I’m going on another road trip starting tomorrow morning. I hope to have a piece up before I leave. If not, some time over the weekend.
I always love driving across our beautiful country, and I’ll be gone for a few weeks, coast to coast. I will be updating this site, of course, like I did last time.
A few things
The Trump Town Hall reaction is a really good example of why I am no longer on the left. They’ve all lost their minds. It does make me feel very sad about my former side. This is not “their” country. It’s not “their Democracy,” and it’s not “their internet.”
These people are so insulated in their fear bunker they can’t handle Trump on CNN because it’s “their” network. Any responsible network would put Trump on, Biden on, Vivek Ramaswamy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and anyone else running for president on. If they pretend to care about “democracy itself,” then they have to care about what the public cares about.
It remains shocking that people like Bradley Whitford think they have a right to think for other people or decide for themselves what they should be interested in.
These are not people who should be put in charge of anything, not running the country, not heading up staffs at newspapers, not running Hollywood.
A few things to listen to:
A great interview with Tim Urban and Bari Weiss
Robert Oppenheimer, Truman and the End of the War - and a Question for you…
There is a new movie coming out directed by Christopher Nolan called Oppenheimer. To that end, I’ve gone down the rabbit hole on him. I did not know he was a suspected Communist and was hunted for years.
I watched this documentary and downloaded a couple of books I plan to listen to on the road.
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My question to you all is this: what are your feelings about dropping the A-bomb? Do you think FDR would have done it? Do you think it was necessary? Do you think Truman was in over his head? I’m just curious.
I’m mostly interested in the dynamic that played out vis a vis the Red Scare but I also feel the threat of nuclear war too all of a sudden.
The 2020 Election and Investigating fraud
My next piece is going to be on the 2020 election, and I will be adding some of this podcast to it, but the whole thing is worth listening to over at Sharyl Attkisson’s pod:
Dropping the A-bomb was necessary. We know that the Japanese were ready to go down in their own flames and fight within the cities and the streets. My grandfathers were Navy and Army in Europe and would’ve been sent, along with 1000s of other men, to the Pacific and would’ve likely died. My parents would likely have never been born; millions of Americans would have never existed. I believe FDR would’ve also dropped the bomb because he had no qualms about putting Americans of Japanese descent into internment camps. When all is said and done, Japan rapidly became a westernized country and an important, indispensable ally, despite their imperial and monarchical history.
I envy you. I'm kinda old so I don't know how many road trips I have in me. This summer I'm leave Florida and go to Oklahoma where I lived for many years. Try to spend some time there. The people are wonderful. I miss Tulsa .
From there I'll go to NYC. I was born, raised and had my career there. I still have property and old friends in New York. All other ties are gone and I dislike going back. The people are soulless. I'm finally selling out and never going back. No loss.
Back to Florida where I'm making my last stand. I love Oklahoma but not the weather. Whatever is left of New York has moved down here anyway. People want America back.
While I was in the Navy, I was stationed overseas at Yokosuka, at what prior to the war's end had been a significant Japanese naval base. The base is strategically located across a large bay from Tokyo and Yokohama, hemmed in by steep, volcanic rock hills. I was privileged to be given a special tour of WWII tunnels and bunkers there that formed an immense under-mountain complex, carved out by forced labor, sealed after the war by the occupying Americans. Miles upon miles of stacked, deep passageways that connected chambers large enough to support thousands of dug-in fighters. It's wrong for us today to attempt to make a temporal link between modern people--Japanese or American--and earlier acts of violence. Or to attempt to reinterpret past events in the context of 21st century views and circumstances. But I'll say, going through those tunnels gave me a better understanding of how prepared both sides in the war had been to fight on. And why the war had to be brought to an end.
As for the A-Bomb, absolutely yes, necessary, even in hindsight. The Allies were expecting a million+ casualties in any invasion of Japan's home islands. Not to mention the civilian casualties Japan would have suffered in an invasion, which would have been far more than that. Unlike Germany, Japan fought more ferociously the closer the Allies got to their homeland. It would have been an absolute bloodbath, potentially years long. Plus, had the bombs not been dropped, the world would never have seen their horror, potentially raising the likelihood they'd have been used elsewhere more broadly by the US or Soviet Union in the 1950s.
Back to the Bush-Gore Florida election issue, there was a slower, more reasonable judicial process which was followed to address the situation. Thanks Sharyl!
Safe travels; enjoy the true diversity of this country (a genuine diversity of history, culture, music, food, religion, geography… and an astoundingly complex and inclusive diversity of thought.) Actual diversity that is horrifying to those whose grift is equating “lockstep-echo-chamber-admission-bouncers” with “Diversity and Inclusion [TM].”
