To these considerations must be added the convictions of many high-ranking naval and air commanders—none of them members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—that Japan could be bombed, shelled, and blockaded into submission. This is probably true, but can never be proved. At best such a policy would indubitably have saved many American lives, even though it would almost certainly have caused horrible and unimaginable suffering in Japan. Because it would have taken so much longer, it would have given the insatiably land-hungry Stalin the opportunity to enter the war for a much longer period than his actual six-day contribution, and thus cloak him in the customary mane of the lion roaring for his “rightful” share of the spoils. Hiroshima, then, did save Japan from the brutal and selfish policies of her War Lords determined that the nation must die like a dutiful Samurai. But Nagasaki was absolutely unnecessary, coming only three days after Hiroshima and thus too close to influence any decision. Probably it was dropped to show Japan that the United States possessed more than one bomb—actually it had only two—and presumably could produce many more.
From all this speculation only two probabilities seem to emerge: one, that Japan was already beaten and would have surrendered before the monster Operation Olympic invasion began three months later; two, that Harry Truman dropped both bombs as much to frighten Stalin as to finish off Japan.
Where, then, does this leave Okinawa?
A corollary of the myth of the atomic bombs is the other though less widespread misconception of Okinawa as an unnecessary battle. Here is one more instance of that cart-before-the-horse thinking common to those facile minds so well described by Aristotle: “Contemplating little, they have no difficulty deciding.” The Battle for Okinawa was begun on April 1, 1945, more than 4 months before the bombing of Hiroshima and 3½ months before the first bomb was exploded at Alamogordo. The Americans wanted Okinawa for a staging area only 375 miles from Kyushu, the Japanese hoped through its kamikaze corps either to cripple or destroy the enemy sea power that had brought the Americans so close to Japan proper.
Because Imperial General Headquarters had not the slightest suspicion that the Americans were close to producing an atomic bomb, General Ushijima and his Thirty-second Army expected to defend Okinawa with conventional weapons, while General Buckner intended to seize the Great Loo Choo with the same instruments of war. Not until just before Hiroshima were Fleet Admiral Nimitz and General of the Armies MacArthur—the officers who would command the invasion of Japan—informed that their country now possessed atomic weapons. By then, of course, Okinawa had fallen—and when it did, it so shocked Emperor Hirohito that he could echo what Fleet Admiral Osami Nagano, his personal naval advisor, had cried when he learned of the loss of Saipan: “Hell is on us!”
Until Okinawa, Hirohito had been an accomplice of the War Lords; if not a willing one, then, in the words of MacArthur, who came to know him better than any other Westerner: “a figurehead, but not quite a stooge.” After its fall, he was ready to challenge them, and the atomic bombs gave him that opportunity.
So Okinawa was indeed decisive, for if the Japanese had won in this biggest battle of the Pacific War, the hold of the War Lords upon the nation of Nippon would have been so strengthened that even the influence of Hirohito could not have persuaded the Imperial Conference to accept the Allied surrender offer. Thus, the war would have been prolonged—hopelessly for Japan, of course—and only the production and use of more atomic bombs would have avoided that titanic clash of arms upon the Tokyo Plain.
Index
Abele
Ainu
Amamiya, Tatsumi
ambush tactics
ammunition, supplying of
Anderson, Beauford “Snuffy”
Anthony
Ara Point
Archer, Robert
Ariga, Kosaku
Arima, Masafumi
Aristotle
Arkansas
Army Air Forces (POA)
Army Ground Forces (POA)
Arnold, Archibald
Arnold, H. H. “Hap”
Asa River
Asashimo
Asato River
Astoria
atomic bombs
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Australia
Axtell, George
B-29 bombers (Superfortresses)
Bache
Badoglio, Pietro
baka (Oka; Cherry Blossom) bombs
Banzai charges
Barry
Bates
Beary, D. G.
Belman, Dave
Bennington
Biak
Bimbo Butai (Poor Detachment)
Birmingham
Biscansin, Al
Blakelock, David
Boeitai
Bonin Islands
Borneo
Bourne, R. F.
Bradford, William
Bradford Force
Bradley, James
Bradley, Omar
Braine
Brocade Banner affair
Bruce, Andrew
Buckner, Simon Bolivar, Jr.
death of
Minatoga landing rejected by
surrender appeal of
Tenth Army and
Turner and
Buckner, Simon Bolivar, Sr.
