B-29s over Japan - 1945, Curtis Le May and Operation Meetinghouse - With Ian W. Toll

Подписаться 81 тыс.

Просмотров 34 тыс.

50% 1

B-29s over Japan - 1945, Curtis Le May and Operation Meetinghouse
With Ian W. Toll
Part of Strategic Bombing week on WW2TV
More Strategic Bombing content on WW2TV
• Strategic Bombing in WWII
If you liked this video please consider leaving us a thank you donation. To the right of the up and down thumbs and share button is the heart shaped Thanks button - it helps us to keep on producing content.
Ian W Toll joins us again, fresh from his Iwo Jima show on WW2TV • Iwo Jima in Context - ...
www.ianwtoll.com/
This time Ian will talk about the B-29 campaign from the Marianas against Tokyo through a series of firebombing air raids. Including Operation Meetinghouse, which was conducted on the night of 9-10 March 1945 - the single most destructive bombing raid in human history. In central Tokyo 16 square miles were destroyed, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless. He will go on to talk about General Curtis Le May and the 21st Bomber Command on Guam.
Here is a brilliant restored film from 1945 about Le May's campaign against Japan
• The Last Bomb - 1945 (...
Twilight of the Gods - War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 by Ian W. Toll
USA bookshop.org/a/21029/97803930...
UK uk.bookshop.org/a/5843/978039...
Other shows you may enjoy:
The Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain • The Luftwaffe in the B...
The Bombing of France • The Bombing of France ...
The Destruction of Pforzheim - Bomber Command after Dresden • The Destruction of Pfo...
Bombers over Romania - Ploesti and Beyond • Bombers over Romania -...
The Baedeker Blitz - The Luftwaffe Bomb the UK 1942 • The Baedeker Blitz - T...
You can become a RU-vid Member and support us here / @ww2tv
You can become a Patron here / ww2tv
Please click subscribe for updates also "like" the video - it really helps!
Social Media links -
/ ww2tv
/ ww2tv
/ ww2tv
WW2TV Merchandise teespring.com/en-GB/stores/ww2tv
WW2TV Bookshop - where you can purchase copies of books featured in my RU-vid shows. Any book listed here comes with the personal recommendation of Paul Woodadge, the host of WW2TV. For full disclosure, if you do buy a book through a link from this page WW2TV will earn a commission.
UK - uk.bookshop.org/shop/WW2TV
USA - bookshop.org/shop/WW2TV

Опубликовано:

20 май 2021

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 127

@billheughan637 2 года назад

criminally underrated channel bringing together all of these voices. thanks for doing all you do.

@WW2TV 2 года назад

Thanks Bill

@jimrecord6505 Год назад

My dad was an intelligence officer with the 20th Air Force. He was with the first B-29 group in India. He was in the room when LeMay first announced the switch to low level attacks on Japan. Thanks for your videos.

@WW2TV Год назад

Thanks for sharing that story Jim

@cragnamorra 7 месяцев назад

Great discussion, really enjoy this channel, and this episode is no exception. The "conventional" description of LeMay singlehandedly, without orders, initiating the low-alt firebombing tactic I've heard/read many times. The implication is that LeMay came up with this on his own "on the fly", having been already under pressure to improve results following Hansell's departure, and his own continued frustration with daylight-precision during February. I tend to be somewhat skeptical of this interpretation, although no doubt it does contain some validity. But consider this: the US had already developed the incendiary which would come to be called napalm. It had extensively tested this weapon at a purpose-built urban-Japan replica target town in Utah. So this had occurred over many months previously. And when LeMay sent that initial 9 Mar raid to Tokyo, that was about 300 B-29's loaded with these things; that had to be something like 1500 to 2000 tons. Where did they come from? Obviously somebody - or many somebodies - had already decided well beforehand to push to the Marianas thousands of tons of these specific munitions, which had been deliberately developed and then tested with Japanese urban areas in mind. Ostensibly they weren't intended to just sit in the ammo dump unused. In this context, the notion of LeMay taking a radical tactical departure, on his own cognizance, starts to appear a little shaky.

@halking3497 2 года назад

It was great to find another Ian Toll presentation. I thought I had seen them all. About every time he opens his mouth I hear something I hadn't heard before. I have read his first 2 books, hope to read his third one soon and I love listening to him. He is God's gift to WWII buffs. Thanks much for this episode.

