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thedrifter
01-31-03, 06:45 AM
Without Pearl Harbor, No Hiroshima

By John C Popp, USN (Retired)

The Japanese people always bring up the Atomic bomb and the horrors and devastation it created by our use of the weapon, but they don't seem to realize who brought about that bomb being dropped on them and the horrors they created in the Pacific. Let's keep one thing in perspective, the Japanese started that war with the United States with their dastardly, perfidious sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. How easy it is for them to recall August 6, 1945, but appear to forget December 7, 1941. Were it not for the December 7th date, there would not have been an August 6th date.
The Japanese were so proud of the attack on Pearl Harbor, they immediately created a postage stamp honoring themselves, showing the Pacific fleet in ruins.
Do you think the Japanese would give the United States coverage in their papers on the anniversary of the dasterdly attack and mention all the lives lost?
The American and allies who lost their lives in the Pacific during WWII are just as dead. Ask those who suffered, struggled and experienced each day, wondering if there would be a tomorrow. Unless you experienced, under fire, that time in history, you have no right to be critical of the stand that was taken by the Usnited States.
The enemy's behavior justified the outcome. The invasion planned for the fall of 1945 was estimated to have losses for the United States and allies of up to a million and for the Japanese, at least five million. The final decision of where and when to use the bomb was up to President Truman, who was quoted as saying. "Let their be no mistake about it".
We issued a warning statement asking for the surrender in order to save lives. Truman was certain they would not accept, but we had given them a choice.
Do you think if they had the bomb, that they would not have used it? We just came up with a better weapon and used it.
Before they comment, those who feel the Japanese got a bum deal by us dropping the bomb on them, should visit Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona and the USS Utah, Punch Bowl and other memorial resting places of our dead. Tell those resting there that the Japanese got a bum deal. Your comments have no bearing unless you were involved in the Pacific during WWII.
If the dropping of the atomic bomb had not happened, millions of us would not be here today. Many here today would have been killed in a bloody invasion of Japan.
No compassionate human wants war, especially a nuclear war, but as long as there are nations with that in mind, we have to keep building our arsenal as a deterrent.
I'm not advocating the use of atomic weapons in the future for I feel that would lead to Armagedon.
Most leaders and the average person have never witnessed a live nuclear explosion; if they had, they might change their thinking about its use in the future; but lets remember that for that time in history, (1945) the Atomic Bomb was the right thing and we should learn from it.
In the April 1983 issue of Yankee Magazine, Charles Sweeney, the pilot of the plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki, said that when he went to Hiroshima, people would tell him that the Japanese were grateful to the Americans for ending the war swiftly with the bombs, rather than prolonging it with an invasion where the Japanese militarists had sworn to fight to the last man.
I have learned to forgive but will never forget and Americans should not forget either, who started the war and what they did.

John C. Popp is a resident of Palm Desert, Ca. and is retired from the U.S. Navy
He is a past president of the Orange County Chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association


Sempers,

Roger