The Pacific War

[gb6491]

This link was sent to me in an email and I thought some here might be interested. It's an excellent collection of photos from the US Pacific campaign of WWII: http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/03/18/captured-blog-the-pacific-and-adjacent-theaters/#more-1547

Regards,
Greg

Thompson aficionados will probably appreciate this photo in particular:
http://denverpost.slideshowpro.com/albums/001/496/album-101361/cache/pacific022.sJPG_950_2000_0_75_0_50_50.sJPG?1293587 083

[kahrseye]

That's quite a photo record of the attack and other events. The Japanese were a fierce enemy and there are records of them being quite brutal to Americans as well as others. Some of them were very sadistic. There has never been any doubt in my mind that we (US) made the right decision to bomb Japan with nuclear weapons. It is quite puzzling to me that some people feel guilty because we bombed Japan. After looking at those photos, I don't know how anyone could come to any other decision than the bombing of Japan was justified.

[johnh]

Agreed. Hindsight may be 20-20 in some cases, but in the case of those who doubt that decision, hindsight is completely blind. There is no way Japan would have surrendered until millions more died. That would have been an imense tragedy for those who lost their lives, and the generations since in Japan and the United States who would have never been born. When I was a history teacher, I used to do some simple math on the board where I estimated the number of children who were never born due to each young man's premature death in each of the world wars. It did not take much for my kids to realize the monumental cost in lives lost, and those never lived. I think that helps put what went through our leaders minds, having seen two great and terrible wars within their lifetimes. They were thinking not just of ending the war for the sake of their time, but for the sake of future generations. As for the arguement that the weapon should not have been developed, well that genie was out of the bottle as soon as Mr. Einstein developed his theory of relativity. It was only a matter of time.

John

[jfrey]

My uncle survived being blown off the USS California at Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. He had no problems with dropping the bomb on Japan. He never had anything good to say about FDR because of it either.

[O'Dell]

I agree. President Truman was right on this one. Nothing else, including a 'demonstration' of the power of the bomb, would have provided an immediate end to the war. Is there any doubt that Germany or Japan would have used the weapon had they got there first.

[Jeremiah/Az]

I had some uncles in that war. I was very young, but I can remember the adults talking about it at the time. Today's schools do not teach the truth about the unprovoked attacked by the Japanese. That just burns my backside! The bleeding hearts just dwell on the brutality of the dropping of the bombs on Japan. Truman had cajonies to make the decision to end that war against Japan.

[jocko]

Now we have to many idiot countries with the bomb, maybe only one even but they think they are now God with it. I fear we will see it used again, and more than likely on us.

For they know if they do, we will sit on our asses and talk about it for a year and then try to negoiate some type of apology sh-t ... and end up making it look like we prevoked it even.. Kudos to Truman and all those involved. I am proud to have hangin on my wall one of 50 photos taken at Tinian island by a military photographer assigned to this mission, of the enola gay and bockscar all signed by the crewman and pilots with Tibbetts on 3 of them writing on a 3X 5 card a special message to me and my son. I met him over at the chanute air force base many years ago when he was on a tour etc with some of the other enola and bockscar crew and he signed the photos for me and authenticated them.

I had two uncles in the Pacific , both came home to.

[Bawanna]

Wow thats some pretty significant pieces of history you have there Jocko. Way cool.

My stepmother in law who is still alive was the Japanese Liason officer to Douglas MacCarther. She has photo's of herself with him hanging on her wall. I've always meant to get copies of them made so I could have them hanging also.
Since father in laws passing this last year it may not happen but perhaps I'll try again.

She loaned me a book drawn by a prisoner of war. They weren't allowed to write words but they could draw pictures, so he drew pictures the whole time he was captive. It's quite a thick photo album size book. Apparently several copies were made at some point but she had one of the originals from the man himself. It was quite interesting to look at. She insisted I keep it in my gun safe when not in my hand. Very protective of it.

[wyntrout]

Thanks for the link, Greg. My dad was an aircraft mechanic and served in the South Pacific with the Jolly Rogers (5th AF, 90th Bomb Group)... Papua was one of the locations... with B24's for sure. He came home, obviously, and then 9 months later I was among the first of the baby boomers.:D

I was searching for info on my son with Google one day, and I found a photo which has to be him... my dad.

http://www.sunsetters38bg.com/index.php/component/option,com_easygallery/Itemid,44/act,photos/cid,3/

His name was Pat, not Patrick, but whoever annotated the photo probably mistakenly wrote Patrick. I named my son for him and later found my dad's birth certificate and discharge papers showed he was "Pat".

I googled the "Pacific Prowler" and found them using that photo on their site http://www.pacificprowler.org/History.html ... weird the stuff you run across. I'll try to post the picture here. This plane has a lot of history and is still flying. It has been in several movies already. My dad is the one in the lower left... "Sgt Patrick Troutman".

Wynn:)

[jocko]

My stepmother in law who is still alive was the Japanese Liason officer to Douglas MacCarther. She has photo's of herself with him hanging on her wall

wow, MacCarther actually handing on the wall. That is rare Bawanna, or did I read that wrong?????? Here I thought he died of old age and now I find out your stepmother actually hanged him on her wall;. No my friend you own a real peace of "history:!!!!

[JustinN]

Amazing Pictures. I'm just glad we still have access to things like this.