Buckner Bay (Nakagusuku Bay)
Buddhism
Bulge, Battle of the
Bunker Hill
Burma
Bush
Bush, Richard
Bush, Robert
Bushido see also Samurai
Canberra
Cary, Donald
Cassidy, John
Catholicism
Catmon Hill
Cernawsky, Anthony
Cherry Blossom (Oka; baka) bombs
Cherry Society (Sakura-kai)
Chicago
China, Okinawa and
Cho, Isamu
Buckner’s surrender appeal and
character of
in conspiracy plots
counter-attack plans of
farewell dinner of
kamikaze and
suicide of
Chocolate Drop
Christianity
Clark, Joseph “Jocko”
Colhoun
Collins, “Lightning Joe”
Colorado
Comfort
Conical Hill
Connor, John
Cook, Paul
“corkscrew and blowtorch” tactics
Coronet, Operation
Courtney, Henry
Curran, Bill
Curtis
Daily, William
daimyos
Dakeshi Ridge
Dakeshi Town
Dale, Guy
Davison, R. E.
del Valle, Pedro
Detroit
Deyo, Morton
Dick Hill
Divine Wind, see kamikaze
Doniphan, Dennis
Doss, Desmond
Douw, Volckert
Dovel, David
Drexler
Dusenbury, Julius
Dutch East Indies
Easley, Claudius
death of
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
El Dorado
Elliott
Enterprise(“Big E”)
Essex
Evans
Fardy, John
Finn, John
Finn, Mickey
“firebase psychosis”
Fitz, Hal
flamethrowers
Flattop Hill
Floating Chrysanthemums (kikusui)
Ford, Leo
Formosa (Taiwan)
Foster, William
Four Sitting Ducks, Battle of (Battle of Savo Island)
Francis Xavier, Saint
Franklin
Fraught, Harold
Frozen Guns, Battle of the
Fuelling, J. L.
fuel oil
Fujioka, Takeo
gasoline, aviation
Gehres, Leslie
Geiger, Roy
Geneva Convention
George F. Elliott
Germany, Nazi
Golar, Donald “Rusty”
Gonsalves, Harold
Grant, Ulysses S.
Griner, George
Griswold, Oswald
Guadalcanal
conditions on
Guam
Guerard, John
Gusukuma
habus
Hackleback
Hadley
Haggard
Hagushi Anchorage
Hagushi Beaches
Half-Moon Hill
Halloran, Michael “Screamin’ Mike”
Halsey, William “Bull”
Halyburton, William
Hamakaze
Hamilton, Stephen
Hancock
Hansen, Dale
Hara, Munetatsu
hara-kiri (seppuku)
of Ushijima and Cho
Harmon, Millard
Hartline, Franklin
Hauge, Louis
Hawaii
Pearl Harbor
Hazelwood
Heavenly Operation (Ten-Go)
Hinsdale
Hirohito, Emperor
Hiroshima, atomic bombing of
Hitler, Adolf
Hobbs Victory
Hodge, John
Bradford Force formed by
hurricane attack of
May and
as tactical chief
Hokkaido
Holms, John
Honshu
Hornbeck, Kenneth
Horseshoe Hill
Hugh W. Hadley
Iceberg Operation, planning of
Ichiki Detachment
Ie Shima
India
Indochina
Isherwood
Ishikawa Isthmus
Isokaze
Item Pocket
Ito, Seichi
Iwa
Iwo Jima
battle of
flag-raising at
Japan, Japanese
Ainu people in
Catholic missionaries and
defeats not reported by
Geneva Convention ignored by
history of
imperial family in
isolation of
Meiji Restoration in
poor communication among
religions in
Samurai culture in
Western influences in
Jones, Jim
Jurka, Stephen
Kadena Airfield
Kai, Tomai
Kakazu Ridge
kamikaze (Divine Wind) (suicide bombers)
American attacks on bases of
baka
Comfort bombed by
farewell ceremonies for
kikusui
mandatory duty and
success rates of
Yamato
kamikaze (Divine Wind) (typhoon)
Kanoya Airfield
Kasumo
Kelly, Don
Kelly, Gerard
Kerama Islands
Khan, Genghis
Khan, Kublai
Kidd
Kikai Jima
kikusui (Floating Chrysanthemums)
Kikusui 2
Kikusui 4
Kikusui 7
Kikusui 8
Kikusui 9,
Kikusui 10
Kimmel, Husband
King, Ernest
Kinser, Elbert
Kiyamu Peninsula
Klingman, Robert
Knox, Frank
Kobe
Kokobu Airfield
Kulak, Victor
Kunishi Ridge
Kwantung Army
Kyushu
L day (Landing Day; Love Day)
Le May, Curtis
Lester, Fred
Leyte
Liscome Bay
Little
Logan Victory
logistics
Lowry
Luce
Luzon
Mabie, Howard
MacArthur, Douglas
McCarthy, James
MacDonnell, Theodore
McDonough, John
Machinato Airfield
Machinato Inlet
McMillan, George
McTureous, Robert
Magellan, Ferdinand
Mahoney, James
Makin
Malaya
Manchuria
Manert L. Abele
Manila
Marianas Turkey Shoot
May, Edwin “Eddy”
death of
May, Martin
Meagher, John
Meiji Restoration
Mezado Ridge
Midway, Battle of
Mikawa, Gunichi
Minatoga Beaches
Missouri
Mitchell, Willard “Captain Hoss”
Mitscher, Marc
Morison, Samuel Eliot
Morrison
mortars
Moskala, Edward
Motobu Peninsula
Mount Suribachi
Mount Yaetake
mud
Mulcahy, Francis
Mullaney, Baron
Murphy. L.
