Although some might consider it a propaganda film, I found this War Department movie to be very informative and interesting. Hope you will too.

The Last Bomb : US Army Air Forces : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

My father was on Guadalcanal and was just sorry we left two stones standing in Japan.

Thanks for posting. I like to watch this kind of stuff. Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

My Uncle Jimmy was on Corrigador. He felt we should have dropped the third bomb.

Thanks for posting. I'm very glad it's an American made film, not German or Japanese. Lord knows either of them would have used it against us if they had succeeded in developing it first.

......moon

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NRA Life Member

My Dad was at PEARL HARBOR when they hit !Another family member was on the BATAAN DEATH MARCH!Both are now deceased....I was raised with a different view than most....DEC.7....is... and always will be a part of my
mindset.Nowadays ,students...have diff.views! My Dad ,put it this way,long ago,when I was in college ....YOUR generation doesn't have the right...TO JUDGE my generation!! You weren't there....you didn't see what they did...you all ....have no idea!!
Sayoc01

Very informative film. One marvels at the logistics that made all of that possible. There was no limit to what a dedicated U.S.A. could accomplish in the war. Today we've outspent the war years many times over with very little to show for it. This film reflects an incredible amount of dedication and our national will to win the war in the face of heavy odds against us at the start. I wish we could show that dedication again to defeat our economic plunge of the last few years.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Great film !! I'm in Rhode Island. The last state to still celebrate VJ Day !!!!

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regards....roger (no sig)

Why did we drop only two bombs? Cuz we didn't have three...

Well yes it is a propaganda film. But whats wrong with that? Propaganda is not a dirty word. This film was made in a differnt time, back when no one felt it incumbent on them to kiss the enemys butt. And of course avoid insulting them or hurting their feelings.

Maybe that attitude had something to do with us winning wars back then. Naahh, that must just be my "Xeniphobia" showing through. I'm sure the war would have ended sooner if we had just set down and reasoned with them.

Neat film. A lot of folks for some reason do not know that the Japanese were also working on a atomic bomb. To be sure if they had these weapons first they would have used them.

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Stay safe people!

Interesting film....Thanks for the link.

All those brave young men.

Thanks for a great film. I served under General Lemay, he was tough.

Love it! Thanks for posting.

My Father (deceased now) was on Guam with the 6th MarDiv training to land at Japan when the "bombs" were dropped.

He never said anything but I bet he was happier than a kid at Christmas.

It has been reported that the Marines expected to lose two of their six divisions within a few weeks if assaulting Japan.

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Have guns...will shoot'em.

I was 14 when this happened. Thank God for the USA. Saved many lives both ours & theirs. Besides we only had 3 bombs & used one for testing here in the USA. But the Japs didn't know that. But as it turned out Japan is a strong country thanks to McArthur.

Thank you for sharing. My Dad was a Central Fire Control gunner on the "Honshu Hurricane".

He died three years ago at 85, with Parkinson's robbing his memory.

This video means a lot to me.

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I am a sheep dog!
1601 (ret)

Given the LONG history of denial and revisionism in the Japanese school system regarding Japan's role in the war, I'm sure it WOULD be enlightening to the average Japanese. A lot of them simply don't have a clue.

The popular narrative of the bombings in Japan (and in parts of Western academia) is something like:

"We were just minding our own business making Accords and Walkmen and the Americans dropped a couple of atomic bombs on us... we don't know why!!!"

Here's the consensus opinion on the bombings by the average Korean:

The United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan.

The United States dropped TWO atomic bombs on Japan.

The United Stated dropped ONLY two atomic bombs on Japan.

I think the United States was pro-Japanese!!!

I was out there in 1945 helping the Marines take Iwo. I was an aircrewman in a Navy bomber overhead. the US Navy took a terrible beating from kamakazis. My ship, the Enterprise, took one, finally, that messed up the flight deck and nearly tore off the bow. Many casualties. After fighting the entire war to that point, we had to retire.
When the Japs surrendered, the Enterprise was almost ready to come out there and fight some more. Twenty-two battles, she fought, more than any other vessel of any Navy ever.

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USN WWII Korea
NRA

Many today don't know how badly the allied POWs were treated by the Japanese. Many were beheaded, shot and burned. The survivors were treated worse. The Japanese had plans to kill all of the POWs if the mainland was invaded. The only thing that prevented them from carrying through with it was the last two bombs.

