Forgetting history – Tea Party Nation

Forgetting history – Tea Party Nation.

Posted by Judson Phillips

The left likes us to forget history.  Why not?  They are always wrong about history.

 We are entering a period where the left wants us to forget about history so we can believe their narrative.  The only problem?  Their narrative is wrong.

 What are they so wrong about?

 Monday will be the 67^th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.  Thursday will be the 67^th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. 

 The left pulls out all of the stops every August to push the narrative that the bombings were unnecessary and all America wanted to do was be a racist superpower, kill a bunch of Japanese and send a message to the Soviet Union.

 The only problem with that narrative is that it is wrong.

 America entered the war on December 7, 1941 with the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.  As battles went, Pearl Harbor was not that bloody by the standards of world war 2.  Only 2400 men were killed at Pearl Harbor.

 For the first nine months of the war, the Japanese ran wild. In August 1942, America invaded this little island that few had heard of called Guadalcanal.   At Guadalcanal America learned a hard lesson.  The Japanese did not surrender.  They would fight to the last man and if they could not fight they would kill themselves.

 As America slowly took the Pacific back, we learned Guadalcanal was not a fluke.  This was the way the Japanese would fight until the end.

 By 1944, America had pushed the Japanese back to the point where we were landing on islands with a significant number of Japanese civilians.   At Saipan, Japanese civilians refused to surrender and American Marines were horrified to see Japanese men and women walk to a cliff, toss their children off the cliff to their deaths and then follow them over the cliff. 

 Later in 1944, American forces were introduced to the kamikaze.  These were planes piloted by Japanese who deliberately crashed their planes into American ships. 

 By 1945, the Japanese Empire was collapsing but that did not stop them from fighting to the end.  On Iwo Jima, out of 22,000 Japanese soldiers, only 216 survived.  Almost 7000 Marines died on Iwo Jima.  Later that spring, America attacked the island of Okinawa.  Almost 100,000 Japanese soldiers died rather than surrender.  Almost 13,000 American Marines died.

 After Okinawa, there was only one objective left.  That was Japan.
The Japanese Emperor had ordered every Japanese citizen, whether they were military or civilian to fight to the death.

 When Franklin Roosevelt died, Harry Truman became President and he was then told about the atomic bomb, which was nearing completion.   Truman was also told about the plans for “Operation Olympic” the planned invasion of Japan in November 1945. 

 Truman was also told that the estimates were that there would be between 1.7 million and 4 million American casualties, including 400,000 to 800,000 killed.  The Japanese fatalities would exceed 10 million.

 Looking at those numbers, Truman had no choice.  He ordered the bombings.

 The fact the left never wants us to realize is that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved lives.  Yes, many were killed and many were horribly maimed.  That is unfortunate but that is war.

 For me, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki story has always been personal.  My father was a soldier during World War 2.  He served in Patton’s Third Army in Europe.  Had Japan not surrendered, many of the troops that were in Europe would have been sent to the Pacific.

 Would that have happened to my father?

 Who knows?

 Truman order the bomb dropped and the question became moot. 

 Since I was born 14 years after the end of World War 2, I am grateful my father came home.

 As the international left tries to spin the narrative this upcoming week that America is evil for using nuclear weapons to end World War 2, let’s all remember how many lives, both American and Japanese, were saved by Truman’s decision.