Atomic bombs were necessary to stop Japanese atrocities
By Seth Grossman, Political Columnist
(Reprinted from Current-Gazette Newspapers of Atlantic and Cape May Counties, http://www.shorenewstoday.com/news.php?id=6078)
In August of 1945, American planes dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killed roughly 220,000 Japanese.
Last August, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey hosted a program with ?eyewitness testimony? from two ?hibakusha? ? survivors of those attacks. Similar programs are held around the world every August ?to make sure we never use these weapons again.?
But we may have to. Dec. 7 is a good time to remember why.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese destroyed our Pacific fleet and killed 2,350 Americans while we were at peace with them. Why?
Princeton, N.J., native Iris Chang explained why in her 1997 book, ?The Rape of Nanking ? The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.?
In 1889, a fanatic ?Meiji-Shinto? movement took control of Japan. These Japanese, like German Nazis of the 1930s and today?s jihadist Arabs, invented a false and evil doctrine out of old religious traditions, warrior codes from the Middle Ages, and modern Western technology.
In 1890, they set up new public schools throughout Japan. Every child was taught that Japanese were a superior race chosen by gods to someday rule the world. They were told their emperor was descended from a god and should be worshipped and obeyed as one.
To achieve their divine mission, Japanese students were given intense instruction in history, geography, foreign languages, mathematics, science, logic, and drawing. Discipline was harsh and often brutal. Nobody could question any order or decision. Japanese were taught since early childhood that their individual lives and desires meant nothing. They were simply small cogs in a great machine that served the nation. And the nation existed to serve the emperor and his divine plan.
Graduates of these schools quickly designed and built new factories with the most modern equipment. Japanese products were sold around the world. In 1894, Japan started a war with China and took Korea in six weeks. In 1904 Japan attacked Russia and grabbed a big chunk of its territory. During World War I, Japan seized all German colonies in China and the Pacific. In 1931, Japan hit China again and took the entire province of Manchuria.
In the summer of 1937, Japan started a fifth war to conquer the rest of China. The Chinese fought back fiercely. It took the Japanese three months to capture Shanghai ? one coastal city.
When Shanghai finally fell, three Japanese armies moved inland toward the Chinese capital of Nanking. Prince Asaka, brother of Emperor Hirohito, was put in charge.
As they advanced, Japanese soldiers killed every Chinese soldier and civilian in their way. The Japanese stole whatever they could and destroyed everything else. Only attractive young women were kept alive ? as ?comfort women? for the troops.
The Japanese approached Nanking on Dec. 5, 1937. By then, most Chinese soldiers and government officials had fled. Only 600,000 civilians and 90,000 soldiers remained. That day, the emperor?s brother issued a sealed written order to his field commanders that read: ?Kill all captives.?
The killing began on Dec. 16, 1937. Roughly 57,000 Chinese soldiers captured outside the city were put into groups of 50, taken to remote areas and shot. When Japanese soldiers entered the city, they killed tens of thousands of Chinese randomly in the streets.
Many made games of the killing. Babies were thrown in the air and bayoneted for sport. When Chinese hid in their homes, Japanese soldiers made house-to-house searches. They killed everyone they found inside. About 20,000 young women were raped, tortured and mutilated before being killed.
Western diplomats and businessmen, even German Nazi leader John Rabe, were horrified. They saved thousands by setting up an International Safe Zone where killing was not permitted. In three weeks, the Japanese killed some 200,000 to 300,000 unarmed Chinese.
Back then, most Americans were against all foreign wars. We believed getting into World War I was a mistake. We responded with peaceful nonviolence. We boycotted Japanese goods and stopped selling them rubber and oil.
But on Dec. 7, 1941, Japan destroyed our Navy when they were prepared, and we were not. They then took the oil and rubber they needed from nearby countries, which now had nobody to defend them.
In August of 1945, Japan was still very strong and killing Americans every day with suicide attacks. Our atomic bombs saved millions of lives. They let us quickly end the war with no more American deaths. They also convinced the Japanese to get rid of their sick culture that started five barbaric wars in 52 years.
Somers Point attorney Seth Grossman appears live on WVLT 92.1 FM, heard throughout southern New Jersey 8 to 9 a.m. every Saturday. For information see www.libertyandprosperity.org, email grossman@snip.net or call (609) 927-7333. Breakfast discussion groups are held 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. every Saturday at the Athena Diner, 1515 New Road, Northfield.