Enjoy your trip, Sasha. If your posts from the last trip are any indication, we are in for a vicarious treat.
Book recommendation for anyone interested in the history of the atomic bomb: Richard Rhodes' Pulitzer-winning "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is excellent. (Written when Pulitzers were actually given for outstanding work).
Sasha, about Hiroshima, the definitive history on that is Richard Frank's "Downfall." There was a lot of post-war speculation about what prompted Japan's surrender. The left created a narrative, for obvious reasons and based entirely on speculation, that Japan's surrender had nothing to do with the Bomb. It was the Bomb. Frank's book is based on actual recorded discussions by the Japanese high command, including with Hirohito, and is very extensive. Truman and his advisors read the Japanese perfectly. Guessed exactly their thinking and responses. Our guys don't always get it right, but they nailed it that time. I used to buy into the leftwing position on Hiroshima, but I had to change my mind. Nobody is happy about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the alternative really was likely to be worse. Love your content. Peace.
You have to have talked to people who were living that moment in time and not living via the rearview mirror. My grandmother clearly saw the human tragedy in the decision, but supported it and never backed down.
It's just amazing to watch people who are so sure of themselves that they can view opposition to their views as violence and basically evil. They view debate itself as bad. Like ok it's fine to think of Trump as bad, but how can you think someone who got 74 million votes isn't even worth a hearing? To me that shows that they're actually fragile in their views and don't think they will hold up to scrutiny.
Enjoy your road trip. There's nothing like them. Makes me feel free that I can still go anywhere I want. Exploring America and it's history is very satisfying.
Safe travels Sasha. If you’re heading thru/near Ohio (via the turnpike) & you’d like a place to stay overnight, you’re welcome here. My husband and I would welcome the conversation...we’re just a couple of middle class folks from fly-over Country.
FDR approved the funding to develop the bomb, a good deal of money at the time, I believe he also would have used it. I don't know for sure of course, but I think he would have left the decision in the hands of the military. 3 bombs were built, one used in the test, one on Hiroshima, one on Nagasaki. I am pretty sure I read that Truman would not have used another one even if there had been one available.
VDH is always a must listen/read. The 2020 election was stolen and so was 2022, especially in Arizona.
The result(among other ruinations): Texas and its 55 electoral votes as well as Arizona will now be guaranteed Democrat due to illegal immigration. And the republican party is doing nothing to stop it.
Hanson's "The Second World Wars" gives solid background on the last days of the Pacific War. Allied Forces were looking at a bloodbath until they gained air superiority and Lemay got the B29 working. The jet stream above Japan made high altitude strategic bombing futile. Lemay switched to 5000ft napalm and incinerated Tokyo with most of its inhabitants. "The March 9-10, 1945 napalm firebombing of Tokyo remains the most destructive single twenty-four hour period in military history". It was ghastly, and so we don't talk about it. Lemay, in one raid, showed that he could incinerate most of the population. We talk about the atomic bombs because they were new and only our side had them, but they were far from the most deadly option. We will never know if Imperial Japan would have surrendered to avoid the fire bombings. The atomic bombs fell, and they could no longer fathom any defence.
My ex-wife’s mother was a communist party member in California during the time Oppenheimer was at Berkeley, and she put all her love and loyalty into the Party. She knew Oppenheimer and said he had deep convictions that collectivism was the wave of the future. The FBI was right to suspect him.
Read about the war with Japan in ‘My Helmet For My Pillow’ by Robert Leckie, or the Spielberg-Hanks HBO ‘The Pacific’, an excellent ten-episode series on it. The Japanese were unbelievably suicidal and vicious in war, far beyond western understanding. The invasion of Japan would have caused millions of deaths, many more Japanese than American lives. The A-bomb saved millions because the Japanese consider defeat to be a shame worse than death, civilian or military makes no difference. They didn’t have medics in their army, nor did they care for the seriously wounded, who were just left lying in the field.
Of course FDR would have dropped the bomb. Truman once described FDR as something like "the coldest person I ever met". His persona was an act. Not that I disapprove of anything (very significant) that he ever did. (My father was a passionate New Dealer.) But his reasons were based on political calculation, not human feeling. He saw an opportunity, and he took it.
Sasha, you might like "In the Matter of J Robert Oppenheimer," by Heinar Klipphardt (1964), performed on Broadway in 1969 under the title "In the Matter of J Robert Oppenheimer: A Play."
Good on "Oppie's" persecution on suspicion of being a commie. Good stuff.
