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Today (August 9) is the 78th anniversary of the second Atomic Bomb which struck Nagasaki, Aug 9 1945. I noted this in #1, here, on July 25. What follows is a short dialogue between two former colleagues: Harley (Japanese-American) and myself. Harley and I worked for the same organization for about 20 years, and this topic never came up. Better late than never. WWII may have ended 84 years ago, but it began long before 1938, and in terms of memory still continues.
The debate about the the bombs and nuclear generally will long outlast me. Even today, the words Iran, Israel, Russia, are paired with war and nuclear – the contemporary version of “saber rattling”. And, of course, the U.S., and North Korea and others have the technology….
The conversation is essential to at least diminish the potential of war and deadly weapons as a solution to problems between peoples. I am of the school who believes that with all of the serious problems we face, the conversation favoring peace has been fruitful, beginning with the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. We continue to be threatened with annihilation by bad actors, but we’ve had a pretty long run of relative peace. My “glass” is more “full” than “empty”. Most of us try to keep hope alive.
Shortly after August 9, 1945, came the end of WWII. I’ve learned a lot, over the years, of the tension at the end of WWII. I was 5 years old in the summer of 1945. What if I had been 25? What would I have said or felt about ‘the bomb’ after four years at war with an enemy I had never seen, but only heard about?
I don’t know.
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Here’s our dialogue: August 3, my friend and former colleague, Harley, offered a few thoughts about one aspect about the end of WWII from the perspective of a Japanese American. This is a comment included in the aforementioned July 25 post:
“The only time I have gone to Japan was on the opening of the Nagasaki Concert hall in 1998. I went with Christina and my mom and daughter. As you can imagine, it was very moving. We also went to our homestead in Kagoshima and met our relatives too.
My mom was incarcerated during the war. She went in at age 14 and got out at 17. She settled in Minnesota, not being allowed to go back to the west coast while the war was still on. She spent her growing up years in the camp. I still do not know the full effect of that experience on her. I never will.
[Later, Harley added] My Dad’s Dad emigrated to the US in the 1890’s. He answered an ad to go to the promised land in Hawaii and found himself an indentured servant there. He toiled in the fields and was not allowed to leave the plantation, since he was beholden to his master. When Hawaii was annexed to the USA, the Constitution freed him since slavery was illegal and he emigrated to the mainland. He met my Grandma and worked as a migrant worker up and down California. They had like 13 children, 4 of which died from the swine flu in the late 19 teens.
They were all incarcerated in an internment camp after Pearl Harbor. My Dad had enlisted in the army two weeks before Pearl Harbor. When that event happened, he was put in “the brig” and remained in prison for the next 18 months. Eventually the Army decided to form an all Japanese American fighting unit and he was let of prison. He served in Italy and France until he was injured so badly that he was discharged. He was awarded a silver star, bronze star and 4 purple hearts. They got sent to a lot of difficult missions. It’s my belief that they were considered somewhat expendable and got sent into harsh details knowing that most would not survive. Most did not survive. His regiment, the 442nd suffered a 300% casualty rate (average 3 purple hearts).
Anyway, life is tough and you do the best that you can to make it better, just like you.”
Harley’s thoughts led me to reflect on my own learnings, which I shared with Harley and simply wish to add to the conversation on this important day:
“Thank you. I’m four-square on the peace side. War is always a quandary and it depends on how one chooses to spin it.
My family history makes this a complicated matter. [See, also, addition added August 8, 2024, below]
In 1898, my Grandpa Bernard and Grandma’s cousin, Alfred, were in one of the first group of American soldiers sent to take the Philippines from the Spaniards in what was called the Spanish-American War. They were only there a year. Most of that war was against the Filipinos who were okay with our throwing out the Spaniards, but didn’t like the Americans hanging around: “Thank you very much. You can go home now”.
The soldiers did go home, after a year of service. The U.S. didn’t.
Alfred returned to the Philippines at the time of WWI and did well as a businessman. He became a member of the Polo Club of Manila, which I gather was not for lightweights. He was in his 50s when he married, and had two young children when WW II began for the U.S.
Dec 7 1941, Frank Bernard, my Dad’s brother, went down with the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. They weren’t sure he was a casualty until weeks later; he’d been on the Arizona for over five years at the time of his death. He’s buried on the ship (name on the wall). His death was so traumatic to my Dad, his older brother, that when Dad wrote his memories for me about 1980, he didn’t say a word about Pearl Harbor. I had to ask him about it.
By 1941, Grandma and Grandpa Bernard were wintering in Long Beach, CA, and I’m pretty sure didn’t trust the Japanese from that point on. They went back to ND and didn’t go back west until after the war.
