Memorial Day Musings

The occasion of Memorial Day on Monday and the controversy on President Obama going to Japan to ostensibly apologize for bombing them in 1945 to end World War II has caused me to think about the situation, and I am practically forced to put pen to paper to get all my thoughts on this in order. So, here it is.

I’ve read a great deal of accounts from and seen a lot of interviews of American World War II veterans, and something has struck me by its absence. When discussing their experiences in the war, one never hears gloating about how the US won, how our guys kicked their butt, how glorious it was to fight, etc. Almost invariably (I can’t even think of one account I’ve read that it hasn’t been this way), veterans describe their time in the war in a very matter-of-fact manner. You frequently hear phrases like, “we did what we had to do,” “I did my part,” and other almost nonchalant descriptions of their experiences. I’ve usually chalked it up to the social norm against bragging or perhaps feelings of genuine reluctance to take too much credit for what they did individually and that sort of thing.

Although those reasons may well come into play, I think that for a lot of veterans, there is another reason. Every once in a great while one can find an interview or description that really describes the situation that the soldiers saw, especially in the Pacific theater. The term “carnage” works very well here – “carnage” comes to us from the Latin term carnāticum, which is a payment or offering in meat. That’s exactly what American forces did to obtain each and every island along the way to the Japanese home islands. The average soldier saw heads without faces, bodies without heads, limbs torn from bodies. Men scooping their innards back into their own torn-open bellies. Men soiling themselves out of sheer terror. Wounded men screaming like animals as they lay helpless with fractured bodies. Grown men crying for their mothers as the life slowly bled out of them. Stuff you don’t see in movies here in polite society. Not only that, the Japanese forces used the very effective psychological technique of mutilating the bodies of dead enemies. I won’t go into detail here, but more than a few soldiers stumbled upon the hideously posed and carved bodies of their compatriots, and the sight opened up massive mental wounds that remained open for decades in many cases.

Nights were even worse than days, as the gore and muck of the day’s slaughter played back in the dreams of those who could sleep. But sleep was incredibly dangerous, as Japanese frequently invaded foxholes to soundlessly slay the occupants within.

After a few days, the scene became even more macabre. Unable to properly dispose of the bodies of the dead, the stink of death was pervasive. Bodies covered in flies baked in the tropical sun until they were bloated like overcooked sausages, some bursting open to release even more of the hideous smell.

After a few more days, those lucky enough to survive were functioning on nothing but adrenaline, caffeine, and nicotine. For them it felt like the war is something that always was, that life before it was a dim memory from a time long, long ago. Although rarely stated, the conclusion most of them undoubtedly reached didn’t need to be said – there was no glory to be had here. The lucky died quickly, while the cursed lived with the physical and mental scars.

Often I feel like we (myself included) read about history and take the outcome for granted. We don’t usually put ourselves in the feeling of the moment, as we already know how it ends. But I think it is important when thinking of the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan to do exactly this.

The last major battle prior to the bombings was the Battle of Okinawa. Okinawa is about 300 miles from mainland Japan, and was therefore of extreme strategic importance to the Allies as a launching pad for bombing raids against the Empire. Okinawans are not ethnically nor culturally Japanese – they have their own distinct culture and language, and were in fact their own country until 66 years prior to the battle. However, the fighting on the 877-square-mile island was the fiercest the Allies had faced to date. The battle was informally referred to by both sides as a storm of steel. The United States ultimately committed four infantry divisions and three marine divisions to the battle, totaling 250,000 soldiers and marines. They faced around 77,000 Japanese regulars and 20,000 Okinawan conscripts. Included in Japan’s numbers were 1,780 boys between the ages of 14 and 17 that were mobilized for front-line duties.

Of the quarter million men committed to the task of taking Okinawa, 82,000 became casualties, 12,500 of which were killed or declared missing; basically one in three ended up being injured in some way in the course of battle. Although the psychological effects of battle weren’t fully understood then (not to say that they are remotely adequately understood now), the toll was unmistakable. An article in the Marine Corps Gazette looked back on the horrors of the battle and described the mental toll as follows:

More mental health issues arose from the Battle of Okinawa than any other battle in the Pacific during World War II. The constant bombardment from artillery and mortars coupled with the high casualty rates led to a great deal of men coming down with combat fatigue. Additionally the rains caused mud that prevented tanks from moving and tracks from pulling out the dead, forcing Marines (who pride themselves on burying their dead in a proper and honorable manner) to leave their comrades where they lay. This, coupled with thousands of bodies both friend and foe littering the entire island, created a scent you could nearly taste. Morale was dangerously low by the month of May and the state of discipline on a moral basis had a new low barometer for acceptable behavior. The ruthless atrocities by the Japanese throughout the war had already brought on an altered behavior (deemed so by traditional standards) by many Americans resulting in the desecration of Japanese remains, but the Japanese tactic of using the Okinawan people as human shields brought about a new aspect of terror and torment to the psychological capacity of the Americans.

