The Super Summary of World History

by Alan Dale Daniel

  Out at sea, a situation developed that bode ill for the US fleet. Waves of Japanese aircraft began ramming American warships. The pilots were committing suicide in an attempt to sweep the US Navy from the sea. This tactic was experienced earlier, but by only a few aircraft, during battles off the Philippines.

  Kamikazes (Divine Wind) committed themselves to die trying to sink the US fleet now threatening their homeland.[328] Japan’s outdated aircraft were unable to compete with newer American models. The Japanese pilots were unskilled, and the few remaining skilled pilots could make no difference against American strength. The idea of putting a person into an aircraft who was only trained to take off and crash into an American ship seems out of place to Westerners. It was the perfect solution for Japan, who could now put their out-of-date planes and untrained pilots to good use. Japan’s tradition of sacrifice for honor and the emperor allowed their young men to commit suicide in return for having died for the emperor. Everything fit together very well from the Japanese point of view. The Kamikaze was a guided missile. Instead of a computer or mechanical device guiding the missile, a man would do the job. Loaded with fuel and bombs, these aircraft became lethal weapons against the fleet. Their effect was dreadful. American ships were knocked out of action at the highest rates of the war, and American sailors were killed in distressing numbers. The US Navy responded with increased combat air patrols and destroyer pickets to meet the raiders as far away from the fleet as possible. Kamikaze pilots were poorly trained and often made the mistake of crashing into the destroyer pickets rather than going further to attack the carriers and battleships of the main fleet. Even so, the attacks were deadly.

  Nimitz complained to the army about the slow pace of the land war as it was exposing his fleet to unnecessary hazards. In fact, about five thousand sailors died defending the fleet off Okinawa. Nimitz wanted to get the island conquered so his fleet could set sail to another location. General Buckner’s cooperation failed to appear. He continued the slow grind of the campaign in spite of navy protest. The key problem was differing doctrines of war. Marine units were trained to assault relentlessly, moving forward at great costs if necessary to conquer the enemy ashore so the fleet could rapidly leave the area. Warships prefer non-stationary addresses, because the enemy can find them easily if they stay in one spot. The ocean’s size is a major defensive weapon for a navy. Off the island of Okinawa, the ships were supplying the combat units and providing artillery support ashore. Japanese Kamikazes could find them without difficulty because of their fixed location.

  US Army doctrine said nothing about moving quickly because of ships waiting offshore; thus, the army moved slower when attacking than the marines, taking fewer risks while advancing. The army refused to sacrifice its men for speed. In one instance off Makin in the Tarawa atoll, an escort carrier was sunk, and more lives were lost in that sinking than were lost taking the island of Makin. The navy thought the loss was due to the army’s slow advance in taking the island, thus requiring the carrier to hang around longer than necessary and attracting unwanted attention.

  Nimitz and the army remained at loggerheads because of doctrine. The speed required by the US Navy went unacknowledged by the US Army, who dared not change their basic combat doctrine in any event. Military units have to stay within their training to avoid even greater difficulties. However, the US Navy did have a point in that the advance was agonizingly slow. The landings requested by the marines could have broken one of the toughest Japanese lines and quickened the advance. Constant frontal assaults, like WWI, did nothing for the attacking forces. Buckner refused to change, and the frontal assaults went on. Bad weather helped the defenders in killing their American tormentors, but the outcome was never in doubt. American power simply hammered the Japanese to dust. General Buckner died before the end of the battle, killed by an artillery shell that left the many others near him unscathed.