Victor offers some interesting history about citizens voting for FDR in his last term as ‘knowingly voting for a dead guy’ and how the D party at the time forced Harry Truman on the ticket, rather than VP at the time, Henry A. Wallace (suspected communist leaning) because Wallace was too liberal and not acceptable to taking over POTUS…
Maybe the correct question is ‘would Henry A. Wallace’ have dropped the A-bomb? .. given FDR extremely poor health when he was elected to a 3rd term. Further, perhaps the D deep state machine at time, chose themselves a Frankenstein in Harry Truman, to ensure the A bomb was used?
Then the parallel to Biden today — Dems will again knowingly vote for a knowing dead guy, and what happens when his dementia completely takes over, he morphs into a Diane Feinstein and then the VP takes over…
In response to Sasha's question about the A-bomb, I decided to make the article I wrote several years ago on that very subject available. https://sammcgowan.substack.com/p/decision. I am also going to post an article I wrote around the same time about what the Japanese generals in charge of the defense of Kyushu had to say. Those articles are free. I am going to start posting other magazine articles I've written behind a pay wall. I wrote numerous articles for World War II and WW II History magazines and was a contributing editor to Vietnam magazine, starting with the premier issue,
Dropping the A bomb saved not only American lives but Japanese live as well. Contemporary estimates at the time predicted 100,000 American men would have lost their live in an invasion. Based on the lives lost in taking the islands that is probably accurate. How many Japanese lives would have been lost in an invasion? At Yalta The Soviet’s agreed to assist. How would that have turned out? Would they take revenge for the Japanese having defeated them earlier in the century? After the defeat of Japan would the country have been divided up by the victorious nations. How did that work out for Germany especially Berlin? Would Truman have had to have two airlifts one for Berlin and one for Japan? Best of bad scenario’s was the bomb was dropped and the war ended quickly thereafter.
My father, a career Army officer, had finished his duty as a combat engineer in Europe and North Africa when his battalion was told to get ready for a deployment to the Pacific theater. He and his men were actually on the West Coast when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed and the war ended. He had been in combat or close to the front since 1943. He’s been gone for 25 years but made it very clear to anyone who asked that he was grateful to Truman for that decision, saving him and countless other American soldiers from additional carnage and death. Interestingly, he returned to Europe in 1948 as part of the Army of Occupation, then shipped out in 1951 or 52 for 18 months in Korea. Truman’s decision looked very different to men like my father and I am grateful for it as well.
Victor Hansen is a national treasure
Bingo: ‘This is not “their” country. It’s not “their Democracy,” and it’s not “their internet.” ‘. Thank you. Have a great trip!
Dropping the A-bomb was necessary. We know that the Japanese were ready to go down in their own flames and fight within the cities and the streets. My grandfathers were Navy and Army in Europe and would’ve been sent, along with 1000s of other men, to the Pacific and would’ve likely died. My parents would likely have never been born; millions of Americans would have never existed. I believe FDR would’ve also dropped the bomb because he had no qualms about putting Americans of Japanese descent into internment camps. When all is said and done, Japan rapidly became a westernized country and an important, indispensable ally, despite their imperial and monarchical history.
.
The People That Don’t Like To Share
-Their Jet Fuel
-Their Gated Communities
-Their Private Clubs
& Their Tech Networks
Are Aligned With The People That Naively Demand
That Everything Be Shared With Them.
Spoiler Alert: That Ain’t Gonna Happen.
Not In A Million Years.
.
Victor Davis Hanson is always terrific. I'm half-way through reading The Dying Citizen. I learned a great deal from reading The Second World Wars.
I envy you. I'm kinda old so I don't know how many road trips I have in me. This summer I'm leave Florida and go to Oklahoma where I lived for many years. Try to spend some time there. The people are wonderful. I miss Tulsa .
From there I'll go to NYC. I was born, raised and had my career there. I still have property and old friends in New York. All other ties are gone and I dislike going back. The people are soulless. I'm finally selling out and never going back. No loss.
Back to Florida where I'm making my last stand. I love Oklahoma but not the weather. Whatever is left of New York has moved down here anyway. People want America back.
While I was in the Navy, I was stationed overseas at Yokosuka, at what prior to the war's end had been a significant Japanese naval base. The base is strategically located across a large bay from Tokyo and Yokohama, hemmed in by steep, volcanic rock hills. I was privileged to be given a special tour of WWII tunnels and bunkers there that formed an immense under-mountain complex, carved out by forced labor, sealed after the war by the occupying Americans. Miles upon miles of stacked, deep passageways that connected chambers large enough to support thousands of dug-in fighters. It's wrong for us today to attempt to make a temporal link between modern people--Japanese or American--and earlier acts of violence. Or to attempt to reinterpret past events in the context of 21st century views and circumstances. But I'll say, going through those tunnels gave me a better understanding of how prepared both sides in the war had been to fight on. And why the war had to be brought to an end.
