Granularity
No, I can't recommend any great tome. My knowledge comes from a great many small but very detailed documents, both print and Internet. I reconcile discrepancies as best I can.
When I'm just too tired to do actual work, I tend to study wars, and especially all the machines and equipment used in them. It is amazing how little is known about the Pacific war. Archaeologists are hard at work trying to fill it all in. It is a major region of study today.
Okinawa was a really horrifying battle, the only one where the ratio of American and Japanese casualties and deaths was nearly equal. More typically it was close to 1 American to 10 Japanese. Their tactics tended to be less than ideal.
The decision to use The Bomb (the Army and Navy were against it) was the horrifying experience of Okinawa, expected to be 100 times worse on the home islands. The military realized the Japanese would surrender soon anyway, due to the approaching Russian armies, freed from action in Europe. The politicians wanted revenge, and the scientists wanted to try out their new toy.
Churchill didn't like the Pacific war at all, because the British were getting their asses wiped big time there. The sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse in the same day left Singapore no longer a sea power. The surrender of Singapore is considered one of the greatest military disasters of all time. The British didn't realize the Japanese were at the end of their supply lines and had only a few hours of ammunition.
The Japanese attitude at Singapore was "War Crimes R Us". The hanging of General Tomoyuki Yamashita solidified legal precedent, that the commanding officer is responsible for War Crimes, whether or not he approved of, or even knew about, what was being done by his troops - knowing is an important part of his job. The Americans hanged him for the Philippines, not Singapore, depriving the English of the honor.
As for "Write the Memoir", there is just a bare start of it in the Memoriam pages of Clovegarden, and many notes elsewhere, and I'm building a cast of characters. I should have more time to work on that now that updating clovegarden.com to html5 and css3 is done. The last of it, accidentally overlooked before, was done Sunday in a single 11 hour stint.
When I'm just too tired to do actual work, I tend to study wars, and especially all the machines and equipment used in them. It is amazing how little is known about the Pacific war. Archaeologists are hard at work trying to fill it all in. It is a major region of study today.
Okinawa was a really horrifying battle, the only one where the ratio of American and Japanese casualties and deaths was nearly equal. More typically it was close to 1 American to 10 Japanese. Their tactics tended to be less than ideal.
The decision to use The Bomb (the Army and Navy were against it) was the horrifying experience of Okinawa, expected to be 100 times worse on the home islands. The military realized the Japanese would surrender soon anyway, due to the approaching Russian armies, freed from action in Europe. The politicians wanted revenge, and the scientists wanted to try out their new toy.
Churchill didn't like the Pacific war at all, because the British were getting their asses wiped big time there. The sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse in the same day left Singapore no longer a sea power. The surrender of Singapore is considered one of the greatest military disasters of all time. The British didn't realize the Japanese were at the end of their supply lines and had only a few hours of ammunition.
The Japanese attitude at Singapore was "War Crimes R Us". The hanging of General Tomoyuki Yamashita solidified legal precedent, that the commanding officer is responsible for War Crimes, whether or not he approved of, or even knew about, what was being done by his troops - knowing is an important part of his job. The Americans hanged him for the Philippines, not Singapore, depriving the English of the honor.
As for "Write the Memoir", there is just a bare start of it in the Memoriam pages of Clovegarden, and many notes elsewhere, and I'm building a cast of characters. I should have more time to work on that now that updating clovegarden.com to html5 and css3 is done. The last of it, accidentally overlooked before, was done Sunday in a single 11 hour stint.