@michaelschramm1064 7 месяцев назад

Did you complete the trilogy? He saved his magnum opus for last with “Twilight of the Gods”.

@halking3497 7 месяцев назад

Yes.@@michaelschramm1064

@cherylbell1253 3 года назад

A very interesting talk which I very much enjoyed! Ian Toll is one of my favourite WW2 writers and so I always enjoy his talks! Thanks very much to Ian and Paul!

@philbosworth3789 Год назад

Another great episode with a knowledgeable presenter. In total war, as WWII was, commanders like Le May are essential. Its dirty work, but someone need to take the decisions to ensure the job gets done. At least the decisions Allied commanders have left us in a position where we can openly discuss the morality of what happened then, which wouldn't have been the case if the Axis had prevailed.

@dave3156 2 года назад

Paul excellent discussion with Ian regarding the strategic bombing campaign against Japan. I suspect it is hard to separate these episodes since we now know that the end of the war was in Sep 45. During the time of the fire bombing raids, no one knew when the war would end, or that the atomic bomb was even going to work. Quite a contrast between the attitudes of the German people and the Japanese--which I think is attributed to Germany actually being invaded. It's a difficult subject morally but I think you and Ian handled it very well. Thanks!!!!

@dancolley4208 Год назад

A great Q&A. Another (unmentioned) advantage of bombing from lower altitudes was that the stress put on the B-29 engines was greatly reduced. High altitudes cause a great deal of incremental strain on engines. They tended to operate in the more favorable part of the power curve for the engines. Results were lower maintenance and greater reliability. Ask any reciprocating engine mechanic.

@dukecraig2402 Год назад

You obviously know nothing about aircraft engine's and how they're run, the supercharger/turbo configuration used by most US Army aircraft of WW2 that was in the B29 provided very consistent boost pressures throughout altitude variations. Aircraft engine's are run by the pilots by watching boost to regulate power, there's is no such thing as different power curves being used at different altitudes, it's not like normally aspirated engine's that are affected by altitude, even then I don't know where you get the idea that higher altitude is somehow harder on engine's, aircraft engine maintenance is dictated by by hours spent at different throttle settings/boost, 40 inches of boost is 40 inches of boost it doesn't matter if it's at sea level or 30,000 ft, but lower altitudes have thicker air that the plane must be pushed through, this is exactly why US Army aircraft of WW2 that could maintain boost at higher altitudes thanks to the turbo half of their supercharger/turbo configuration had their highest speeds at higher altitudes, because for all the engine's knew they were being run in the thicker air of lower altitudes but the airframe suffers from lower drag at higher altitudes and therefore could attain higher speeds at higher altitudes, so higher power settings are required to maintain higher speeds the lower the altitude. Ask any graduate of aircraft maintenance school, like myself. I don't know where you get your ideas from but they're certainly not from being educated about engine's, wetting your finger and sticking it in the air doesn't work with aircraft.

@dancolley4208 Год назад

@@dukecraig2402 I know nothing? I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with you, sir. If a recipe engine is operating a sufficient boost to maintain constant altitude (eg: 20,000 feet) then conditions call for you to operate that aircraft at 35,000 feet, EVERYTHING in that mill is working harder at the higher altitude thus. creating more stress on engine components. I've spent enough time wrenching P&W engines to know the basics of the effect of altitude on radial engines. I find your comment an insult and basically coming from an uninformed source. Have a nice day.

@dukecraig2402 Год назад

@@dancolley4208 No you haven't, everything about your statements are incorrect.

@Chiller01 Год назад

Second Ian Toll presentation of the day for me. Great information. What no one realizes is that Arthur Harris and Curtis LeMay are the same person.

@mgway4661 Месяц назад

I would argue that Arthur Harris was an incompetent version of LeMay

@Mark-df9fu 2 года назад

Superb podcast, really interesting and well presented, Thank you Paul and Ian.

@thomasmadden8412 3 года назад

Another awesome show!! The Ian Toll trilogy is absolutely on my list of books to get.

@dwightadams3853 Год назад

I just finished reading the three volumes of the Pacific War and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about that part of the war compared to our school studies. Is is an easy read and approaches the war by peeling back the layers like an onion.

@angelaschwenn9595 3 года назад

Another great show!

@fieldmarshalbaltimore1329 3 года назад

So informative, looking forward to it 😊

@margaretroselle8610 Год назад

Fascinating and informative……..many thanks!

