I am retired Air Force Major General Charles sweeney. I was the only pilot who participated in the Japanese atomic bombing twice. He served as the right pilot of Colonel Tibbets in Hiroshima bombing and as the formation commander in Nagasaki bombing.
As the only pilot who has participated in two atomic bombings in Japan, I will state my personal experience. What I want to emphasize is that all my statements are indisputable facts, and some people just ignore these obvious facts because they are inconsistent with the prejudice in their minds.
At this moment, as a person who has experienced that period of history, I want to state my thoughts, observations and conclusions. I think President Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan not only conforms to the situation at that time, but also has the moral necessity to overwhelm other possible choices. Like most people of our generation, the last thing I want to happen is war. As a nation, we are not knights, nor do we long for that kind of glory. When our country was struggling in the Great Depression, Japan began to conquer its neighbors-what is the "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Circle"? Fascists always use beautiful flags to cover up the most despicable plots.
This "common prosperity" was achieved through a brutal all-out war against China. As a country, Japan believes that it is destined to rule Asia and gain natural resources and vast land from Asia. Japan slaughtered innocent men, women and children without any pity or hesitation. In the terrible Nanjing Massacre, 300,000 unarmed civilians were slaughtered. This is a crime.
This is a fact. Japan believes that the United States is the only obstacle to the "God-given" fate of Asia. So Japan carried out a well-planned sneak attack on the Pacific fleet of the US Navy stationed in Pearl Harbor. The sneak attack is scheduled for a Sunday morning, because the action at this time can destroy the strength of the fleet to the maximum extent, eliminate personnel, and give the US Navy a fatal blow.
Thousands of American sailors lost their lives on the USS Arizona, which is still sleeping at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Many of these soldiers don't even know why they were suddenly attacked. The war was thus imposed on the United States.
The fall of Corregidor and the subsequent slaughter of allied prisoners of war dispelled the last suspicion of Japanese brutality. Even in wartime, the brutality of the Japanese army is outrageous. The death March in Bagan province is full of terror.
The Japanese believe that surrender is an insult to themselves, their families, the motherland and the emperor. They are not soft on themselves or their enemies. 7,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war were beaten, shot, stabbed to death with bayonets, or died of disease and hunger.
These are all facts. As the United States slowly, painfully and bloody marched into Japan in the vast Pacific Ocean, Japan has shown itself to be a ruthless and arrogant killing machine. No matter how desperate the war is, no matter how slim the chance is, no matter how certain the result is, the Japanese will fight to the last man. In order to gain the greatest glory possible, the Japanese army went all out to kill as many Americans as possible.
The closer the U.S. military gets to Japan, the crazier the Japanese behavior becomes.
Saipan: 3000 Americans were killed, including 1500 in the last few hours.
Iojima: 6000 Americans died and 2 1000 people were injured.
Okinawa: American troops were killed12,000, and 38,000 people were injured.
This is a heavy fact. Kamikaze fighters crashed a plane full of bombs into an American warship.
The players believe that this is the highest glory in heaven and earth, and it is the sublimation of the realm of God. In the waters near Okinawa, suicide attacks by kamikaze fighters killed 5,000 US Navy soldiers.
Japanese words and actions made it clear that as long as the first American landed in Japan, they would execute all allied prisoners of war. Japan prepared for the Holocaust and forced allied prisoners of war to dig their own graves. Even after the surrender, they executed some prisoners of war.
This is a fact
The Potsdam Proclamation demanded that Japan surrender unconditionally. The Japanese think this is ridiculous and disdain to consider it. We know from the intercepted code that Japan intends to stall for time, try to negotiate and surrender under acceptable conditions.
A few months before August 6, American planes began to bomb Japan. One by one, Japan's urbanization caught fire, and thousands of Japanese died. But the Japanese vowed never to surrender. They are prepared to sacrifice their own people for the glory and honor they understand-no matter how many people die.
They refused to help civilians, even though our pilots had distributed leaflets about possible air strikes in advance.
In a bombing operation lasting 10 days, many places in Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe and Osaka were reduced to ashes.
This is a fact
Even after the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, the Japanese military department still believes that there is only one bomb in the United States, and Japan can continue to insist. After August 6th, they had three days to surrender, but they didn't. It was not until Nagasaki was bombed by the atomic bomb that the Japanese emperor finally announced his surrender. Even in this case, the military still claims that they can and should continue to fight. An army officer regiment launched a rebellion, trying to intercept and undermine the imperial edict that the emperor declared surrender to the Japanese.
