LEST WE FORGET - TODAY 73 YEARS AGO

[browningautorifle]

an incident with Japanese POW's at Cowra

This one Peter?

Cowra breakout, 1944 - Fact sheet 198 – National Archives of Australia, Australian Government

[CINDERS]

The night of a 1000 suicides, as a nation and the commonwealth as a whole probably regarded once you were a prisoner of war we obeyed the Geneva convention and whilst they were not pampered it was better treatment the Japs gave to any of our troops or any other allied soldiers.
There is a town about 150 kliks from where I live and they have a memorial there for those that fell in the Sandakan death march I have been there and its a humbling experience for the U.S troops it was the Bataan Death March I have read the latter but not the Sandakan yet! (Read Knights Of Bushido By Lord Russell of Liverpool I think its just shocking)
The Japanese code was you had no rite to life if you surrendered and as they were not a signatory to the Geneva convention they were not bound by it not that it would have stopped them from the inhumanity they directed to not only soldiers but the nurses and civilians as well.
We were so very lucky our militia held the Japs the first time the Japs had been stopped in jungle fighting in N.G or the world for that matter whilst the regular A.I.F was in Africa, then we had U.S troops come to our side to finish the job and repel them as Australia was the ideal place for MacArthur's long term plan to retake the islands.

I don't know much of what other countries have in the way of remembering their fallen but here there are monuments just about everywhere, about an hour from the Sandakan memorial in Boyup (Boy-up) Brook there is a very small place with about 3-4 old farm style houses nothing else and then as you pass through it there on the right side of the road is a monument for our fallen with names on it.
I have had to go through there just after Anzac Day heading to Albany with the crane and there were wreaths laid by those there no doubt some relatives may still live in the area, also we are just a small town as well but have a fairly good sized monument for all wars and a nice RSL Hall (Small) I do like wearing my dads medals and think of him and all the past, present & future soldiers from the world who go away to carry the fight to oppressors.

I thought the George Cross was awarded to reserve troops Syme & Mould two Australian RNVR aerial mine disposal officers could only get the George Cross (Mould got the Bar to it) as they did not face the enemy, I would have though Jones & Hardy were facing the enemy even POW's why the George Cross & not the DSO or DCM! Anyway it is part of our history now.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Second bite of the cherry (blossom): 9th of August is Nagasaki Day.

Closely followed by VJ Day on the 15th.

And it has all been world-wide sweetness and light ever since............

[browningautorifle]

Lest you think that I am unfamiliar with nukes,

No sir, perhaps you misunderstand me, we follow you. We came after and follow in your footsteps. You went ahead of us, I served 35 years as an infantryman. Your words are gospel because you had more to lose if the bombs hadn't been dropped.

[CINDERS]

Survivors called it PIKADON ~ Light then Thunder.
Another good read for all you book worms is "The Day The Bomb Fell" nothing to do with Japan in WWII but a scary ride on the US having wayward Nuclear bombs drop out of aircraft when they weren't supposed to one I think was on US soil with 4 of the 5 fail safes failing leaving one hanging there or 1 step away from a detonation....interesting read.

Recently I just watched a doco on a Titan Missile silo fire in the 80's now that was scary moment the explosions of all the fuel going up not the warhead it blew the 700 tonne silo hatch clean off the warhead landing outside the silo had the bomb detonated then the loss of life would have been horrendous as it was @50 died.

1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion - Wikipedia
Chilling PBS Doc Recounts The Nuclear Accident That Nearly Destroyed A

[Cosine26]

Hi BAR
You did not offend me. I just wanted people to know that I was very familiar with nukes. Gen. LeMay was CIC of SAC when I flew. It was said when you were in SAC "Give your heart to God because you A$$ belonged to LeMay.
FWIW

[browningautorifle]

I just wanted people to know that I was very familiar with nukes.

Yes sir, we've discussed some of your flying time...

[fjruple]

The war in the pacific was a war of annihilation with little or no quarter being given. The mounting causalities from the Okinawa and Iwo Jima was great concern to the US leadership and we had not invaded the home island yet. Most of the military folks who were scheduled to invade the home islands knew there was going to mass causalities from the invasion. I have talk to several veterans who told me they cried when the bombs dropped and the Japanese surrendered. They did not cry for the lost of the Japanese but the fact they knew they would survive the war. Many years ago I was a government security inspector and had several occasions to visit the Grumman Aircraft Company on Long Island. Many of the workers were former navy aviation veterans from the Pacific War. Local management would hang a flag of a foreign country whose aircraft they were building at the time. The workers almost riot when the local management tried to hang a Japanese flag in the plant ceiling for a Japanese aircraft contract. Many had long and bitter memories of friends lost in the Pacific.

[obijohnkenobe]

I don't think that enough people understood that Truman really had no choice. By August 1945, there was no Imperial Japanese Navy... it had been sunk. There was no Air Force... it had been shot down and the pilots had been killed. What was left of the Japanese Army was mostly stuck in China. The USAAC had destroyed every industrial site, and all of the larger cities. Tokyo was effectively razed. We (US) demanded the Japanese to surrender unconditionally, they told us to go pound sand... so we dropped the first Bomb on Hiroshima. A day later we demanded surrender again, or another Bomb, and they again refused... the Emperor and the military leadership were United. Then we dropped the Bomb on Nagasaki. At this point, the Emperor was ready to surrender, having realized that they couldn't kill Americans any more, and the only thing they could control was whether or not more Japanese would die. The military still refused, considering surrender as shameful. The Emperor insisted, the military leaders asked for time to consider... and then launched a nighttime coup attempt to depose the Emperor and continue the war. A US combat air patrol happened to be flying above Tokyo looking for targets of opportunity when they spotted the convoy of coup attempters on their way to the palace by the headlights, and destroyed it... inadvertently preventing the coup. Japan surrendered in the next few days. Good thing, too, because we were out of Bombs. Shortly after the war we captured a Japanese sub with a hangar installed on the hull with a seaplane inside... equipped with a cobalt-based dirty bomb intended for L.A. that would have rendered it uninhabitable for decades if not centuries. The Japs had gotten this material from the Nazis by U-boat late in the war.

In short, nuking Japan likely was the best outcome for them and us. Extrapolating from Okinawa, minimum US casualties would have been around 1M, with 5X the losses for Japan. And how ugly would it have gotten if the Japs had managed to bomb L.A. with a dirty bomb, killing hundreds of thousands? No enemy persons should ever be valued more than our own people, civilians or military. Truman made the right decision.

[rcathey]

Shortly after the war we captured a Japanese sub with a hangar installed on the hull with a seaplane inside... equipped with a cobalt-based dirty bomb intended for L.A. that would have rendered it uninhabitable for decades if not centuries.

That's intriguing! I would like to read more about that but a few different Google searches turned up fruitless.
Might you have a link to a source?