No one had invented the term "colatteral damage" yet and no liberal press were watching as inbeds. Today those fighter pilots who strafed the fishermen would probably be court martialed. A sad commentary on how we now punish our own for just doing their job, a job no one else wants. What happened to an "eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"?

Thank you and all your generation for your service in that war. My dad was in the Pacific Theater also, Guadalcanal and Philippines. He only mentioned he was mid pacific on his way home when the bombs dropped and the war ended. I think he was just happy to see the war end and the killing stop to worry about much more. I have read many accounts of the "Big E".

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Endeavor to persevere. <><

Thank you for your service. It was a travesty that The Big E wasn't saved after the war.

Thanks!

airman
My Dad used to wave at you. You would have to look down to see him. He was on a PC!
He said 'We all loved the Big E. And those sail on her.'.
My friend John T. served on the Big E (CVN 65) in the Tonkin Gulf.
I agree with my Dad.
WE all love the Big E. And all who sailed with her.

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Field Researcher. IGC

Airman,

Thank you for your service! I'm proud of you & your generation! God bless you and America !

Rikman


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My dad lived in Indonesia when the japanese invaded. Indonesia being a dutch colony at the time and my dad half dutch, he was considered a possible spy. He was taken prisoner by the Kampeitai, starved, and they pounded his knees with wooden mallets.

He saw an old indo man and and his wife who came up to a japanese soldier directing traffic in Djakarta. The old man showed the soldier the ichiban he'd pinned to his jacket, smiled to the soldier, gave him a thumbs up, and said the indonesians would cause them no trouble and he hopes they'll all get along.

The soldier pointed his rifle at the old man and made him swallow the ichiban pin in front of his wife.

My dad has no love for the japanese.

A different bunch of people in a different time. Hard to believe so different yet so recent, compared to the modern japanese we know.
Just like germans. In my time in Germany, I met TONS of wonderful people, some of whom I still get to speak with. Having been an amateur WWII historian since the '70's, I know a little about what went on. Almost impossible to believe, compared to my own personal experience.

Time and humanity can be mind-boggling in combination.

I'm currently reading a very good book on post-Japanese occupation Asia, including the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia.

When the Japanese surrendered, their forces were in place and undefeated militarily, in the Indies. Mountbatten's command informed them that they were responsible for maintaining "law & order" until the Allies could get there and relieve them. At the same time, the Indonesians, whom the Japanese had been preparing for "independence", were organizing and arming themselves to prevent the return of the Dutch. The Indonesians were a WILDLY disparate collection of factions, ranging from conservative property owners to religious fanatics and literal gangsters. The only thing they had in common was their hatred for the Dutch.

Being basically sympathetic to the Indonesians, the Japanese wanted no part in fighting them until the Dutch could get back. The British, dubious of the Dutch, mostly just wanted to get their POWs and internees out of Japanese hands, then get the Japanese (minus the ones scheduled to be tried for war crimes) shipped back to Japan. The overall Japanese command in Java essentially ordered the Japanese forces to leave their weapons for the Indonesians. Most forces complied with this directive to some extent. The major exception was the Kido Butai who, for arcane legalistic reasons, refused to turn over any JAPANESE weapons. This ended up with them fighting the Indonesians until British Indian troops showed up.

The whole thing turned into an horrific threeway free for all of murder, aerial bombing and ground combat. The keyed up Indonesians who were the on the ground de facto government were looking for any excuse for violence, which the former Dutch internees gave them on several occasions. The Indonesians went after those suspected of being Dutch "spies", including former internees, members of Indonesian minority groups suspected of working with the Dutch, and the Chinese.

The Japanese tried to stay out of things, if for no other reason, than to prevent reprisals against Japanese civilians, but that happened anyway, causing bloody reprisals in turn against the Indonesians.

The Indian troops were thoroughly outnumbered, but did the best they could to protect the inhabitants of the internment camps, which they managed to accomplish, but only just. They took a LOT of casualties doing it, and only survived due to the intervention of British P-47s and naval gunfire. After a number of atrocities against Indian troops they also engaged in bloody reprisals against the Indonesians.

The whole thing was a horrendous mess, poorly planned (if at all) on all sides.

