"Hiroshima Nagasaki" by Paul Ham (2014)

This is a fascinating book. I say that because it fascinates me the way that two people; in this case the author and myself; can take the same facts and reach two completely separate conclusions about an event. But that is exactly the case with this book. It’s not revisionist history per se; he doesn't change any of the facts; he merely interprets them in a way to make the point that nuclear weapons are bad; and by extension; that the United States is evil for having used them to end the War in the Pacific. So, we are left to examine the facts.

Mr. Ham makes the argument that we killed 130,000 people; that is the death toll from the immediate aftermath of both bombs; in cold blood, knowing that the Japanese had no way left to fight. He makes this assertion in spite of their still drafting 15 year olds as Kamikazes to fly wooden planes to be used as suicide bombs. The Emperor had already declared his opposition to the Potsdam Agreement of July, which stated that Japan would be subject to all the military might of the combined allies should they fail to surrender.

The Emperor and his military staff knew that Russia was about to invade; bringing with her all the hatred stored up since 1905 war between the two.  The author makes the claim that Japan would have had to surrender under this pressure from the Soviets; completely ignoring what the post war world would have looked like for both Japan and the rest of the world. Japan would probably have become another North Korea; or become subject to colonial control, like Vietnam when it was returned to France. That worked out really well, didn't it? And North Korea continues to be a threat to the world today.

One alternative would have been to continue the use of the incendiary bombings which killed 100,000 a night. The author is also critical of those raids as being inhumane. I have heard these claims before, in connection to the fire bombings of Dresden in Germany. Had we continued with those raids over Japan while the Emperor still refused to surrender, the death rate would have been much higher than even the long term death rate by the effects of the two nuclear bombs.

Moreover, the raids would not have been confined to just 2 targets, but rather have been spread over the whole country. This would have been akin to genocide of the Japanese people and Mr. Ham would be writing his book with that in mind. In other words, there is little we could have done to end the war which would have pleased him. In a perfect world the Japanese would have apologized and we would all sing around the campfire again.

But the Japanese Emperor, Hirohito, was still worried about his social position even after the devastation of the first bomb. He had been unwilling to accept the terms of the Potsdam Agreement which called for unconditional surrender. And, even after the first bomb he wanted to wait and see if we had more. The author even documents that himself. In school we were always taught that Tojo was the roadblock to peace; in reality it was the Emperor. And, in the end, he got what he wanted. He was never punished for war crimes; as Hitler certainly would have been. He remained in power until his death decades later.

Since we obviously have different opinions concerning whether or not the United States should have even developed the weapon; although the Nazi’s were working on it and the Soviets were poised to steal that information from them after they had surrendered; I won’t even belabor the differences too much. Suffice to say that if we had abandoned our efforts to obtain the bomb, then either the Germans would have had it first and won the war; or Germany would have been defeated and the Russians become the custodians of the new weapon. And while we have never used our nuclear weapons to gain new territory, Russia has tried. Remember Cuba? If we hadn't had the bomb how might that one have worked out? And what about Ukraine right now? If we didn't have nuclear weapons then Russia would already have conquered them.

But the biggest problem with this book is how conveniently the author ignores over 12 years of barbarism by the Japanese as they attempted to take over the Eastern hemisphere. As a matter of fact he never acknowledges that this was their goal.  He mentions Pearl Harbor and the Bataan Death March; but there is nary a word about the literal Rape of Nanjing in 1933. Thousands of women were tied to chairs and gang raped to death by the Japanese troops. They even took photos as souvenirs. You can view them online if you doubt me. 

The nuns in the Philippines who had their breasts hacked off with bayonets; the babies speared and stuck to trees. These are not things I am making up. These are the facts of what Japan was doing as part of her Co-Asian Prosperity Sphere. As a matter of fact I don’t remember even seeing that name in the book at all.

It is impossible to write a complete and concise history; let alone a conclusive book; about the bomb without exploring all the aspects of what made the development of such a weapon necessary in the first place. When faced with monsters sometimes it requires doing monstrous things in order to survive. Rather than take the position that we are the evil ones for having defeated these monsters, it is more accurate to blame the monsters of expansionism and the architects of war who put us in that position to begin with.

"My Hitch in Hell" by Lester I. Tenney (1995)

Today marks 68 years since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. It is only fitting to post this review today in honor of all those who suffered at the hands of the Japanese during the war. You can debate it all you want to, but the bomb did shorten the war and save lives. And when you read this book you will realize that it was probably the only way to avoid taking Japan one house at a time.

