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The Tragic Legacy of World War II Lives On - The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator | USA News and Politics

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MenuThe Tragic Legacy of World War II Lives OnSeventy-five years ago the carnage finally stopped.Editor's PicksSign up to receiveHot OffThe Pressorld War II, the most brutal, destructive, and murderous conflict in human history, was finally, mercifully racing toward a close 75 Augusts ago. In early May, German units and personnel had rushed to surrender, preferably to the Western allies. On May 7, General Alfred Jodl signed his country’s formal surrender.Alas, the war in the Pacific continued. At that time U.S. forces were in the midst of the battle for Okinawa. That fight did not conclude until June, after roughly 130,000 military deaths, the vast majority Japanese. Even more civilians died, roughly half of the island’s population of 300,000. Imperial Japan’s cause was hopeless — its navy had disappeared beneath the seas, remaining planes were vastly outclassed, isolated island garrisons were starving, main armies were marooned in China, industry was destroyed, major cities were wrecked and burned. And Japan had become the first, and so far only, target of nuclear weapons. But Tokyo’s war party demanded a fight to the national death.Once the shooting stopped there were celebrations, but not everywhere. The aggressor states were wrecked, overrun, occupied, desperate.… Power was violently asserted, redistributed, and consolidated in numerous countries.Only the intervention of Emperor Hirohito forced a decision to end the slaughter, and even then renegade soldiers invaded the palace in an attempt to seize his recorded surrender message. That effort failed, and on August 15 in one of the great circumlocutions of all time, he told his countrymen in a national address that the war was over. His speech was a wonder in understatement: “Despite the best that has been done by everyone — the gallant fighting of our military and naval forces, the diligence and assiduity of our servants of the State and the devoted service of our 100,000,000 people — the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest.”Yes, indeed, the situation had “developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage.”Although the surrender decision had been made, men, many men, still had to lay down their arms. The roughly 1.4 million Japanese soldiers — and more than a half million Japanese civilians — in China were not officially surrendered until September 9. Although U.S. forces were rapidly demobilized, Americans were left to garrison Germany, Japan, and the southern half of the Korean peninsula, which had been a Japanese colony. The Red Army remained even busier, turning Moscow’s “liberated” territories into “people’s democracies,” in which the will of real people mattered not at all.Once the shooting stopped there were celebrations, but not everywhere. The aggressor states were wrecked, overrun, occupied, desperate. What would be a four-year civil war, with momentous consequences for the world, restarted in China. Asian colonies were declaring their independence. Power was violently asserted, redistributed, and consolidated in numerous countries.Moreover, as the lengthy, terrible, very hot war ended, another global conflict, longer and colder, began. On March 5, 1946, the wartime British prime minister, Winston Churchill, ousted by British voters the previous year, joined President Harry S. Truman in Fulton, Missouri, and famously declared, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Indeed it had.What lessons were learned?Seventy-five Augusts ago, Japan’s emperor finally put his people’s interest first. In announcing Japan’s surrender, he played an essential role in concluding six years of global slaughter and destruction. The decision-makers from that terrible time are all dead. Those who played supporting roles are fast disappearing from the scene.Indeed, World War II continues to recede in the mists of time. It is as distant from Americans today as the Civil War was from Americans when they entered World War II. The final anniversary reunion of the 1863 battle of Gettysburg with nearly 2,000 Civil War veterans was held in 1938. Participation of World War II veterans in commemorative events today is similarly dwindling.Nevertheless, conflict will not soon be forgotten. Its impact on the current world remains profound. Necessity left America no choice but war after Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor. However, different policy decisions would have yielded a different future. Our objective today must be to prevent another plunge by humanity into such a deep, terrible abyss.Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author of Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire.Please enable JavaScript to view theSign up to receiveThe offer renews after one year at the regular price of $79.99.

MenuThe Tragic Legacy of World War II Lives OnSeventy-five years ago the carnage finally stopped.Editor's PicksSign up to receiveHot OffThe Pressorld War II, the most brutal, destructive, and murderous conflict in human history, was finally, mercifully racing toward a close 75 Augusts ago. In early May, German units and personnel had rushed to surrender, preferably to the Western allies. On May 7, General Alfred Jodl signed his country’s formal surrender.Alas, the war in the Pacific continued. At that time U.S. forces were in the midst of the battle for Okinawa. That fight did not conclude...

The Tragic Legacy of World War II Lives On - The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator | USA News and Politics

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