Cmort, my dad said the post-WWII civil war there was disastrous.

After Holland said, "The heck with it.", the indo gov't. gave the partial-dutch citizens the old, "You don't gotta go home but you can't stay here." An agreement was made with Holland after so many indos were being harrassed and worse, to take in as many as the dutch could.

My dad joined the Dutch Army, mapping out New Guinea, from just after the war until 1949 when he moved to Amsterdam.

Quick sidenote: For his 80'th birthday, I took him to the Air Force Museum in Dayton. His first trip (surprising to me since he was the one who got me so interested in WWII when I was a kid.)- Anyway, I love that place and did my usual open-mouth gawking at all the WWII-era planes. I looked around and couldn't find my dad. When I found him, he was staring at the P-38 with a face that betrayed his mind to be 5,000 miles away.

After a couple of minutes of letting him stay in his reverie, I finally had to ask what was going through his mind.

Without taking his eyes off the Lightning, he said, "One of the prettiest things I've ever seen in my life was a formation of those, flying over the japanese. It was the first sign of hope that soon it might be over."

Sorry for the drift.

Reminds me of the movie "Empire of the Sun" and the protagonist's fascination with the P-51, the "Cadillac of the Skies".

airman,
THANKS for what you did.
A proud ship, indeed.

Edited to add-
I changed your title from "Member" to "WW II Vet"
Hope you don't mind

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth is a Biblical quote from the Old Testament. The New Testament changed that with the message of forgiveness. The Old was living under the law, the New is living under grace. I do not mention this with any malice or attitude, just a comment of explanation. I also don't think we can judge those of that era and war now. They did what they did with the situation at hand. We, having hindsight, see things differently, not better, or worse, just differently. During my war, the Viet Nam conflict, there arose a popular anti war slogan. " Fighting for peace is like f***ing for virginity. Sounded good and righteous at face value. But I have seen peace restored by fighting, never virginity restored by the later. It was just another judgmental cry in the wilderness. Let's remember that what we do today will be examined, dissected and judged by those in the the future. We may or may not be there to defend or explain our actions. Such is history. Again, I thank all of you who served our Nation's needs. You are special to all Americans.

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Endeavor to persevere. <><

A lot (probably most, that I've seen) criticism of our actual fight against the Japanese arises out of self-loathing and an irrational compulsion by those on the extreme left and right to condemn liberal democracy at any cost for any reason.

Condemnation of the U.S. in the war, invariably COMPLETELY ignores:

• the actual conduct of the Japanese, both on the battlefield and in occupied areas
• the beliefs and actions of those ACTUALLY running Japan
• ANY value which might be attributed to the lives of Allied soldiers, POWs, civilian internees, and civilians in occupied areas

There is constant whining about the bombing (especially the atomic bombing) of Japanese cities. It is NEVER accompanied by condemnation of Japanese bombing of civilian targets such as Shanghai, Nanking, Chungking, Hong Kong and Manila.

Human vivisection and cannibalism by the Japanese are NEVER condemned or even ACKNOWLEDGED by those who condemn the United States.

I've been having these debates for thirty+ years. The truth is that the other side is mostly hardcore Marxists with a scattering of Japanese ultra-right-wingers and neo-Nazis thrown in for variety. Strangely, the Marxists NEVER seem to have ANY criticism for the obliteration of the Japanese Kwantung Army by the Soviets, OR for the campaign of looting, rape and murder engaged in by the Soviets in Manchuria, North Korea and Northern China... and against the Manchus, Koreans and Chinese, as well as Japanese civilians.

They got what they deserved. Check out "Unit 731". They were given immunity from prosecution by MacArthur. Wikipedia may not be the best, but it'll give you an idea of only one aspect of Japan's atrocities.

Unit 731 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I've got the actual book, "Unit 731".

The Japanese were every bit as bestial as the Germans.

By the late 1940's, John Masters had retired from the Indian Army, where he had served in the 4th (Prince of Wales's Own) Ghurka Rifles, then commanded a strongpoint in Burma codenamed Blackpool. He received the Distinguished Service Order, just beneath the Victoria Cross, for his gallant and determined resistance to the Japs under difficult conditions. Blackpool resisted their best efforts to take it.