Alfred ended up in Santo Tomas POW camp in Manila,, where he spent the war. He lived through it, but lost everything and had to start over. His wife and two surviving children were free, and doubtless had difficulties like everyone else.
Mom’s brother, my uncle George, was an officer on a destroyer in the Pacific theater for most of the war, 1943-45. He and his boat survived, but there were close calls.
In late winter of 1945, the allies liberated Manila and the Philippines. A cousin of mine, one of Alfred’s daughters, named after my grandmother, and two months younger than me, was killed in the crossfire where the family had gone for refuge – a churchyard. She was in her mom’s arms, I was told, and nobody knows which sides bullet or shrapnel killed her. In the family history, the day of her death is undetermined, sometime in a one month time period. Her mother and other two siblings survived. I knew the two surviving children and met their Mom years later..
As the war wore down, after the Philippines and before August 6, 1945, Mom’s cousin from the next farm over, August, a Marine Captain, was heavily involved in the defeat of the Japanese at Okinawa. The war really messed him up. He died pretty young.
A month or so after Okinawa, came the A-bombs.
On September 10, 1945, Uncle George’s destroyer docked at Tokyo.
Dad’s cousin, Marvin, had been field promoted to Army Colonel, and for a short time became the command person for one of Japan’s prefectures.
Uncle George and his destroyer arrived back at Portland in late October, 1945. The war was over.
Most of these stories I didn’t learn until much later when I got interested in family history. To my recollection, nobody talked about any of this – they were just glad it was over. Possibly your Mom had the same reluctance to relive the horror of that time.
Was all the killing worth it? Hell, no! But that’s the nature of war, and we just see it repeated over and over again. We just don’t seem to learn.
Wars are always continuing stories. So was WWII. In 1898, Teddy Roosevelt and others had the idea of exporting America’s influence, and part of it messed with Japan’s perceived turf.
Depending on who writes the history, or interprets it, somebody else is always to blame. But we all suffer.
I think the benefit of observances like this one are valuable to make it possible to remember and hopefully at least discuss what happened at the end of this particular war – or any war.
We’re stuck with “the Bomb” and it could continue to be a problem, but the results are mutual assured destruction.”
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This is the most I’ve ever written about this time in our history. Thanks for reading. Share if/as you wish.
To your family, and mine, and all of us, everywhere, PEACE!!!
Added August 8, 2024 by Dick: Harley’s addition prompts me to flesh out a bit more Grandpa Bernard and Alfred Collette’s story
Henry (Honore) Bernard, my grandfather was born in 1872 and grew to adulthood in Quebec. He was the youngest of 12 children in a farm family. Most had died by the time he arrived in North Dakota about 1894. His brother preceded him to ND. Immediately before ND it is believed he was a lumberjack in the area of Berlin Falls NH, and he had also worked in the asbestos mines at Thetford Mines QC. He had a first grade education, but was gifted mechanically, becoming chief engineer in a flour mill.
Alfred Collette was born 1879 in Dakota Territory, the oldest of five. His mother died in childbirth in 1885. She was Metis, and when his father remarried, the children were enrolled in an Indian residential school. From all accounts I know of they had a positive experience in the school.
In 1898 came the Spanish-American War. Teddy Roosevelt, the architect of the war, and later President, had a great affinity for North Dakota, where he had lived in the early 1880s, and when the war was declared ND was probably not coincidentally a strong source of recruits. Co. C of the First ND was organized at Grafton, and included Henry (age 26) and Alfred (age 19). Here is a photo including them at Presidio San Francisco in 1898, just prior to embarking for the Philippines.
Some of the Grafton boys at Presidio San Francisco, Summer 1898, Henry Bernard standing at left; Alfred Collette reclining on ground at right.
The boys were privates and war is never comfortable. They sailed to Manila via Honolulu in a troop ship, and home via Yokohama Japan.
One can never say, for sure, what cause and effect are in war. Quite certainly, American encroachment in the far reaches of the Pacific was not welcome. The rest is for history debates.
COMMENTS;
from Fred: Well said, Dick. I’ve said it before, your family did far more than their share in WW2. You should be proud of that.
from Brian: Very nice–thanks for sharing!
from Kathy: Notes regarding the bombings and impact in my family:
My grandson was born this day, 6 Aug 2003…(also, feast of the Transfiguration in the Catholic Church). I have dedicated Josiah to promoting peace…he has a strong interest in Japanese culture and a big thirst for social justice like my dad.
My penpal Setsuko of 64 years, born in Yokohama, Japan 7 months after the dropping of the bombs, and I remain friends to this day and have dedicated our friendship to world peace. We once gave a talk to secondary students in Tokyo about the importance of making friends to encourage world peace (2006).
