I have been on a "World War II in the Pacific" kick lately, which has been an ironic and unexpected surprise. It's ironic in that the Pacific was my own "theater of operations" while on active duty in the U.S. Navy. Our family and I spent about six years "island hopping" around and across the Pacific Ocean, spending time, albeit at times only briefly, in San Diego, Hawaii, Guam, Wake Island, Okinawa, Palau, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Bali, and Japan. The places and names are certainly familiar to me, as many of these islands were the sites of some of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific Theater during World War II. And yet, to my surprise, there was a lot about the the Pacific Theater during World War II that I did not know.
Everyone probably knows that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 (see my posts "FDR's 'Day of Infamy' Speech" and "Never Forget" for more). But what is less commonly known or even talked about was that the Japanese also attacked Malaya (part of present day Malaysia), Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippine Islands, and Wake Island at the same time (technically, these attacks occurred on December 8, 1941, because of the International Date Line). In other words, the attack on Pearl Harbor was part of a larger coordinated attack on all of the U.S. and British territories and colonies in the Pacific. President Franklin D. Roosevelt mentioned these simultaneous attacks during his "Day of Infamy" speech to Congress requesting a formal declaration of war on December 8, 1941. Those of us in the United States spend a lot less time learning about what the other Allied Forces were doing in the Pacific Theater, and that is unfortunate, for these battles were no less important.
I recently finished watching the HBO television mini-series The Pacific for at least the fourth or fifth time, which started my current "World War II in the Pacific" kick. I finally got around to reading the three books on which the series is based - With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa and China Marine: An Infantryman's Life After World War II by Eugene Sledge and Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific by Robert Leckie.
Towards the end of his book China Marine, Eugene Sledge comments on the question on whether the U.S. needed to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. It's an important question, and one that is still debated to this day. Eugene Sledge said, "The A-bombs saved my life, saved my buddies' lives, and most decidedly saved the lives of millions of Japanese, civilian as well as military."
That is certainly one of the most commonly cited justifications, particularly for the Hiroshima bomb. But even Sledge and his fellow Marines heard rumors of a looming Japanese surrender after the first atomic bomb, prompting questions on whether the Nagasaki bomb was truly necessary. To this, Sledge quotes one of his fellow Marines, who said, "They [the Japanese] won't surrender. We'll have to go back into the islands and wipe 'em all out just like Peleliu. Even if they do surrender in Tokyo, we'll have to fight 'em for years until every last one is knocked off."
Another Marine agreed and said, "Yeah, they might throw in the towel to keep their cities from being bombed flat, but those bypassed [Japanese] troops on Truk, Rabaul, and other places are not going to surrender." I suspect that the Marine was right. While living on the island of Guam, we heard stories about a Japanese soldier named Shoichi Yokoi who spent nearly three decades only in the jungle, waiting for his rescue. He never once thought that the war had ended.
Keeping with the story of the U.S. Marine Corps fighting in the South Pacific, I also read two books about Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, a combat fighter pilot ace (he shot down 28 planes during aerial combat), Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, and former Prisoner of War. The first book, was Boyington's memoir, Baa Baa Black Sheep, which was the basis of an American television series of the same name in the late 1970's starring Robert Conrad. Apparently the other members of VMFA-214 (the famous "Black Sheep" squadron) neither agreed with or appreciated how they were portrayed in the television series, which led to a much better book by Frank Walton, who served as the squadron's operations officer during their South Pacific campaign, called Once They Were Eagles: The Men of the Black Sheep Squadron. Both books provided a personal perspective on the war in the South Pacific theater of operations.
Speaking of the South Pacific, this past year, I also enjoyed reading the collection of short stories in Tales of the South Pacific (and its sequel, Return to Paradise) by James Michener, which are largely based upon his own experiences during World War II. These stories are so much more than what is portrayed in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, "South Pacific". Rather than focusing solely on combat, Michener's stories explore the relationships, cultural clashes, and moral dilemmas faced by soldiers, nurses, and islanders that experienced the war firsthand.
I've already mentioned the British Army fighting in Singapore, Malaysia, and China in a couple of recent posts (see "Through the Valley of the Kwai- Part 1" , "Through the Valley of the Kwai - Part 2", and "A masterpiece of fiction!"). Another important story is what happened to American and British citizens in Japanese-occupied China. The author J.G. Ballard wrote an exceptionally captivating and powerful story that was in part based on his own personal experiences in his book, Empire of the Sun. If you've never seen the 1987 movie of the same name (directed by Stephen Spielberg and starring the actor Christian Bale in his first major role), I highly recommend watching it! The book tells the story of a young British boy named Jim growing up in Shanghai at the outbreak of World War II. When Japan invades China, Jim is separated from his wealthy parents and must survive alone in a war-torn city before being captured and sent to a Japanese internment camp. Towards the end of the book, Jim witnesses a sudden bright flash in the sky, "like a second sun", that is later revealed to be one of the two atomic bombs (it's never revealed which).
After Jim is liberated and returned to his parents, he spends a few months in Shanghai before getting on a ship to go back to England. While boarding the ship, he witnesses a large group of drunken American and British sailors standing outside a local night club. They form a "chorus line" and urinate down the steps. Ballard described the scene perfectly with a hauntingly prophetic statement, "...the Chinese watched without comment as the arcs of urine formed a foaming stream that ran down the street. When it reached the pavement the Chinese stepped back, their faces expressionless. Jim glanced at the people around him, the clerks and coolies and peasant women, well aware of what they were thinking. One day China would punish the rest of the world and take a frightening revenge."
Whether or not Ballard's prediction about China becomes true or not, remains to be seen. The best-selling writer Simon Winchester suggests that the Mediterranean Ocean helped to shape the classical world, while the Atlantic Ocean connected Europe to the New World. But it is the Pacific Ocean that will define the future (see his book, Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators and Fading Empires). President Obama once spoke of need for a "pivot to the Pacific". While that didn't necessarily occur, it is clear that the Pacific will continue to be an important focus for American foreign policy.
I have often mentioned the statement by George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (see also my posts, "Past is Prologue", "Study the past", and "...all of this has happened before"). When it comes to the Pacific, we would all do very well to remember Santayana. What is also evident to me that in order to deeply immerse oneself into the history of a particular region, we should take advantage of memoir, fiction, and non-fiction writing as well as our own personal experience. While I have still a lot to learn, I feel that I know a lot more about history of the Pacific War and its impact on world history. And that is a start to learning about the Pacific's role in our future.
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