@hazchemel 3 года назад

Great talk thanks guys. Re judging WW2 service men. I don't spend a lot of time on it, in the sense that the military will reflect their own culture and nation, but in the most extreme human situations.

@davidk7324 2 года назад

Great discussion, Ian and Woody. Japan set the rules of total war beginning in China and carried them forward with gleeful and chilling intensity through their early conquests and later allied island hopping operations including the Philippines, Saipan and Iwo Jima campaigns. Okinawa was invaded a month after the fire bombings; the battle lasted 82 horrific days. Japan would not reluctantly surrender until 5 months after the firebombing. I hold the opinion that far more allied and Japanese deaths were prevented by aggressive prosecution of the Japanese empire. Imagine if Little Boy had been a dud. Trinity was not a guarantee that it would work dropped from an airplane. Operation Downfall would have been several orders of magnitude more costly than continued firebombing and use of the 2 available atomic bombs. I'm convinced that the 'no surrender' Japanese defensive methodology would have been embraced on home soil, prolonging the war another 1-2+ years.

@primmakinsofis614 Год назад

_Imagine if Little Boy had been a dud. Trinity was not a guarantee that it would work dropped from an airplane._ Little Boy, the uranium-based, gun-type design, was never tested because the scientists were certain it was going to work. The plutonium-based, implosion-type design was tested at Trinity because there were questions as to whether that design would work. It did, and Fat Man was dropped later. _I'm convinced that the 'no surrender' Japanese defensive methodology would have been embraced on home soil, prolonging the war another 1-2+ years._ The post-war United States Strategic Bombing Survey came to the conclusion that, even absent a Soviet declaration of war, the atomic bombs, and an invasion, Japan would have almost certainly surrendered by Dec. 1945, and probably by Nov. 1945. Its position was simply untenable, and with B-29s and other American aircraft able to fly freely over the country and strike whatever it wanted, it told the Japanese public that its military was completely unable to protect the country, that its position was hopeless. That realization, along with the continued pressure of the USN submarine blockade and continued bombing, would have resulted in capitulation. Of course, there is no way to know what would have happened in reality.

@davidk7324 Год назад

@@primmakinsofis614 Thanks for this. Since I made this post, I learned about the testing of the plutonium, rather than the uranium design at the Alamogordo Range. Remarkable that the team "knew" Little Boy would work. I am skeptical and unmoved by the optimistic Nov/Dec prediction. Of course we will never know. The prospect of losing many more American lives when the technology to hasten the war's end was available is unacceptable to me. Onoda and Nakamura, the last of many Japanese army holdouts over the post war decades didn't surrender until 1974.

@YouTube.Algorithmic.Nonsense 2 месяца назад

@@primmakinsofis614indeed, Little Boy and Fat Man were dropped to justify the potential lives saved that would be lost during a mainland invasion. The Japanese absolutely would not have surrendered had the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki somehow failed or not occurred at all. Invasion casualty estimates were terrible. Horrific events for sure, but you need to look at the bigger picture of what will save more lives in the end. Do you know how many more atomic bombs the US had ready to go? I understand there was a third bombing planned had Japan not surrendered.

@konekillerking 6 месяцев назад

To a great degree, no jet stream was unknown before the B-29 missions. I didn’t hear your refer to how many damaged B-29s landed at Imo. So believe that more B-29 crewman lived from emergency landings there then were lost taking the island.

@mmartinu327 4 месяца назад

Most of them would most likely no crash, they landed for safety reasons

@69Applekrate Год назад

Very informative. as much as I know of this history, have learned more and you can too. Great video thanks much

@WW2TV Год назад

Glad you enjoyed it

@robertibert9269 2 года назад

Good program, war is hell and its a shame how few of our younger generation are never exposed to this recent history that directly shaped the world we live in today.

@williamrobinson827 Год назад

I watched a video last year from a different channel that covered Nagasaki and Hiroshima. One viewer commented that the USA should have nuked Tokyo. I responded that Tokyo was already so decimated from the fire bombings that to use a nuclear bomb would have been a waste.

@williambourne5425 Год назад

The problem with dropping an Atomic Bomb on Tokyo was that the United States did not want to decapitate the Japanese government. If the Emperor and his War Cabinet were eliminated, there would be no Political means to call an end to the war.

@chomocharlie3997 Год назад

28:48, This scene predates affirmative action.

@peyiots Год назад

Not bad: a good example of how the interviewer talks more than the interviewee. If he were to interview himself in the future, he would get more time.

