The History Buff's Guide to World War II (51 page)

The first to die in the gas chambers of Auschwitz were Polish and Russian POWs.

8.
JAPAN WAS READY TO SURRENDER BEFORE HIROSHIMA

When the “Big Three” gathered in mid-July 1945 in the aristocratic Berlin suburb of Potsdam, Stalin informed Truman and Churchill that Japan had offered, by way of its ambassador in Moscow, to stop the war. But this initiative was far from the unconditional surrender demanded by the Allies.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Suzuki Kantaro agreed to a cease-fire but not capitulation. Japan volunteered disarmament, yet insisted it would disarm itself. There was to be no foreign occupation, and all war criminals would be defined, tried, and prosecuted by the Japanese. In addition, the government would remain in place, as would the existing boundaries of the empire, including Formosa, Korea, and Manchuria, which encompassed three times the land and twice the population of Japan proper.
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On both sides, there was little military indication that an end was soon coming. The United States was already shuttling divisions from Europe and North America to the Pacific. In all, two million troops were assigned to take part in the eventual invasion of Japan's main islands, scheduled to begin in November 1945 at the southern island of Kyushu and in early 1946 onto the main island of Honshu. Japan also persisted militarily, retaining large portions of eastern China, sending kamikaze flights from Kyushu into approaching U.S. ships and arming soldiers and civilians alike with anything available for the impeding invasion. The main islands possessed at least two million regular troops.

In addition, fighting intensified the closer the U.S. forces came to Japan. Retaking Manila cost 11,000 American and Japanese dead. Iwo Jima resulted in 25,000 total dead. Okinawa, the last major island south of Japan, cost at least 112,000 American and Japanese deaths, plus another 80,000 native Okinawans.
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With this in mind, Truman decided without much consultation to use atomic devices. He ordered the two available bombs dropped just days apart to give the impression the United States had a cache of such weapons (and believed, as did Gen. George C. Marshall and Henry Stimson, that more than two would be needed to defeat Japan). The tactic worked. Immediately after Hiroshima, Tokyo's high command debated whether the event was indeed atomic. Some argued the United States had only the one bomb. But reports came in of an additional explosion at Nagasaki, and the hawks faltered. Minister of War Anami Korechika, previously committed to a fight to the end, feared the Americans had “one hundred atomic bombs.”
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In an unprecedented move, Hirohito ordered his subjects to accept immediate surrender. Even this stunning interdiction failed to persuade everyone. Army officers and Imperial guards launched a coup d’état on the night of August 14. Raiding the palace, soldiers attempted to find and destroy a recording of the emperor’s surrender speech, set to be broadcast nationally the following day. Failing in their mission, several of the conspirators committed suicide in the palace.
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Some believed War Minister Anami Korechika, the second most powerful man in Japan, was behind the coup against the emperor. Anami did nothing to dispel this theory when, just hours after the coup failed, he slashed open his stomach and throat and slowly died.

9.
USE OF THE ATOMIC BOMB WAS RACIALLY MOTIVATED

Racism was a prevalent reality in midcentury America. With the exception of the merchant marine, the armed forces were segregated. The U.S. government placed 110,000 Japanese Americans, most of whom were full and legal U.S. citizens, in internment camps for more than two years. Truman himself was not averse to using the word
Jap
in private discourse.

For American servicemen, the war in the Pacific contained definite racial hatred surpassing anything expressed in Europe. The Rape of Nanking, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and the grotesque abuses of prisoners of war led many U.S. soldiers, sailors, and marines to view the Japanese as beastlike.

But for all the official and unofficial discriminatory practices in the United States, the atomic bomb was created and intended for use against Germany. When it looked as if the Third Reich would collapse before the devices were ready, Japan became the target by default. Germany returned to primary status during the 1944 A
RDENNES
O
FFENSIVE
, only to be removed from consideration after the fall of B
ERLIN
.
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In the end, Roosevelt’s successor decided to use the devices on Japan, not based on a racial premise, but in the firm belief that atomic weapons would end the war sooner than any other option available.

In his August 9, 1945, radio announcement of the destruction of Hiroshima, Truman explained the bomb was a successful “race of discovery against the Germans.”
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10.
TRUMAN “GAVE UP” EASTERN EUROPE

In the West a postwar sentiment quickly emerged: Truman was too soft on Stalin and thereby allowed communist systems to take root in Eastern Europe. In comparison, Churchill recommended that the Allies occupy Prague by force, and Gen. George S. Patton stated to U.S. Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson, “If you wanted Moscow, I could give it to you.”
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Yet nearly a year before Winston Churchill’s 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri, Truman all but threatened Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov with retaliation if Poland were not allowed its freedom. At Potsdam, Truman repeatedly argued for guarantees of Polish, Bulgarian, Greek, and Romanian independence, to which Stalin said that any government not fascist was a democracy.
⁵⁰