Have a safe trip!
As for the A-Bomb, absolutely yes, necessary, even in hindsight. The Allies were expecting a million+ casualties in any invasion of Japan's home islands. Not to mention the civilian casualties Japan would have suffered in an invasion, which would have been far more than that. Unlike Germany, Japan fought more ferociously the closer the Allies got to their homeland. It would have been an absolute bloodbath, potentially years long. Plus, had the bombs not been dropped, the world would never have seen their horror, potentially raising the likelihood they'd have been used elsewhere more broadly by the US or Soviet Union in the 1950s.
Sharyl’s election podcast captures the view that I was trying to express after the 2020 election: + the swiftness to deny irregularities,
+ the cowardice of the judicial system to avoid pursuing integrity claims to some reasonable, lawful conclusion
+ as well as the ‘changing’ description of the denial of the irregularities
I came to the same conclusion that no one wanted to extend themself for Trump.
I was actually screaming at the TV when Barr made his “there’s nothing here” comments.
“What investigations?!”, “What states/localities?”. Details please!!!
Back to the Bush-Gore Florida election issue, there was a slower, more reasonable judicial process which was followed to address the situation. Thanks Sharyl!
Safe travels; enjoy the true diversity of this country (a genuine diversity of history, culture, music, food, religion, geography… and an astoundingly complex and inclusive diversity of thought.) Actual diversity that is horrifying to those whose grift is equating “lockstep-echo-chamber-admission-bouncers” with “Diversity and Inclusion [TM].”
Enjoy your trip, Sasha. If your posts from the last trip are any indication, we are in for a vicarious treat.
Book recommendation for anyone interested in the history of the atomic bomb: Richard Rhodes' Pulitzer-winning "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is excellent. (Written when Pulitzers were actually given for outstanding work).
Sasha, about Hiroshima, the definitive history on that is Richard Frank's "Downfall." There was a lot of post-war speculation about what prompted Japan's surrender. The left created a narrative, for obvious reasons and based entirely on speculation, that Japan's surrender had nothing to do with the Bomb. It was the Bomb. Frank's book is based on actual recorded discussions by the Japanese high command, including with Hirohito, and is very extensive. Truman and his advisors read the Japanese perfectly. Guessed exactly their thinking and responses. Our guys don't always get it right, but they nailed it that time. I used to buy into the leftwing position on Hiroshima, but I had to change my mind. Nobody is happy about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the alternative really was likely to be worse. Love your content. Peace.
You have to have talked to people who were living that moment in time and not living via the rearview mirror. My grandmother clearly saw the human tragedy in the decision, but supported it and never backed down.
It's just amazing to watch people who are so sure of themselves that they can view opposition to their views as violence and basically evil. They view debate itself as bad. Like ok it's fine to think of Trump as bad, but how can you think someone who got 74 million votes isn't even worth a hearing? To me that shows that they're actually fragile in their views and don't think they will hold up to scrutiny.
Travel safe Sasha. We need you.
Thank you for, as always, leaving us with great morsels to chew over until your next post. Have a safe and enjoyable trip!
Enjoy your road trip. There's nothing like them. Makes me feel free that I can still go anywhere I want. Exploring America and it's history is very satisfying.
Safe travels Sasha. If you’re heading thru/near Ohio (via the turnpike) & you’d like a place to stay overnight, you’re welcome here. My husband and I would welcome the conversation...we’re just a couple of middle class folks from fly-over Country.
Drive safely. America needs your voice!
FDR approved the funding to develop the bomb, a good deal of money at the time, I believe he also would have used it. I don't know for sure of course, but I think he would have left the decision in the hands of the military. 3 bombs were built, one used in the test, one on Hiroshima, one on Nagasaki. I am pretty sure I read that Truman would not have used another one even if there had been one available.
VDH is always a must listen/read. The 2020 election was stolen and so was 2022, especially in Arizona.
The result(among other ruinations): Texas and its 55 electoral votes as well as Arizona will now be guaranteed Democrat due to illegal immigration. And the republican party is doing nothing to stop it.
Have a great and safe trip, Sasha!