@WW2TV Год назад

Just FYI, some guests specifically request a chat rather than to give a presentation. This was the case here

@Solrac1424 Год назад

Great discussion you guys did. It must have been horrendous being burned by such jelly bombs. The death toll was very high

@ramal5708 5 месяцев назад

The fact that the US conducted strategic bombings campaign in two different theatres, PTO and ETO and Med.

@ddyuyang Год назад

This happened after Nanking massacre, and those numbers in the end somehow match up very closely between these events...

@denniscahill9683 5 месяцев назад

Not only was napalm more notorious duing Viet Nam -- so was LeMay

@alanansara2190 2 года назад

It’s shows like this one that really demonstrates how the US in WW2 was such a logistical/economic leviathan. Even the Axis leaders who foresaw how powerful America would become as the war progressed couldn’t have predicted what happened

@theccpisaparasite8813 2 года назад

I do like his treatment of Lemay who seemed to be a pretty ruthless warrior. Akin to those like Sherman or perhaps even Temuchin. Reveling in it ... sad in a way. I'd certainly like to read more about Harris. For those interested in the atomic bombings well articulated, I'd strongly recommend _The Day Man Lost Hiroshima_ which deals with the entire issue and includes masses of Japanese documents. A very unbiased look at the end of the war. Extremely informative, especially from the Japanese side of it. It does seem like they weren't going to quit unconditionally. Until

@dancolley4208 Год назад

Another aspect of the USA victory over Japan, IMO an "under discussed" aspect, is the submarine campaign in the western Pacific Ocean. I suppose that matches well with a sub's need to be quiet and invisible. WW2 was won with a campaign including land, sea and air. Take one aspect out and the history books would tell a very different tale. Jon Parshall relates an amazing statistic about submarine warfare during the last 6-8 months of the war. He said that during that period, not one single tanker load of oil made it to Japan from the East Indies. ... that they were ALL destroyed. That is what I call effective.

@brucermarino 6 месяцев назад

Another very valuable presentation, Woody and Ian! Viewers should appreciate the recent research of Richard Frank that indicateds thousands (primarily Asiansl) we're being killed per week under Japan's occupation. Awful as the fire and atomic bombings were, they saved hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of lives compared to the alternative. This should also counteract the charges of racism, especially when one considers that the B-29 and atomic bomb were envisioned as a weapon first to be used against Nazi Germany. Thank you!

@alantoon5708 2 года назад

I would recommend a couple of books that pertain to the fire bombing raids on Japan: "A Torch To The Enemy" by Martin Caiden. This book was written in about 1960, when all of the major players were still alive. Japanese witnesses were also interviewed and many graphic photos are included.The second is "Point of No Return" by Wilbur Morrison which was published about 1980. Morrison was a 20th AF veteran who flew many of the missions from the Marianas. Most of the veterans were still alive when this book was written. By the way, by the late part of the war the loss rates for B-29's were very low. In fact, one article stated that " a low level incendiary attack on Japan was considered one of the safest pastimes one could enjoy." But it also can be said that many, if not most of the B-29 crews did not enjoy what they were doing....

@ogukuo72 Год назад

No decent human being would enjoy bombing civilians, but it was absolutely necessary. Given how even after two atomic bombs, the Japanese leadership were not ready to surrender (primarily to protect the leadership class, I might add!) such attacks are critical.

@ogukuo72 Год назад

@@TheDavidlloydjones Oh? Do point to relevant laws of ear. Thanks.

@brianford8493 2 года назад

Brilliant stuff chaps as per usual....Did Le May say if they lost he would be tried as a war criminal?

@mgway4661 Месяц назад

He in fact did say that. Kind of a scumbag

@bruceboyer8187 Год назад

Q. Why did the US not recognize the importance of Iwo when they planned as the invasion of the Mariannas strategy? It s obvious that it's in the flight path. After the fall of the Mariannas, Iwo has barely defended. Why not taken? It also could have been isolated from reinforcements by air and submarine. Yet their is an invasion of Pelilu in September.