  At last Okinawa was captured on May 6, 1945.[329] For the Allies, it was a grim ordeal, and it gave America fair warning of how difficult it would be to invade Japan. In the battle for Okinawa, 12,513 Americans were dead or missing and nearly 39,000 wounded. The Japanese lost 66,000 dead, 17,000 wounded, and a very high 7,400 captured. At sea, the United States of America lost 79 ships sunk or scrapped, and 763 aircraft were destroyed. The Japanese lost 16 ships and over 3,000 aircraft. Approximately 150,000 civilians on Okinawa were killed or missing. The Japanese flew over 1,900 Kamikaze missions, killing about 5,000 US sailors. The invasion of the home islands would be horrific if these numbers held true.[330]

  Of course, the Japanese wanted the Americans to do something other than invade the home islands. A negotiated peace on almost any terms might be acceptable, but the emperor must stay. Japan tried to send peace feelers through the Soviets (they were not at war with Japan at this time) who conveniently failed to forward them to the United States. However, the Americans failed to understand the Japanese need to retain their god on earth, the emperor. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. President Truman (his successor) would honor the unconditional surrender demand, plus this concept was reaffirmed at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 (why it was affirmed is open to question).

  Allied bombing raids on Japan were taking dire death tolls. The firebombing of Tokyo on February 23, 1945, killed an estimated one hundred thousand in the resulting firestorm. American submarines sunk Japanese shipping at a startling rate, thus causing starvation all over Japan. American aircraft mined critical straits and harbors, affecting large shipping losses and preventing the movement of food and supplies from one region to another by sea. American submarines achieved in the war with Japan what the Nazis wanted to achieve in the Battle of the Atlantic; the devastation of an island nation’s ability to wage war.

  Operation Olympic

  In spite of the challenge, Japan’s military rejected surrender. The Americans were putting together Operation Olympic (or Downfall), the invasion of the Japanese home islands, even as the Japanese readied themselves for the attack. The US assembled 14,000 aircraft and up to 100 aircraft carriers for the assault. However, Japan was producing suicide weapons in abundance. 10,500 aircraft were preserved for attacks on US invasion forces, hundreds of fast boats with high explosives inside were constructed for ramming American ships, and special long-lance torpedoes were prepared for carrying men who steered the torpedoes to their targets. Japan assembled and trained huge numbers of women and children to charge the Americans with sharpened sticks to cause a depletion of US ammunition before the following Japanese troops reached the American lines.[331]

  Worse yet, and unknown to the Americans, with skilled radio traffic analysis and common sense the Japanese accurately deduced the landing area, the Southern part of Kyushu. Japan was quickly preparing hardened defensive positions in the escarpments overlooking the invasion beaches. The Japanese military finally decided that attacking warships was not the path to victory. All the suicide weapons would be directed at the transports, troopships, and landing craft. The LSTs were the highly prized targets instead of the battleships and carriers waiting further offshore (The Pacific War Companion, Editor, Daniel Marston, Osprey, 2005).

  Figure 74 Planned Assault on Japan, Op Olympic & Coronet

  The tactical adjustment of the Kamikaze attacks was probably more important than discovering the landing area. With thousands of Kamikazes aimed at troop transports and landing craft, the carnage would grow immensely. The losses of men would occur before reaching the beach; decreasing unit combat power and increasing the confusion of the landing force (recall Tarawa). Once ashore, caves overlooking the beach would rain down heavy artillery on the invaders. Coupled with bunkers and pillboxes firing machine guns and mortars into the troop concentrations on the shore (as they did at Iwo Jima), the American soldiers and marines would be in a fix. The Japanese also assembled fourteen field divisions with 625,000 troops on Kyushu by August 1945, a truly prodigious number. The “charge of the innocents” (my phrase) would come next, with thousands of women
and children storming the American lines. Could American troops shoot down women and children by the thousands? Even if they did, the follow-on assault by the remains of the Japanese army would press the invaders to the limit. Naval gunfire and close air support would probably provide the edge for victory, but imagine the slaughter. Many analysts calculated the probable death toll for the Japanese alone at two million if Japan was invaded—but they mean the entire campaign.[332] I doubt these analysts realized the Japanese had figured out the American landing area, or knew how many suicide planes, boats, and other specialized equipment the Japanese were preparing.