This is a fact
These facts help to explain the nature of the enemy we are facing, to recognize the background that President Truman should consider when making various choices, and to understand why it is necessary to bomb Japan with atomic bombs.
Like every soldier and woman, President Truman understood these facts. Casualties are not abstract statistics, but painful facts.
Did the atomic bomb end the war?
-Yes.
-Is that necessary?
-This is controversial.
Fifty years later, in the eyes of some people, Japan became a victim and the US military became a ferocious conqueror and revenger. The use of atomic bombs is the starting point of injustice and immorality in the nuclear age. Naturally, in order to support this distortion, they must deliberately ignore the facts or fabricate new materials to prove this argument. One of the most surprising acts is to deny that the Japanese army ever carried out a massacre.
How did this happen?
The answer may be found in some recent events.
At present, the debate about why President Truman ordered the atomic bombing of Japan has evolved into a numbers game in some cases. Smith's exhibition "The Consequences of the Atomic Bomb" shows a despicable argument, which has caused an uproar in the field of history.
The message conveyed by the exhibition "The Consequences of Atomic Bombing" is that Japan is the victim and the United States is the evil aggressor. Imagine what kind of impression your children will leave if they go to the exhibition. Will they still know the truth?
In a national television debate, I heard such a so-called outstanding historian claim that the atomic bomb was unnecessary. President Truman wanted to scare the Russians with an atomic bomb, and Japan was ready to surrender.
It was suggested that General Eisenhower once said that Japan was ready to surrender and there was no need to use the atomic bomb. However, based on the same judgment, Eisenhower seriously underestimated Germany's will to continue fighting, and concluded in 1944 that Germany was unable to carry out offensive actions. This was a disastrous misjudgment, and the result was a fierce battle in Ardennes. In the battle, thousands of allies sacrificed needlessly, risking delaying the war and surrendering conditionally.
A fairly fair conclusion is that according to the situation of the Pacific War, it can be reasonably expected that Japan will be a crazier enemy than Germany.
Finally, there is a theory that if the allied forces attack Japan, our casualties will not be 1 10,000, but only 46,000 people will die. Only 46 thousand! Can you imagine the coldness of this argument?
There are only 46,000 people, as if these are unimportant American lives.
At this moment, I have to admit that I don't know how many people will be killed or injured in the attack on the Japanese army-and no one knows.
Judging from Japan's wartime behavior, I really think a fair and reasonable assumption is that the attack on Japan will be long and costly. According to what we know, not according to some people's imagination, Japan does not intend to surrender unconditionally.
In the attack on Iojima, an 8-square-mile island reef in the Pacific Ocean, 6,000 marines were killed and the total number of casualties was 27,000.
But for those who think that we have lost only 46,000 people, I want to ask: Who are these 46,000 people? Whose father? Whose brother? Whose husband?
Yes, I only noticed the life in America. However, the fate of Japan is in the hands of the Japanese, while the United States is not. Thousands of American troops are anxiously waiting for the attack in the ocean-their fate depends on Japan's next move. Japan can choose to surrender at any time, but they chose to wait.
When Japan "did nothing", with the progress of the war, the US military suffered more than 900 casualties every day.
I've heard another saying that it is necessary to negotiate with Japan to achieve a conditional surrender acceptable to Japan.
I have never heard of anyone proposing to negotiate surrender with fascist Germany. This is a crazy idea, and no rational person would say such a thing. To negotiate with such an evil fascist devil is to recognize its legitimacy, even though it has actually been defeated. This is not an empty philosophical principle of that era, but a just demand of human beings. The forces of fascist demons must be thoroughly and cleanly eradicated, and these evil forces must be crushed. Fascist leaders ruthlessly shattered the credibility of diplomacy.
Why is the history of the Pacific War so easily forgotten?
Perhaps the reason lies in the continuous distortion of history and our collective memory.
Fifty years after the defeat, Japan rashly claimed that they were victims, and the Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Nanjing massacres were essentially the same thing!
Generations of Japanese have no idea what their country did in World War II. This can understand why they don't understand why Japan apologizes.
Unlike Germany's attitude of pleading guilty, Japan insisted that it had done nothing wrong and its behavior was dragged down by the situation at that time. This attitude shattered any hope of truly healing the wound.