@therealuncleowen2588 Год назад

Regarding the moral question of the fire bombing of the Japanese cities, personally I feel that this was among the most effective means to enact revenge and punishment on Mainland Japan for their government's aggressiveness and the atrocities that the Japanese military inflicted in their campaigns in China and the Philippines against huge numbers of civilians in those places. As always, such things are not fair, because they don't actually strike the people responsible for the atrocities. But if you're trying to exact revenge against a nation, it's never going to be "fair" to the individuals involved. When you look at the total picture of how the Allies treated the Japanese after Japanese surrender, which I would describe as very merciful, then I truly think that these fire bombings were, for the most part, the revenge that the West took. Fom there both sides went on to establish friendly relations. Were these fire bombings necessary? No. Were they vengeance? Absolutely. Considering Japan's actions during the entire World War II and previously in China, do I lose any sleep over the form that vengeance took? No. I say this as a 50 year old American, everyone has their biases formed by their experiences. As always, my comments only carry the weight of one man's opinion.

@MsCardio1 11 месяцев назад

But I agree!!! To tell the truth, there is a lot to be said for exacting pure and simple REVENGE in life.

@69Applekrate Год назад

When discussing invading Iwo Jima, it seems to imply that ground marine lives were less valuable than Army air corp airmen.... What, 6,000 marines died to save- how many air man lives?

@MsCardio1 11 месяцев назад

I believe I read somewhere that the # of B29s which landed, all shot up, or with mechanical problems had a total of 6000 airmen, Strange coincidence

@mykofreder1682 3 месяца назад

The emperor was probably the ultimate citizen that changed his mind because of bombings. He got his information from the military, never left Japan so never witnessed anything beyond the bombing first hand. I suspect he asked why the bombers got through defenses and were able drop so many bombs. Lies were told about the state of the military, the war, manufacturing, and the pilots that are defending the island.

@susanyu6507 3 года назад

I watched this again, because I got distracted in the middle. My husband reminded me about LeMay and he ran with George Wallace and saw it in the discussion. I wondered if these units in the Marianas Islands were segregated. Like the Tuskegee Airmen.

@WW2TV 3 года назад

The US Military was segregated until 1948, so yes the Marianas has segregation

@allangibson2408 2 года назад

Dresden was hit with the typical British incendiary mix - 4000lb thin case demolition bombs mixed with magnesium based incendiary bombs (that were copied from the German “Electron” bombs dropped on London in 1940). (The Germans used air dropped naval mines instead).

@primmakinsofis614 Год назад

The loads were rather varied, based on what's listed in the ORBs for the squadrons. Some aircraft carried only high explosive bombs, and no incendiaries at all. Dresden was a fluke in that a firestorm resulted; absent that firestorm, Dresden would be no more noted than the raid on Chemnitz which occurred the very next night, by a similarly sized bomber force. Peak usage of incendiaries by Bomber Command, both in terms of numbers and as a percentage of tonnage dropped, was 1943.

@mgway4661 Месяц назад

@@primmakinsofis614until the air campaign over Japan

@mikemcpherson5550 9 месяцев назад

At the 45 Minute mark the discussion revolved around low altitude bombing, reasons were given about gas consumption, fighters, accuracy etc., but as the son of a 20th pilot on Tinian, who by the way, like most, loathed Lemay, the actual reason and strategy evolved around anti-aircraft shell fusing. Lemay postulated that at 5-7,000 the 29's were more likely to not be knocked down by flack. Turns out, flack was the least of it as raging fires below created thermals that literally inverted some bombers, overstressed airframes and killed more crews than flack batteries could have. 20/20 hindsight is great but Lemay, and his staff, after the results of the savage "Island campaigns" were obsessed with total war that would end the conflict asap, and with as few allied casualties as possible. Make no mistake about it, careful consideration was given to the death of civilians and literally millions of pamphlets were dropped on perspective targets prior to raids, warning citizens to get out of cities because their town had been targeted. For all it's high tech wizardry, the B29 proved that even with radar and the vaunted Norden bomb sight, precision bombing in mass formation from high altitude with iron bombs was mostly ineffective and the simple incendiary at low altitude worked. One last item of interest is that formation raids were discontinued in favor of single file bombing. A pathfinder squadron would precede the incendiary raid, light up the target with a big X and bombs would toggle on the X. 12 O'clock High it wasn't.

@bruceday6799 Год назад

I am uncertain as to how to react to this as an essential part of firebombing tactics has been left out. Delayed fuse HE bombs made up 20-25% of total tonnage in fire raids. The fuse delay was specifically used to create shock waves in the ground for the purpose of (1) rupturing water lines (diminishing the enemy's ability to mitigate the fires) and (2) rupturing gas supply lines (forcing the enemy to repair gas service to restart industry and adding flammable natural gas to the fire). This tactic was proven in places like Dresden in the European bombing campaign. Why was this omitted from the tactic discussion?