  The US Fleet experienced problems with the Kamikazes flying from Japan to Okinawa. Defending the fleet would be much harder if the aircraft were coming in huge numbers and flying much shorter distances. In addition, the Kamikazes would be aiming at the LSTs and other thin-skinned landing ships. Such a mass killing zone would be beyond anything experienced in human history. Over a million people could have died in the landing areas alone. Assuming the Americans got ashore and moved inland, Japanese suicide attacks would certainly continue. As massive waves of humanity threw themselves against the US lines, American politicians might have rethought the conquest of Japan. At that point, a negotiated peace may have taken place with a few American concessions, one of which would have been retention of the emperor.

  Truman Uses the A-Bomb

  Thankfully, all this is speculation because of the invention of the atomic bomb. After a warning from the world-renowned physicist, Albert Einstein, that Germany was seeking an atomic bomb, President Roosevelt ordered the United States to begin development of its own bomb.[333] Unfortunately for the United States, the Soviets penetrated the small group of top scientists working on the bomb, and the secrets of the bomb were delivered to the USSR without cost or risk.

  President Truman ordered the atomic bombs dropped on Japan based on his analysis of the various options available to America. Many options were considered; although, in reality, the options were seriously limited. America could try to starve everyone to death or use conventional bombardment to pound Japan into submission; however, surrender was not likely in either case because of the possible removal of the emperor and the anticipation of such conventional methods by Japan’s leadership. Whether they were starved or bombed into submission, many months would pass causing perhaps millions of Japanese to suffer and die. Invasion was another course, and the one favored before the bomb emerged, except an invasion would result in innumerable deaths with both Americans and Japanese dying by the probable millions.

  Truman’s verdict to use the atomic bomb was the only rational course of action. The deaths of 180,000 (estimated) Japanese in the two atomic attacks were little compared to the slaughter required by an invasion or the suffering induced by an extended blockade starving millions. The atomic attacks saved millions of lives. Moreover, Roosevelt agreed with Stalin that the USSR would invade Japan within a few months of the German surrender. Stalin was good to his word (for once) and invaded Manchuria shortly before the United States of America used the atomic bomb on Japan. Battle wise Soviet forces rolled over the Japanese defenders with ease. They would have kept going to the coast of China, and into the Japanese home islands, if the war had not ended. After the surrender of Japan, the Soviet advance stopped leaving at least South Korea free and China still engaged in a brutal civil war, but not under Soviet control.

  Some have said Truman used the bomb to demonstrate its destructive ability to Stalin. Truman clearly stated he used the bomb to end the war, and nothing else. If Truman was anything, he was a straight and plain speaker. If we take Truman at his word, we have the definitive statement from the one man who made the ultimate decision to use the bomb. Moreover, he was right to use it. It ended the most brutal war in human existence. Suppose there was an additional motive in using the bomb to show Stalin its power. If it prevented World War III, who cares? That alone would save the lives of untold millions. In my opinion, Stalin was ready to start another world war, but as long as America alone possessed the atomic bomb, he was afraid of losing. After the Soviets built their own atomic bomb, the United States responded by creating the hydrogen bomb (much larger blast), and the USSR hesitated once more. Some have opined, and it is possible knowing the history of Stalin, that Stalin planned a Third World War because he believed the United States was too weak. He further believed the USSR could take the human losses and the United States could not; however, (my opinion) those close to him learned of his idea and then poisoned him. The record of the last few hours of Stalin’s life convinces me his associates did kill him, although the reasons are not clear. As history stands now, we will never know; but, perhaps, we should be thankful for a few men around Stalin who risked their own lives to save the world from the ultimate slaughter.