In the second volume of hs autobiography, "The Road Past Mandalay", Masters cited the case of a young British officer in Burma, who sent his casualty report back to headquarters in India.

He mentioned the dead and wounded, and some "captured, presumed killed."

A senior officer protested that there was no such category as that. He replied, "Sir, we are fighting the Japanese."

I understand that even now, it is unwse to leave a Japanese car parked on some British streets, where the fathers and grandfathers of the residents were taken prisoner by the Japs after the fall of Singapore. The cars may be trashed. Feelings still run deep.

BTW, if you can find any of Masters's other books, including "Bugles and a Tiger", read them. He became a famous novelist after movng to the USA.

He said that his experiences in Burma left him emotionally dead, and he had trouble expressing affection to even his wife and kids. He had no emotion at all about killing the Japanese; regarded them about as we would a cockroach. See it, stomp it.

BTW, he was often armed with a .30 US carbine, many of which were furnished to the British for that jungle war. He mentioned shooting at enemy planes in Syria with his revolver. Said that he felt outgunned by them, mentioning the high rate of fire in aircraft machineguns!

Masters retired as a Lt. Col. having been a Brevet Brigadier during wartime. I believe that he later became a US citizen. He was a fine writer, most of his novels being set in British India. At least one book, "Bhowani Junction" was made into a major movie.

Your statement implies that there is criticism of the fight against Japan based on reasons other than those which you have offered. Do you think there is any valid criticism of the fight against Japan?

IMO they should have dropped ONE MORE just close enough to give the members of Unit 731 radiation sickness. What better guinea pigs for research of the effects of our shiny new weapon.

"And now, dr. Ishii, we will examine the effects of a nuclear explosion on the male genitalia. I said hold still, doggonit."

My dad was a flyboy during WWII. He flew 30 combat missions from Tinian in early 1945. Lemay changed the bombing stategy to low level, night raids using incendiaries, deleteing armament to shed weight, carry more bombs

My dad was a group leader, pilot of "Desting's Tot". The first big raid I think was March 9-10th over Tokyo. Over 300 B-29's in the mission. The bombing runs were true and with a good ground wind, 15-16 sq. miles were destroyed. Several other big cities were next. My dad was 24.

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beaver

I've seen criticisms from a purely moral point of view from unilateral pacifists. They don't deny the documented facts. They just think that we should have allowed ourselves to be enslaved or killed (as well as tens of millions of Asians) rather than physically harm the Japanese. I don't agree with it, but you can hardly call it "dishonest". It's like a vegetarian who won't eat meat and doesn't think you should either, because he thinks it's morally wrong, not because he claims it'll turn you into a vampire.

Disagreement doesn't HAVE to be dishonesty... although on this subject it USUALLY is... at least second hand via ignorance.

Like 90% of anti-gunners, 90% of critics of our war with Japan that I've seen are ignorant, the victims of malicious liars like Gar Alperovitz. A good 50% of them change their minds when you present them with the documented facts.

My Father also flew in a B-29 over Japan many times during WW II. He flew his missions until the war ended. He is still alive and it is very interesting to listen to him tell about his time in the Pacific and being at war against Japan. I am very proud of him and what he went through.

God Bless You and Thank You Sir for your service.

You've not answered my question. I didn't ask if you believe in principled disagreement. I asked if YOU think there is any criticism of the U.S. fight against Japan.

Presumably, you mean that I agree with.

Overall, no.

In terms of specifics, MacArthur's original Philippine campaign was an utter disaster.

Tarawa was a real screwup.

The early stages of the submarine campaign were crippled by the lousy torpedoes.

Other than that, not much.

The Japanese had a functioning democracy, better than anything Iran has ever had, and better than what Russia has now. They pitched it in favor of a bunch of half-educated nihilists pumped up with pseudo-religious, racist hooey.

The Japanese made their choices and choices have consequences, sometimes really ugly ones. No fundamental criticism of our overall conduct of the Pacific War that I've seen did NOT boil down in some way to the Japanese being somehow "special" and not subject to the same acts they committed against everyone else, or an Asiatic interpretation of the "Lebensraum/Fuehrerprinzip" gibberish of the Nazis. Of course the people I've seen advocating exactly that in usenet and elsewhere, were almost certainly White neo-Nazis from the U.S. and Europe.