@WW2TV Год назад

Basically there is only so many directions a shiw like this can take. I have anothrt show about tye bombing of Japan with a different perspective coming up with James Scott later this year

@bruceday6799 Год назад

@@WW2TV I look forward to this your show and look forward to the learning the shows provide. Don't let me bother your rythm. It simply looked to me as if a large part of why the outcome was as severe as it was had been omitted, overlooked, or ''sanitized''. War is not a nice thing and recent history should be known as widely as possible. Carry on!

@primmakinsofis614 Год назад

The most frequently used incendiary devices against Japan in 1945: AN-M47, a 100-lb class (actual weight 70 lbs) incendiary bomb (up to 184 could be carried in a B-29) -- some 839,000 were dropped E28, M19, and M21 (E74) aimable incendiary cluster bombs, with each cluster containing 38 x 6-lb AN-M69 incendiary bombs -- over 251,000 of these clusters were dropped. AN-M14 and M17 aimable incendiary cluster bombs, with each cluster containing 110 x 4-lb AN-M50 incendiary bombs -- some 92,000 of these clusters were dropped. The difference between an aimable cluster and a regular cluster was that the latter opened at bomb release, resulting in the incendiary bomblets being scattered over a very large area. The aimable cluster was released as a complete unit, meaning it could be aimed like an ordinary bomb, and fell in one piece until reaching a predetermined altitude (generally about 5,000 feet) at which point it broke apart and released its bomblets. The result was that the incendiary bomblets were scattered over a much smaller area, allowing for better concentration of the resulting fire.

@nickhomyak6128 2 года назад

Never knew the Japanese actually attacked US Airbases with counter Air-attacks; like to be informed more on this; how effective this endeavor was, or was not in efforts spent..Thanks..So the last chance to prove airpower could end the war continued; and then the terrible bomb; oh well..

@jackbarnhill9354 Год назад

Let’s remember that Germany and Japan began the war with terror bombing. In warfare there is the concept of “reply in kind”. If someone brings a knife to a fight, so can you.

@deepcosmiclove 9 месяцев назад

The terror bombing began in the Spanish Civil War. The Luftwaffe came to the conclusion that it was counter-productive. But they went ahead and did it anyway in Poland.

@alitlweird 3 месяца назад

If they bring a knife, you bring a gun.

@YouTube.Algorithmic.Nonsense 2 месяца назад

@@alitlweirdThank you. And in this case, napalm and atomic bombs.

@YouTube.Algorithmic.Nonsense 2 месяца назад

I think that's why the Japanese really couldn't claim outrage and claim the moral high ground. They had already been doing it mercilessly to China and the region.

@johnwhite2576 2 года назад

Woody - stop talking!!!! Let him talk!!!

@WW2TV 2 года назад

The thing is some guests specifically request a chat rather than to give a presentation

@halking3497 Год назад

Amen! When it comes to Toll, one should sit at his feet and listen in awe. Not true for all guests on this channel, but for him it is.

@chomocharlie3997 Год назад

28:55, Many historians adhere to the myth of unconditional surrender or that war with Japan and Germany were even necessary in the first place!

@MsCardio1 11 месяцев назад

And perhaps you might share with us those historians so we can read their works. ....especially the ones who feel war with Germany and Japan was not necessary.

@davidb2206 Месяц назад

@@MsCardio1 Get "The Bad War" by King. Removed from Amazon, under pressure, and taken out of nearly every American library in "the land of the free" with a First Amendment right to free speech. Wonder why?

@gregtriplett2458 Год назад

Southern Hemisphere?

@WW2TV Год назад

Yep i made a verbal gaff

@MegaBloggs1 Год назад

the bombing of the Palembang oil refineries in Sumatra by the B29's from India was very ineffective-the RN struck at them twice from carriers in the Indian ocean much more effectively after the B-29 failure and were later finished off by Australian B-24s from Darwin, as was the Balikpapan refinery in Borneo(east Kalimantan).Was this because of the high altitude\Norden bomb sight tactics or pilot inexperience?. I find it surprising that the b-24s were more effective in this theatre-perhaps it goes to bomber pilot experience(a lot of the RAAF crews had served in Europe)-the B-29 pilots were relatively inexperienced however the Palembang refineries were particularly well defended by AAA and associated fighters (40 RN aircraft were lost over the target-a high loss rate) and the obvious conclusion is the AAA put the yanks off their aim-the RN pressed home the attack and the Aussies flew through the flak

@4dmind 2 года назад

I can relate - I am very affectionate towards Tokyo and the Japanese in general. It is an amazing place, and a truly unique culture. One can't help but admire the spirit of the Japanese. They are great engineers, and very determined and strong. Tokyo is a place where you can see the essence of the Japanese from the air, because everything is so neat - all the cranes parked in rows, with their booms all turned to the same angle. The ground is clean. The Japanese take care of things. Just to see the metal works found in Tokyo alone is an amazing discovery.