  In the year 2010, so far removed from the realities of 1945, it is fashionable to fault President Truman’s use of the atomic bomb. Critics’ claim Japan’s surrender was close, and by just waiting the United States could have saved many lives. Those making the claims are wrong. Postwar analyses of the Japanese plans disclosed there was no thought of surrender. Even after two atomic bombs were dropped, the Japanese military disavowed surrender. Only the direct intervention of the emperor, with an unprecedented direct order by him to the heads of the military and the cabinet, ended the fighting. The emperor was not, by tradition, to speak at cabinet meetings. He was only to attend and listen, nothing more. In the event, the emperor broke all tradition and arose, ordering the military to quit. It is doubtful the emperor could have made this move without the shock of the atomic bomb. The military men cried, and some went home and committed suicide. If the emperor had refrained from speaking, the war would have continued and untold millions would have died in China (remember the Soviet invasion), Japan, and in the American invasion forces.

  The first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. When no news came from Japan, Truman authorized the second bomb drop, and the city of Nagasaki was hit on August 9, 1945. Only after the detonation of the second bomb did word come from Japan that surrender was possible, but they still requested their emperor be allowed to hold his crown (it was not a condition). Truman relented and said the Japanese communication met the requirements of the Potsdam accords for unconditional surrender.

  It was over. With the surrender of Japan, the fighting officially stopped, and the Second World War was at an end. A new world dawned, one much different than the last four hundred and fifty years. Europe was no longer the center of the world, and new powerful nations were emerging with weapons and methods of war changing the face of the future. The Allies celebrated as Europe and Japan smoldered, but a new war had already started. Former Allies soon confronted one another to decide what political philosophy would rule the world.

  Let Us Learn

  The best lesson from WWII? Be prepared. If you desire peace, prepare for war. The USA, the Great Britain, and France failed to prepare for war. Good men died in the Philippines, France, the USSR, Malaya, Pearl Harbor, and numerous other places because their nations failed to prepare for war. By wishing for the best, signing documents guaranteeing peace, and believing promises from men without morals the Western world’s leadership came very close to losing everything to an evil beyond description. You cannot wish away bad people or bad situations, you must prepare for them.[334]

  In your life, be prepared for the future. Keep food on hand, fire extinguishers, medical aid kits, and think over ways to survive in the event catastrophe visits you. Look to preventing the catastrophe in the first place. WWII was avoidable if France and England had enforced the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler’s numerous violations allowed the Allies to intervene at many points, but they failed to interfere. If you look at what is going on around you many situations will cry out for early action, and postponement will result in much larger problems.

  During your time on earth, you should compile ways of gathering good information. Discern what
is happening, then react properly. Joseph Stalin rejected good information and nearly destroyed himself in the process. Don’t pull a Stalin. Stalin also shot people bringing him bad news, thus, he was denied the truth when he needed it most. Encourage people to approach you with good or bad news. Reward them for accurate information. It is critical to success.

  Another lesson from the Second World War; before taking action prepare thoroughly. Get all the information you can, act on the information, anticipate hardships then plan and equip for them, and keep an open mind to other possible reactions to the information. Set reasonable goals, making sure available resources can meet them. If resources are short then scale back the project, reset the goals, or assemble the necessary resources over time. Seek the right mind set for achieving your stated goals. Be consistent in your actions. If you change plans constantly, defeat will stalk you. Hitler hit the Soviets without proper planning, and he was not prepared for setbacks. He set impossible goals, and he changed the goals midstream. Hitler was guilty of false assumptions about the Soviets, and he rejected advice from highly experienced men. Hitler blew it.

  Finally, luck is necessary in huge undertakings. Yes, luck. It even makes a difference in small projects. Matters beyond your control must fall your way, or you will face trouble. If the Japanese had sunk the three US Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor, as planned, the Pacific war would have changed dramatically. If the Japanese submarines or scout aircraft had spotted the US aircraft carriers earlier, Midway could have turned into a dire American defeat. If the Polish code breakers failed to escape Poland, the course of the war may have changed forever in Hitler’s favor. There are numerous other examples. Luck is not something one controls (at least, that is what we hear—see Scott Adams and Dilbert for another theory), and normal mortals must sit, allowing the fates to decide. Nevertheless, it is a key factor in life. Recognize that failure is not always someone’s fault. Realize events beyond the control of anyone might decide critical events and issues.