Pear Harbor barbaric,,,Hiroshima/Nagasaki barbaric,,,,greedy, inhumane psychopaths keep us sliding into de-evolution
Hanson's "The Second World Wars" gives solid background on the last days of the Pacific War. Allied Forces were looking at a bloodbath until they gained air superiority and Lemay got the B29 working. The jet stream above Japan made high altitude strategic bombing futile. Lemay switched to 5000ft napalm and incinerated Tokyo with most of its inhabitants. "The March 9-10, 1945 napalm firebombing of Tokyo remains the most destructive single twenty-four hour period in military history". It was ghastly, and so we don't talk about it. Lemay, in one raid, showed that he could incinerate most of the population. We talk about the atomic bombs because they were new and only our side had them, but they were far from the most deadly option. We will never know if Imperial Japan would have surrendered to avoid the fire bombings. The atomic bombs fell, and they could no longer fathom any defence.
My ex-wife’s mother was a communist party member in California during the time Oppenheimer was at Berkeley, and she put all her love and loyalty into the Party. She knew Oppenheimer and said he had deep convictions that collectivism was the wave of the future. The FBI was right to suspect him.
Read about the war with Japan in ‘My Helmet For My Pillow’ by Robert Leckie, or the Spielberg-Hanks HBO ‘The Pacific’, an excellent ten-episode series on it. The Japanese were unbelievably suicidal and vicious in war, far beyond western understanding. The invasion of Japan would have caused millions of deaths, many more Japanese than American lives. The A-bomb saved millions because the Japanese consider defeat to be a shame worse than death, civilian or military makes no difference. They didn’t have medics in their army, nor did they care for the seriously wounded, who were just left lying in the field.
✝️
Of course FDR would have dropped the bomb. Truman once described FDR as something like "the coldest person I ever met". His persona was an act. Not that I disapprove of anything (very significant) that he ever did. (My father was a passionate New Dealer.) But his reasons were based on political calculation, not human feeling. He saw an opportunity, and he took it.
Sasha, you might like "In the Matter of J Robert Oppenheimer," by Heinar Klipphardt (1964), performed on Broadway in 1969 under the title "In the Matter of J Robert Oppenheimer: A Play."
Good on "Oppie's" persecution on suspicion of being a commie. Good stuff.
Victor offers some interesting history about citizens voting for FDR in his last term as ‘knowingly voting for a dead guy’ and how the D party at the time forced Harry Truman on the ticket, rather than VP at the time, Henry A. Wallace (suspected communist leaning) because Wallace was too liberal and not acceptable to taking over POTUS…
Maybe the correct question is ‘would Henry A. Wallace’ have dropped the A-bomb? .. given FDR extremely poor health when he was elected to a 3rd term. Further, perhaps the D deep state machine at time, chose themselves a Frankenstein in Harry Truman, to ensure the A bomb was used?
Then the parallel to Biden today — Dems will again knowingly vote for a knowing dead guy, and what happens when his dementia completely takes over, he morphs into a Diane Feinstein and then the VP takes over…
Odd, I wrote a response about the A-bomb and although it posted on Notes, it didn't come up here.
LOL who is bullshitting who. You can’t even attempt to make a cogent argument to support your position.
In response to Sasha's question about the A-bomb, I decided to make the article I wrote several years ago on that very subject available. https://sammcgowan.substack.com/p/decision. I am also going to post an article I wrote around the same time about what the Japanese generals in charge of the defense of Kyushu had to say. Those articles are free. I am going to start posting other magazine articles I've written behind a pay wall. I wrote numerous articles for World War II and WW II History magazines and was a contributing editor to Vietnam magazine, starting with the premier issue,
Dropping the A bomb saved not only American lives but Japanese live as well. Contemporary estimates at the time predicted 100,000 American men would have lost their live in an invasion. Based on the lives lost in taking the islands that is probably accurate. How many Japanese lives would have been lost in an invasion? At Yalta The Soviet’s agreed to assist. How would that have turned out? Would they take revenge for the Japanese having defeated them earlier in the century? After the defeat of Japan would the country have been divided up by the victorious nations. How did that work out for Germany especially Berlin? Would Truman have had to have two airlifts one for Berlin and one for Japan? Best of bad scenario’s was the bomb was dropped and the war ended quickly thereafter.
My father, a career Army officer, had finished his duty as a combat engineer in Europe and North Africa when his battalion was told to get ready for a deployment to the Pacific theater. He and his men were actually on the West Coast when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed and the war ended. He had been in combat or close to the front since 1943. He’s been gone for 25 years but made it very clear to anyone who asked that he was grateful to Truman for that decision, saving him and countless other American soldiers from additional carnage and death. Interestingly, he returned to Europe in 1948 as part of the Army of Occupation, then shipped out in 1951 or 52 for 18 months in Korea. Truman’s decision looked very different to men like my father and I am grateful for it as well.
The A-bomb should not have been dropped.