@bobsmalser8304 Год назад

There is also a political reality only lightly touched on. After brutal Okinawa and another million US casualties forecast for taking Honshu, if Truman DIDN'T use the bomb and Americans found out he had something that would have prevented those casualties, they'd have literally lynched him. Pretending we had a choice is disingenuous.

@MsCardio1 11 месяцев назад

I believe Truman once said that if Americans found we had the A bomb and did NOT use he would have been impeached . I think the interviewer leaves out the absolute hatred Americans had toward Japan in 1945. The stories of the Bataan Death March were now coming out as was the infamous photo of the beheading of an Australian POW. I think an invasion of Japan might well have lead to the annihilation of the Japanese race.

@MarvinStroud3 2 года назад

I was 10 years old when Japan surrendered. The movies and comic books of my youth portrayed Germans as good people with evil leaders. The Japanese were portrayed as sneaky, sly, and evil. Movie Japanese soldiers would wave a white flag of surrender and kill the relaxed American soldiers with hidden weapons. December 7 was always referred to as the "sneak attack". I don't know what adult Americans thought at the time buy we primary school students would have applauded fire bombing if we had known about it. Needless to say at 87 years of age, I have re-thought a lot of those early prejudices.

@martyvanduzer9263 5 месяцев назад

Who was America's biggest ally against Japan ?

@WW2TV 5 месяцев назад

The biggest was China

@martyvanduzer9263 5 месяцев назад

@@WW2TV Russia really stepped up in Manchuria, driving the Japanese from Asia. Japan surrendered just a couple days after the USSR declared war. They knew what a soviet occupation would involve and they didnt want any part of that. All those allies we supported in Europe, didnt step up to help us with Japan, like we stepped up to help them against Germany.

@xandervk2371 Месяц назад

@@martyvanduzer9263 The Soviet participation was decided at Yalta. The agreement with Stalin was that the Soviets join the war within three months after the victory over Germany, and they did, exactly after three months from May 8. By doing so, the Soviet Union broke the non-aggression pact it had with Japan, signed in April 1941.

@davidb2206 Месяц назад

Well, I had thought your guest might be an honest scholar until 57:48, where he loses all credibility. American intelligence had established beyond any doubt the extensive "cottage industry" of war materials manufacturing in Japanese homes. A man and wife, for example, might make wiring harnesses for Zeros in a spare room or basement. General Groves mentions this intelligence specifically in his excellent book regarding how the targets for the two atomic bombs were chosen. There is overwhelming evidence, including photos, of this widely distributed home-based war materials production. The Japanese bragged about it in their newspapers, which were captured or provided by informants in China, long before 1945. I also recommend "50 Common Myths About Japanese-Americans and the Atomic Bomb in WWII: The Non-PC Answers You Will Not Find on Wikipedia" as an excellent resource of original reference sources from the war.

@WW2TV Месяц назад

Ian W Toll is probably the most highly regarded American historian of the Pacific war

@davidb2206 Месяц назад

@@WW2TV Not by me. Not anymore. He got a critical fact absolutely wrong and fed into the weaponizing and revisionism of history. You have to use ORIGINAL sources, not the opinion of some professor today. I believe General Groves (and others who were alive and eyewitnesses to WWII).

@WW2TV Месяц назад

Have you read his books? Literally thousands of original documents are cited and referenced

@jasonsmith5226 2 года назад

Im American & I think the atomic bombings were completely justified,for the amount of people they SAVED on both sides,had we been forced to invade.As awful as they certainly were,I think it probably saved hundreds of thousands of Allied lives,& multiple millions of Japanese lives.. However,I think a few American conventional raids,in Japan...& American,& British raids in Europe,crossed the line,& were actually worse than the atomic bombings. But in all these cases,I agree it's very easy to judge today,when we know what happened,& don't have the emotions of being alive back then. But the Japanese military tried a coup,AFTER THE 2 ATOMIC BOMBS! So,while there were people in the Japanese government,who wanted to surrender weeks earlier...it's ludicrous to me these people who think Japan was about to surrender,& the atomic bombings were piling on.

