Did We Have to Nuke Japan?
by The end of a war and the beginning of injustice.
What is Japan’s Humanitarian Record?
We see many movies of German Prison Camp atrocities and scenes depicting the holocaust. How does Japan’s record stack up? By comparison to the Japanese camps, German POW camps for combatants were nearly Country Clubs. I am not talking about the camps that were “to settle the Jewish question” wich were extermination camps. I am talking of the ones where captured combatants were held prisoner. Less than one fourth of Americans taken prisoner by the Japanese were repatriated at the end of the war. This is a nice way to say that over 75 percent died. By comparison, over 94 percent of the Americans captured by the Germans were repatriated. In fact the rate was only 2 percent worse than Germans being repatriated by the Americans. And we took pride in our good treatment. Admittedly both Japan and Germany were being bombed regularly from the air and we certainly killed some of our own men. But the disparity indicates some systematic and drastic mistreatment of prisoners by the Japanese. If you wish to read about it from someone who was there, I suggest reading, “Reach for the Sky” by Douglas Badder and Baa Baa Black Sheep by Gregory Boyington. Both Baddar and Boyington were pilots who spent time in German and Japanese camps respectively. Although Baddar’s treatment was far from cordial and in fact very rough it in no way compared to Boyington’s. I assure you that Boyington would have gladly traded places with Badder. Japan should have fared no better than Germany in the war crime trials related to mistreatment of combatants..
“But What About the Holocaust?” is the Cry of the Media
That is the watch word of those who would whitewash the Japanese. Let us look at the holocaust. The murder of over 6 million Jews is contested by none with any sense of history. It is an unspeakable act. And I burn with anger because we ignore the systematic genocide of over 22 million Chinese by the Japanese. Get the book, “The Rape of Nanking.” And to this day we hear continually of the six million Jews and nothing of the Chinese deaths. And they were not alone. Malays, Phillipinos and others who were considered inferiors to the Japanese Race were killed by the millions too. And the Japanese even today consider those races inferior. Unlike the Germans who still engage in self-flagellation for the Holocost the Japanese still see nothing wrong with what what they did except that they lost the war.
Maybe the dropping of the bombs were directed by a higher power who decided that in the long run there would be more justice and less killing? The Japanese leaders escaped the justice of man. The Japanese people were not so lucky.
Footnote: Had the war continued, Hiroshima (manufacturing) and Nagasaki (Military Naval Base) would have certainly felt the fire bomb raids that had gutted Tokyo and other cities. They were selected for the Atomic attack because they had not been heavily bombed. The devastation of these attacks often was nearly as great as the Atomic attack, but was delivered by hundreds of planes, not one.
Other Articles by Ralph Brandt
Obama and Kennedy: BHO and JFK Aug 30, 2008
Churches That Get Government Money
Financial Help in These Trying Times
Anonymous and Irresponsible: the Radical Left
The Comparison of the Assassinations of Kennedy and Lincoln
Relationship of Church and State
I’m Going on
Compromise in the Church
Come Away My Beloved
Communion
Contradictions – Science and Religion
Christian Perspective On Hatred Feb 20, 2007
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