Murphy, George
Musashi
Nagano, Osami
Nagasaki, atomic bombing of
Nagomo, Chuichi
Nagoya
Naha
Nakagusuku Bay (Buckner Bay)
Nakamuta, Tetsuo
Naoyuki, Kuzume
napalm
Napoleon I, Emperor of France
Naval Operations, U.S.
Navy Medical Corps
New Guinea
New York
New York Herald-Tribune
Nimitz, Chester
Nippon, see Japan, Japanese
Nishibaru
Nishibayashi, Kosuke
Nist, Cecil
Nolan, Daniel
Normandy, invasion of
O’Brien, Lawrence
O’Callahan, Joseph
oil
Oka (Cherry Blossom; baka) bombs
Okinawa
China and
history of
Japan’s annexation of
mud in
rain in
religions in
roads in
Okinawa Group
Old Breed, The (McMillan)
Olympic, Operation
O’Neill, Owen
Onishi, Takejiro
Operation Coronet
Operation Iceberg, planning of
Operation Olympic
Ormoc
Oroku Peninsula
Ota, Minoru
Ouki
Ouki Hill
Ozawa, Jisaburu
Pacific Ocean Area (POA)
Palaus
Parker, E. B.
Patton, George
Pearl Harbor
Peleliu
Perry, Matthew
Philippines
kamikaze in
Leyte
Luzon
Philippine Sea, Battle of
Pittsburgh
Poor Detachment (Bimbo Butai)
Putnam, W. H.
Pyle, Ernie
Quincy
Radio Tokyo
rain
refueling
Reusser, Kenneth
Rocky Crags
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
death of
Royster, Jack
Rupertus, William
Russia
Ryan, Bernard
Ryan, V. R.
Ryukyu Islands
Saigo, Takamori
Saipan
Sakura-kai(Cherry Society)
Salvaggio, Jack
Samurai
Bushido,code of
Sangamon
&nbs
p; Santa Fe
Savo Island, Battle of (Battle of the Four Sitting Ducks)
Schoeff, Ernest
Schwab, Albert
Seaman, J. B.
seppuku (hara-kiri)
of Ushijima and Cho
Shapley, Alan
Shea
Sheetz, Joseph
Shelburne, Charles
Shepherd, Lemuel
Shibasaki, Keiji
Shikoku
Shinto
Shirigaku
shoguns
Shuri
Shuri Castle
Shuri Heights
Shuri Ridge
Singapore
Skyline Ridge
slow assault tactics
Smith, Aubrey
Smith, Howland M. “Howlin’ Mad”
Smith, Ralph
Soballe, Victor
Solch, Joseph
Solomon Islands
Soviet Union
Spruance, Raymond
Stalin, Joseph
Stare, Edward
Sterner, Cyril
Stormes
Strawberry Hill
Sturgeon
Sugahara, Michio
Sugar Loaf Hill
suicide bombers, see kamikaze
Sumatra
Superfortresses (B-29 bombers)
supplies
Suribachi, Mount
Sutten, Stanley
Suzuki, Kantaro
Swallow
Taiwan (Formosa)
Takeda, Fujio
Taluga
Tanabaru
Tarawa
Task Force Fifty-eight (TF 58), In
Franklin
Task Force Thirty-eight (TF 38), In
Taylor, Joe
Ten-Go (Heavenly Operation)
Tennessee
Thailand
Thought Police
Tojo, Hideki
Tokyo
Tokyo Plain
Tombstone Ridge
Tooker, Adin
Toyama Maru
Toyoda, Soemu
Truman, Harry S.
Turner, Richmond Kelly
Udo, Kensuke
Udo, Takehiko
Ugaki, Matome
Uhlmann
“Umi Yukaba,”
Urasoe-Mura Escarpment
Ushijima, Mitsuru
American victory and
character of
Conical Hill and
exaggerated battle reports of
farewell dinner of