@allangibson2408 2 года назад

It absolutely saved 146,000 Allied lives. The Japanese military had issued standing orders for all Allied POWs to be executed if the Japanese home islands were invaded (and that was how many were present on the home islands in July 1945).

@jasonsmith5226 2 года назад

@@allangibson2408 Not to mention the casualties of an invasion that would've made Normandy look like nothing.

@allangibson2408 2 года назад

@@jasonsmith5226 The invasion plans called initially for the beaches and Japanese inland assembly areas to be hit with nerve gas but that was changed in July 1945 to six nuclear devices on the Kyushu beaches and six more on the assembly areas a half hour before the landing craft went ashore… The nuclear weapons were to be ready in November 1945. A third nuclear device was to be dropped on Kyoto first on the 18th of August (the weapon casing was on Tinian but the pit was still in the US when the Japanese surrendered. The Japanese surrender meant that that third weapon killed more Americans than Japanese (look up the “Demon Core”- it was a bit marginal on safety).

@jasonsmith5226 2 года назад

@@allangibson2408 And I'm saying,if we never invented the atom bomb,or decided not to use...but thanks for that...I didn't know some of that.

@theccpisaparasite8813 2 года назад

Of course they were justified

@theccpisaparasite8813 Год назад

Interesting how he avoided his feelings about the moral dimensions of Meetinghouse

@therealuncleowen2588 Год назад

It strikes me that the use of napalm is associated in popular culture more with the Vietnam war than with WW2 against Japan mainly because of the music which referenced it's use at that time and the famous photo of a Vietnamese girl running from a village while literally burning from napalm. I'm unaware of any such popular references to napalm from WW2, where the atomic bomb far overshadowed any other bombing of Japan. Napalm is a terrible weapon to use against civilians. I suppose morally, it's use against Japan did at least serve to destroy cities and attempt to hasten the end of the war. Japanese civilians were supporting their war effort, working in factories for example. The use of napalm was somewhat justified for those reasons. On the other hand, the use of napalm in Vietnam was only justified as a means to kill enemy soldiers dug into tunnel systems. Any use against civilian targets was not going to hasten the end of the war. Most of the munitions the NVA and VC were using were supplied by foreign nations in factories untouchable by American bombs. All this is to say that the use of napalm in Vietnam was more barbaric than the use of the same weapon against Japan. Just one man's opinion.

@primmakinsofis614 Год назад

One way napalm was used in WWII was by filling drop tanks with it, with those tanks then being dropped by fighter-bombers (and on occasion from heavy bombers) in attacks against German units and airbases.

@herbert92x 3 месяца назад

Dude, If you are going to invite an expert on your show, let them speak. I want to hear what rbey have to say - not listen to you ramble.

@WW2TV 3 месяца назад

Ian hates giving presentations, he specifically prefers a conversation.

@Dov_ben-Maccabee 8 месяцев назад

Grew up in Japan - our maid's ( more a great family friend ) husband was a Kempetai officer in China. He had no animosity, in fact, he would get mad at other Japanese who would try to blame Americans for all the usual reasons - he said "It was war and no quarter was expected or given." I was stationed in Japan ( Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture ) when I was in the Navy. Love it and the people ( especially my wife! ).

@YouTube.Algorithmic.Nonsense 2 месяца назад

I wonder if LeMay would have moved forward with firebombing had homes and factories NOT been largely constructed of wood. From what I understand, just the 1000°F+ _heat alone_ generated from the bombs produced a tremendous death toll. One account I read stated victims tried jumping in a swimming pool as the fire swept in. They were able to avoid the fire, but not the heat and they were essentially boiled alive. Countless died from smoke inhalation while others died from asphyxiation because the raging fires sucked oxygen from the air. Glass and other objects melted under such intense heat that it dripped on people. Clothes also spontaneously combusted without being subjected to direct fire. Horrific. Also, did I not read somewhere that the US Air Corps, like with the 2 atomic bombs, dropped leaflets advising Japanese citizens to evacuate the area before hell was dropped on them, but the warnings were largely ignored?

@bruceboyer8187 Год назад

@WW2TV Год назад

These are questions that various historians have posed, with various different theories examined