Though the toll on American forces was severe, the cost to Japanese and Okinawan forces was appalling. Of the estimated 97,000 troops committed to defending the island, only 16,346 were captured alive. Although the Japanese “no surrender” policy was weakening among Japanese troops and was not especially strong at any point among the Okinawans, the defending forces made the Allies fight for every inch of the island, paying for it in human flesh.

Okinawa was the first major island with any appreciable civilian population, and they suffered dearly as well. Allied estimates put the pre-battle civilian population at 300,000, which is roughly the population of Wichita, Kansas. Final numbers put the civilian death toll at between 30,000 and 100,000. As American troops encountered hostile fire from civilian homes, they began to fire at houses as a matter of course. Okinawans alleged rather convincingly that Imperial Japanese troops used them as human shields. Japanese soldiers killed Okinawans who they suspected of hiding food, and killed one thousand islanders who spoke Okinawan for no other reason than that they were concerned that they would engage in spying. Okinawans had been told prior to battle that US forces would kill and/or rape those they captured, which led to mass suicides – Japanese soldiers gave some Okinawans grenades to do the deed, while others jumped off of cliffs.

With Okinawa as prologue, the invasion of Japan was drawn up as Operation Downfall. In a nutshell, the geography dictated to the Allies where the landing would have to be, so the only question would have been when it would occur. Had the invasion been carried out, it would have surpassed Operation Overlord (the D-Day landings on Normandy Beach in June, 1944) in size – the plan was to land six million troops on the shores of Japan, dwarfing the 1.5 million landed on Normandy. Estimates of the casualties that the Allies would suffer were astounding. General Lauris Norstad of the USAAF estimated half a million. Admiral Nimitz guessed 49,000 in the first month alone, with at least 5,000 at sea. General MacArthur’s staff estimated 23,000 casualties in the first thirty days, and 125,000 after four months (he later revised it downward to 105,000 assuming a certain amount of casualties would return to duty). General of the Army George Marshall advised President Truman that the US would endure 31,000 casualties after the first month. Admiral Leahy estimated an ultimate casualty rate of 35% (268,000 overall). Admiral King told Truman to expect between 31,000 and 41,000 the first month. Major General Charles A. Willoughby advised General MacArthur that it would cost between 210,000 and 280,000 to capture one-third of Kyushu. Extrapolating from that number, the lower figure for the entire operation was 500,000 casualties, with only one-tenth returning to duty. The official estimate settled upon in April 1945 was between 149,046 casualties, 28,981 of those either dead or missing, and 514,072 casualties, with 134,556 dead or missing, both of which assume a troop total of 766,700 fighting for ninety days, and not taking into account losses at sea. Official planners did not calculate numbers beyond ninety days, but the overall plan assumed that the operation to finally defeat Imperial Japan could take up to two years. For reference, the United States had already suffered 370,000 casualties, including 112,000 killed, in the years leading up to the planned invasion. Few, if any, estimates were made regarding death tolls of Japanese soldiers and civilians, but judging from the experience at Okinawa, the numbers would certainly not have been small. 

Had the United States not gone through with the atomic bombing, there is no question that the death and destruction encountered up to that point would pale in comparison to what was to come.

The United States ultimately abandoned Operation Downfall after it dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hard and fast numbers are probably not possible to tabulate, but between the two cities, 129,000 and 246,000 Japanese ultimately succumbed, either due to the initial blast or from injuries or radiation poisoning in the weeks and months following.

War is a terrible, terrible thing that most of us alive today have only encountered on a secondhand basis. As scary as the power unleashed by the weapons used against Japan is, I believe the death and destruction it caused ultimately saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the conflict. Killing is nothing to celebrate, whether it be in war or in civilian life, whether you’re on the prevailing side or not. By the same token, apologizing for doing what is necessary to stop more killing isn’t an act requiring an apology either. If any apology is due, it should be from politicians in countries the world over who never seem to tire of sending the cream of their youth to kill each other.