Unfortunately for the American president, the war itself limited his options. For all intents and purposes, Eastern Europe was not Truman’s to give. The eventual demarcation between democratic and communist Europe closely resembled the positions of the victorious armies on V-E Day, making the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe a harsh fait accompli.
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To be sure, Stalin did break his agreement at Yalta to allow free and unfettered elections in postwar Europe, condemning nearly half the continent to communist dictatorship. In the larger view, Truman fared considerably well, to the point where many in the Soviet Union believed Stalin had failed immensely against the Americans. Conquered by the Red Army, Berlin remained mostly in the hands of the West. The French, playing a marginal role defeating the Third Reich, were allowed to occupy a large portion of western Germany. Soviet-occupied Vienna and east Austria soon fell completely within the Western sphere of influence, as did heavily communist Greece. On the world stage, vehemently anti-communist nations held four of the five Security Council seats in the newborn United Nations, and most significantly, Britain and the United States shared atomic secrets with each other but not with the Soviet Union.

Potsdam was Harry Truman’s first and last international conference of his presidential career.

HISTORIC SITES

To crawl inside the cavity of a U-boat and smell the grease and diesel, to peer through the slit of a pillbox and feel its chilling breath, to stare upon the enormity of a military graveyard and read the names aloud. To experience such places is to walk through history.

Unfortunately for the World War II traveler, formidable obstacles await. First is distance. Unlike the relatively compact engagements of previous wars, events in the machine-driven Second World War covered hundreds of square miles, many of them in the ethereal environs of sea and sky. Furthermore, key locations couldn’t be farther apart. The war began at a bridge near Peking and at a signal station in Poland and ended in a schoolroom in France and on a battleship off the coast of Japan.

There is also the matter of destruction. Total war, with its relentless force, tended to crush whatever it handled most: flying fortresses, grand battleships, entire cities. That which was not burned or blasted away often succumbed later to drifting sands, blanketing jungles, scrap hounds, thieves, and real estate developers.

Despite the challenges, the physical legacy of the war can still be found. Among the many hundreds of possible destinations, the following drop zones are the most favorable for an effective campaign of exploration for the North American traveler. Rank is based on preservation of natural landscape and man-made structures, overall accessibility (transportation, nearby lodging, guided tours, etc.), plus quantity and quality of supporting museums and monuments.
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1.
THE BEACHES OF NORMANDY

“D-day” is an operational term for the launch date of any active engagement. But to older generations in North America, Britain, and France, the word
D-day
can only mean June 6, 1944, when nothing was guaranteed but casualties and when perhaps the liberty of the entire free world depended on the outcome of one attack at one place on one day.

Visiting the beaches of Normandy is not so much a trip as it is a pilgrimage, and stations of reflections are bountiful. Foremost is Omaha Beach. To understand why this landing sector was the bloodiest of the five, one needs only to walk to the shoreline and turn around. Vertical bluffs to the left and right; a jagged, narrow, steep ascent to the center; concrete gun nests and pillboxes all around. Add mines, barbed wire, smoke, obstacles, and deafening weapons fire, and imagine having to run through a quarter-mile of water and sand to reach it.

Spanning fifty miles of France's north coast, the landing zones code-named Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword provide haunting visuals to what the Americans, British, and Canadians faced. The area contains lasting evidence of this great battle. Situated on a high cliff between Utah and Omaha is the strategic German position of Pointe du Hoc, which still bears the shattered bunkers and overlapping craters from Allied bombing, shelling, and direct assault. Ominous are the concrete-and-metal remains of “Mulberry B,” the artificial harbor constructed off Gold Beach after the landings. Every U.S. citizen should see the American Military Cemetery and Memorial overlooking Omaha, with its 9,386 marble grave markers and a wall containing 1,557 names of the missing.

Museums of the invasion are all around, ranging from modest private collections to large, state-run facilities. Chief among them are the Musée des Troupes Aéroportées in Ste.-Mére-Eglise featuring the exploits of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne operations, the Exposition Permanente du Débarquement just off of Gold Beach with heavy military equipment and emphasis on the British landings, and most important, the spectacular Musée pour la Paix (also known simply as “Memorial”) in Caen, with its massive collections of hardware and state-of-the-art audiovisual displays.

Small hotels cover the coast, and larger ones of every price range can be found farther inland. Guided tours for groups and individuals are easily arranged through major hotels, museums, and online. June and July are the busiest months, so make reservations far in advance or go in early autumn when crowds are modest and the weather most favorable.

Utah Beach is not where it was supposed to be. The Seventh U.S. Corps wanted to land two miles farther north, but tides and misdirection put them off course. Just as well, since the Germans constructed much stronger defenses at the intended landing zone.

2.
PEARL HARBOR

For Americans, Pearl Harbor embodies the beginning and the end. The end appears in the form of the USS
Missouri
. Anchored here since 1998, the largest U.S. battleship ever built hosted the official Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945. The beginning is the harbor itself, main target of the surprise attack that drew the United States fully into the war.