Some people lament that the Japanese had already made overtures to sue for peace just before the bomb was dropped, and therefore the bomb was unnecessary. But, that line of reasoning falls flat when you take into consideration that the Japanese were also negotiating “peacefully” with us while their ships were steaming towards Pearl Harbor.

From the very first line of the foreword by Admiral James Stockdale; Professor Emeritus at Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a former POW himself; this book rings with all the truth and horror of war and the human consequences it engenders. It is the story of a boy, gone off to fight for his country, who returns home to live a full and productive life. It’s not that his life was perfect; after the horrors which he had witnessed nothing could ever be perfect again; the real story here is how he coped with that burden, both at the time he was experiencing it, as well as in its aftermath.

Enlisting just after the first peacetime draft in American history, the author joined the National Guard in 1940, over a year before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was determined to do his one year hitch and get it out of the way. He had no idea what the next 5 years held in store for him.

Stationed in the Philippine Islands at Clark Field, he was just in time for the infamous “Bataan Death March” to Camp O’Donnell, a distance of about 100 miles, which was the first prison camp in which he was interred. The brutality of the Japanese towards their prisoners began immediately, and with such unimagined cruelty, that it stretches the imagination to understand it.

Knowing he would not survive long in this environment, Mr. Tenney decided to set goals for himself in order to survive the war. He would focus on the present and only the immediate future in order to make it home someday. He had secretly married his girlfriend just before shipping out, and for the entire war, his wife did not know where he was. For the first few years she had no idea if he was dead or alive.

Escaping from the first prison camp was easier than one would expect, as the Japanese had no numbering system in place at the beginning. After his initial escape he served with some natives operating with the few Americans who had managed to form a guerilla group, fighting the Japanese in their own way, inflicting damage wherever they could, and in any way possible. Eventually, he was turned in by a local youngster who was starving and exchanged Mr. Tenney’s location for some rice. To his credit, the author holds the boy blameless for his actions, which would have severe consequences for himself.

After a second stint in Camp O’Donnell, the author is moved to a prison camp further inland, the infamous Camp Cabanatuan. There was no real hope of escaping this camp, as by now the Japanese had in place a number system, whereby the 5 men before you and the 5 men behind you would be killed if you did escape. So, in essence, escaping meant that you were condemning 9 other men to death for your decision.

After some time there he was among the prisoners who were shipped to Japan aboard freighters which were not identified as carrying POW’s. This meant that our submarines would sink the ships, not knowing that their own fellow countrymen were aboard. Japan had never signed the Geneva Convention and, as such, was not required to mark those ships. That was the excuse they used after the war to justify the barbaric treatment afforded our POW’s.

In Japan the author was assigned to work in the coal mines about 35 miles from Nagasaki, the site of the second atomic bomb drop in August 1945. The prisoners were actually able to see the mushroom cloud from their location. But before that day, they had to go through 3 and a half years of hell working in the coal mines with no proper equipment and no medical treatment to speak of.

The description of life in the POW barracks reads like James Clavell’s “King Rat”, with the prisoners trading and bargaining anything they could in order to survive. They even managed to put on a show, a sort of Ziegfeld Follies, to amuse themselves and keep sane. The author’s description of these shows and the help he received from some of the men who were homosexual is very touching, as he was initially disgusted by these men, but was able to overcome that feeling while working with them. This experience changed his entire view about homosexuality, making him realize that we are all human beings, something which is easy to forget when you are being treated like an animal.

Some of the prisoners would actually pay someone to break their hand in order to get a few days off from the coal minds. There were “breakers” in camp who, for some rice or cigarettes, would break whatever bone you wanted. These men were not considered to be evil in any way. They were merely performing a job for a set fee. Faking skin ulcers on the leg was another way to avoid work, and the author expertly describes how this is accomplished. I have stored this knowledge away for future use should it ever become necessary.

A breathtaking narrative of almost 5 years in hell, this book is a valuable record of what it was like to be interred by the Japanese during the war. It is also the story of one man’s journey into the darkness, and how the lessons he learned from his parents about integrity and hope, gave him the will to survive.

After his return home in 1945 the book really becomes almost heartbreaking, as the author faces the many struggles to regain the life he once knew, the least of which was to get back with his wife Laura. His ordeal in the Japanese coal mines fades into the past as he focuses on regaining his health, and his wife, as well as to find a place in the world for which he had endured so much. I am happy to report that, unsurprisingly, Mr. Tenney went on to achieve those goals, and much more with his life.

This is an extraordinary record of the experiences which thousands of men went through at the hands of the Japanese during the war. It is also the remarkable story of one man’s will to survive it.