Only memory can bring true forgiveness, and forgetting may risk repeating history.
Through carefully planned political and public relations activities, Japan now proposes to replace the term "Victory Day against Japan" with "Victory Day in the Pacific". They said that this word will make the end of the Pacific War less closely related to Japan.
Some people may ask, what can these words mean? Beating Japan-beating the Pacific-let's celebrate an event, not a victory.
I want to say that words are everything.
Celebrate an event! It is similar to celebrating the opening of shopping malls, not celebrating the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. This will split the whole earth. Tens of millions of people have died, tens of millions of people have been hurt physically and mentally, and more people will be at a loss.
This kind of attack on language is a tool to reverse history and confuse right and wrong. Words or words can be as destructive as any weapon: up or down; Slavery is freedom; Aggression is peace.
To some extent, the attack on our language by erasing accurate descriptive words is more harmful than the real Japanese aggression 10 years ago. At least in real aggression, the enemy is clear and the threat is clear.
Today, Japan skillfully plays the card of racism to declare the justice of its actions. Japan is not committing criminal aggression, but just liberating the oppressed Asian people from white imperialism.
Liberation! Yes, they "liberated" 20 million innocent Asians with slaughter. I firmly believe that these 20 million innocent people, their families and their descendants will never appreciate Japan's noble behavior.
I am often asked whether I bombed Japan with atomic bombs out of revenge or deliberately destroyed an ancient and respectable civilization.
In this regard, there are the following facts: First, Kyoto was included in the initial list of bombing targets. Although Kyoto is also a legitimate target, it was not bombed in the previous air raid, but Secretary of State Stevenson deleted it from the target list, because Kyoto is the ancient capital of Japan and the cultural and religious center of Japan. Secondly, in wartime, we are strictly bound by orders, and under no circumstances should we bomb the imperial palace in Tokyo-although it is easy for us to identify the imperial palace and kill the emperor. After all, we are not here for revenge. I often wonder, if there is an opportunity to bomb the White House, will Japan be as restrained as the United States? I don't think Japan will.
Let me clarify a fact and correct an age-old prejudice, that is, we deliberately chose densely populated cities for bombing. Every target city we want to bomb has important military value. Hiroshima is the seat of Japan's Southern Command, which has assembled considerable defense forces. Nagasaki is an industrial center with two important arsenals. In these two cities, Japan deployed arsenals and troops in the city center.
As in any war, our goal-the natural goal-is victory. This is an unshakable goal.
I don't want to deny that many people have died on both sides, not only in the two countries, but all over the world. I am not proud and happy about the cruelty of the war. I don't want the people of our country or the enemy to suffer. Every life is precious. But I think such questions should be asked to Japanese war criminals, who pursue their own glory at the expense of the Japanese people. They started the war and refused to stop it. Shouldn't they be ultimately responsible for all the sufferings and disasters in Japan?
Perhaps if the Japanese really understand the past and realize their country's responsibility in the war, they will see that it is Japanese war criminals who have to bear the responsibility for the war. The Japanese people should give the people of the Far East an answer, that is, they imposed the disaster on the countries of the Far East and finally on Japan itself. Of course, if we work with the Japanese to obliterate the truth of history, then this will never be done.
If Japan does not ask and accept the truth, how can Japan get along with itself, its Asian neighbors and the United States with peace of mind?
My men and I firmly believe that we will end the war by carrying out the atomic bombing mission. We are not happy. But a sense of responsibility and mission, and we want to go back to our families.
Today, I stand here to testify, not to celebrate the use of the atomic bomb, but on the contrary. I hope my mission is the last time. As a country, we should be afraid of the existence of atomic bombs. I feel scared.
But this does not mean going back to August of 1945. In wartime, President Truman has no obligation to use all possible weapons to end the war when the enemy is stubborn and cruel. I agreed with President Truman's decision then and now.
A few years after the war, President Truman was asked if there was any other choice. He said loudly: No, and then he reminded the questioner: Remember, the victims of Pearl Harbor had no other choice.
War is always expensive, as General Robert Lee said, "It's a good thing the war is so cruel, otherwise someone would like it."
Thank God we have atomic weapons, not Japan and Germany. Science has its own logic, and sooner or later someone will design an atomic bomb. Science is undeniable. The question of whether it is wise to make an atomic bomb will eventually be drowned out by the fact that the atomic bomb has been made.
The world is a better place because the fascists in Germany and Japan were defeated.