher to print.
The script - which Nobile labels ''banned history'' on the book's
cover - was the first of five versions prepared by embattled museum
curators. After months of lobbying by veterans groups and conservatives in
Congress, Smithsonian Secretary I. Michael Heyman jettisoned the exhibit in
January. He ordered instead a bare-bones display featuring pieces of the
Enola Gay, which opened last month. Peace activists charged the exhibit
with ''historical cleansing'' of context and failure to address the
morality of the bomb.
Nobile agrees. He has sandwiched the script between a polemic damning
the A-bomb decision and a review of current scholarship by Stanford
historian Barton Bernstein.
Readers may want to tackle the 126-page script first. Much has been
written about how it portrayed an aggressive America out for vengeance
against innocent Japan. Although incomplete without pictures, the text
speaks for itself.
Bernstein's essay rounds out the script, giving crucial background
detail for serious students of the ''Hiroshima narrative.'' He notes that
by the early 1990s, a consensus of A-bomb scholars agreed the bomb wasn't
necessary to end the war, that an invasion of Japan was unlikely even if
atomic weapons weren't used and that there were alternatives.
Many have dismissed Bernstein as a ''revisionist.'' But University of
Wisconsin religion professor Ed Linenthal, an exhibit adviser, calls his
essay ''very middle-of-the-roadish.''
The same cannot be said for Nobile's introduction. Truman, he says,
''deserves to be tried posthumously for war crimes.''
Nobile isn't shy about the import of his cause. He calls himself
''the Daniel Ellsberg of the Smithsonian Papers.'' Ironically, Nobile
obtained the script from its earliest critic: the Air Force Association.
The veterans group has distributed hundreds of copies ''for people to make
up their own minds,'' says AFA's Jack Giese. ''This book doesn't do that.
He makes up your mind for you.''
Like other Smithsonian exhibit scripts, the Enola Gay text is not
copyrighted. But that doesn't mean you can buy it at the National Air and
Space Museum bookstore.
Says Smithsonian's Linda St. Thomas: ''We're not carrying that book
in our shop because it is the script of an exhibition we are not
presenting. The current Enola Gay exhibit has no catalog and no book.''
But the museum bookstore does stock The Flight of the Enola Gay,
Hiroshima mission commander Paul Tibbets' story.
I read Barton Bernstein's paper. Reading him one would get the idea that
the entire, or at least most, I didn't take a survey, of the military
leaders were opposed to dropping the bomb from the start and he does supply
some source material.
Something is wrong here. If these people were so opposed to dropping the
bomb why didn't any of them resign, or at least speak out publicly. As I
recall this did not happen.
While I am sure that all options were considered, I still maintain that
dropping the bomb was the most reasonable, and also, under the
circumstances, the most moral course of action. Keep in mind that we had
already killed many more with our firebombing of Tokyo. We would have
continued that. Also, keep in mind the Code of Bushido. We had every reason
to believe that they would have ignored our blockade of supplies and we
would have been facing an entire nation of Bushido fanatics. We had already
seen this happening in other actions.
Your position that we dropped the bomb on innocent civilians to warn the
Russians off doesn't seem to hold up. The Russians declared war and
massively attacked AFTER we had dropped the first bomb.
I fail to see why the historians do not accept the history that actually
happened rather than try to re-write it. It puzzles me why the historians
and peace activists try to find some way to cast the US in the bad guy
role. Do you not believe that the Japanese did the things that were
reported?
Are you aware that the spring 99 semester at Cornell listed Nobile's book
as required reading, complete with Nobiles statement that Truman should be
tried posthumously as a war criminal. If I were in Truman's family I would
sue for defamation of character. You can be sure that I will be much more
wary of historical interpretations in the future. I am very disappointed to
find such activity going on in our society and schools.
I am tired of this but if anyone wishes to read the paper in question
you can find it at:
Also the Smithsonian exhibit.
http://www.nhk.or.jp/nuclear/e/text/sumiso.htm
This will be my last word on this matter unless David manages to again
irritate me beyond bearing. Ken
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