A few years back on this anniversary I heard drumming outside my window in the quiet town of Mt Angel. I rushed to see what it was about. There were 3-4 Buddhist monks holding a single flag, drumming with about 30 folks walking behind them on the sidewalk. I got in my car and followed them to the Benedictine Sisters’ monastery in town. They had a flame from the eternal flame kept alive since the bombings in Nagasaki/Hiroshima. It was after the 911 attack here so they couldn’t take the flame into US via air transport so they landed in Mexico, and walked the flame in pilgrimage up the west coast of US and then across country to Washington DC.
I was invited to join them as we walked 6 miles to the next town of Silverton. It was peaceful and meditative until…a rowdy, foul-mouthed load of men in a huge on-coming pick up roared by shouting obscenities and “Go back to your own country! Get out of our country! Go back where you belong!”
I shook my head in disgust at the display of anger and wryly said to the Native America man walking next to me…”Guess they don’t know this IS your country…”
COMMENTS FROM TODAY (MORE AT END)
from Jeff: good post Dick, liked the history stuff, and the moving story of your friend’s Japanese American background. As noted the 442d was the most decorated unit in the US Army and also as noted , they were given the tough duty, especially during the awful Italian campaign that lasted forever .
The Spanish American War as you note was a mixed blessing for the Filipinos….and little spoken of was the following war between the USA and Filipino independence insurgents in which 4,200 Americans and over 20,000 Filipinos died from 1899 to 1913. I do remember during the Iraq war some analysts making comparisons to the Filipiino-American conflict…..there was guerilla warfare and the USA didnt really “win” just wore things out…remnants of anti American sentiment went on till after WW2. And also there was a significant anti-Imperialism contingent in the USA…with prominent supporters like Jane Addams, Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie and others.
I didnt have any relatives that I know of that were in that conflict…Bridget’s grandfather and his brother were in WW1, the brother died of influenza there. My dad’s uncle enlisted in WW1, he wasnt an American citizen at the time I think, I don’t think he ever made it out of the USA though…I think he enlisted in 1918 and by the time his training was nearly done the Armistice had happened and the war was over.
from SAK: As you say, WWII began long before . . .
‘Winston Churchill attributed this famous quote about the Peace Treaty of Versailles [1919] to [French Marshal, Ferdinand] Foch: “This is not Peace. It is an Armistice for twenty ears.” Indeed, the next war sprung out 20 years later.’
Wikipedia.
from Brian: Thanks for sharing.
As you know my world is microfinance, and Muhammad Yunus, its inventor, has been in the news. He’s the leader in Bangladesh now.
What is microfinance? Making loans to people who really need it and giving them also a place to save. It’s how you can leverage yourself out of poverty.
I’ll give a personal example: A close relative of Louisa out in New Mexico for years kept hitting Louisa up for money. She was so poor. She was renting in Santa Fe. But then decided she wanted to buy a 2-dome home out in the country. No bank would lend her the money.
Desperate, she called me for ideas. I looked up Guadalupe credit union giving her the info and she became a member, got a loan from them right away and bought her home out there on acres of land. Her net worth has SOARED! Thanks to leverage (“leverage” means “debt” in finance.)
I should know, I came back from Norway after working there as a trainee, with just $7. I had no money. I got a loan from brother Mike for $100, and that helped. And my credit union–it has helped so much!!
It saved our plane in Colombia when the engine failed and I landed in a farmer’s field by the Magdalena River. Well, my CU lent me $10k and I got a new engine for it out of Bogotá. Even the police helped out, lending me a plane/pilot to take the engine to the isolated field near Simití. So isolated it had taken me a week to get out after my forced landing…in a pirogue.
Here are the photos I wanted to send of Yunus when my boss Cliff and I went to see him in Queens back in 2008 when he helped open a Grameeen bank there.
from Jim: Remarkable post, Dick! Thank you.
from Michael Knox. U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation: (disclosure I’m one of the early founding members of this organization).
Nagasaki Graphic
| Dear Dick,
On August 9, 1945, the U.S. bombed Nagasaki. I have tried to imagine how my parents, stationed at an Army Air Force base in Texas, must have felt that day. Did they expect peace? That now they could get on with their lives and start a family? I was born precisely nine months later.
Tragically, the U.S. chose a path of unprecedented aggression. Since the end of World War II, our military has bombed residential areas in at least thirty countries, resulting in the deaths of millions and the maiming of tens of millions more. No other country can match this evil.
It’s not too late for a reset—a fresh start. Join the US Peace Memorial Foundation to help us honor Americans who work to end U.S. war and militarism. Please donate at www.USPeaceMemorial.org/Donors.htm. |
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