This episode is dedicated to Roy Hanson, the grandfather of TimeGhost Army member Seth Hanson. We’d like to thank Seth for sharing his story with us and for being such a dedicated member of the TimeGhost Army. If you have someone you’d like to dedicate an episode to, you can do so by joining us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory

@sch1191

Ай бұрын

Thank you Seth Hanson - I love hearing the untold stories. No military operates without an economy behind it.

@andrewk4818

Ай бұрын

​@@sch1191 WW2 is a virtually infinite number of human stories, some of which will never be told, but so many others waiting to be discovered.

@Rocdog

Ай бұрын

I was looking forward to joining you in Munich in September for the celebration weekend. Unfortunately, just a week ago I had emergency surgery to remove half my left lung from damage from cancer. My retirement gift for 30 years in the military end as a firefighter. I so wanted to share with Indy and Sparty. The story of my grandfather, who landed third wave in the 29th infantry at Omaha beach, was wounded at the battle of the bulge and liberated Buchenwald.

@Rocdog

Ай бұрын

Unfortunately, the cost of my surgery took away my travel money

@caterpilar

Ай бұрын

I loved Seth's story!

I’m starting to think this war might not go so well for the Japanese

@noahkidd3359

Ай бұрын

Are you sure?? Too soon to tell!

@jesoma0708

Ай бұрын

Don't worry Steiner is on his way to Japan to help them to drive the Americans in the Pacific and to regain the initiative.

@adambebb99

Ай бұрын

I guess you could say it is developing not necessarily to Japan's advantage

@leemichael2154

Ай бұрын

Lol😃

@mattk4110

Ай бұрын

​@@jesoma0708mit dem Angriff Steiners kommt alles in Ordnung

My late mother turned 15 in 1945. One day, while watching a local news spot about a high school archery competition, my mother said, "When I was a girl, I was good at that." That's how I learned that my mother's role in Operation Olympic would have been to shoot arrows at the U.S. Army. That illustrates the utter madness of the Japanese military in the summer of 1945.

@extrahistory8956

Ай бұрын

Thank you for such an anedocte. Despite being relatively recent history, it's quite tragic just how often this is forgotten by younger generations. Even without Downfall ever hapoening, those must have been some nightmarish final months for the Japanese population. Constant bombardment, the onset of starvation loming over, and uncertainty over whether or not they would die a horrible death in battle must have plagued millions

@pacificostudios

Ай бұрын

@@extrahistory8956 - It shaped my mother's entire outlook on life, how she parented, etc. When I was a teenager, I had to remind my mother I could stay out after dark, because we didn't have air raids in our neighborhood.

@donjones4719

Ай бұрын

I've read that in the War Cabinet and the highest levels of military command the "strategy" was that the killing of countless armed civilians would sicken the Americans, they would sicken of the slaughter because they were weak, and then offer a negotiated peace.

@nelsonchereta816

Ай бұрын

They were going to have literal children fight with bamboo spears, yeah they were insane.

@korbell1089

Ай бұрын

@@nelsonchereta816 Not only that but they were training those children to strap anti tank mines to themselves then roll under the tanks.

You know it's getting serious when Indy stops making phone calls

@johnnynielsen3006

Ай бұрын

Not that many left to call as of late... Can't forget how Indy hung up on Clark's call from Rome on D-Day...

@Gjudxdkjyzddhjnr7091

Ай бұрын

@@johnnynielsen3006 Clark was an asshat

@McRocket

Ай бұрын

Or he is too busy with this and Korea. ☮

@residentgeardo

Ай бұрын

@@johnnynielsen3006 Well he could always call Conrad von Hötzendorf. I'm sure this guy could offer great advice on how to best beat Japan!

@edwardblair4096

Ай бұрын

I thought he was TAKING phone calls from reporters in the field. That's why he always has the latest up to date info on what is going on all around the world.

During the war my grandfather had an apple farm in New Mexico, German POWs worked for him picking apples, my father was just a kid then, he told me the German POW's were very kind to him and happy to be in the U.S, out of the war.

@littlekong7685

Ай бұрын

Apparently it was the same with German POW's in Saskatchewan, they had more food, better food, the guards were kind to them instead of openly hostile like their guards in Europe had been, and they had wide open space to live in. Many married locals after the war and immigrated to Canada because the POW camps and guards had been so nice.

@VosperCDN

Ай бұрын

@@littlekong7685 Might be only a story, but I've read that a few times, a german pow would be given a rifle to hunt for deer or other game.

@Raskolnikov70

Ай бұрын

@@littlekong7685 There are a lot of those stories here in the US also, especially in rural areas where a lot of German immigrants settled. They didn't have to build prisons or fences because the POWs were treated so well they didn't have any motive to try to escape. Essentially they were treated like any other farm workers, given decent food and board and moved around wherever there was farm work to be done. Probably the best a German soldier of that era could hope for.

@RAAM855

Ай бұрын

I reckon since there is a lot of German descendants in the U.S they felt more at home.

@korbell1089

Ай бұрын

At the prison camps in the South West like Arizona and New Mexico, they would show them maps just to let them know how desolate those places were.🤐

My Late Father was A Captain in the 41st Inf. Div., Scheduled to Land With The First Wave On Miyazaki Beach as Part of Olympic. The Manhattan Project Saved His Life.

@philipbrening433

Ай бұрын

My grandpa's destroyer was earmarked for the invasion

@ZER0ZER0SE7EN

Ай бұрын

My dad (passed 2007) was a corporal in the Amphibian Engineers, Army Corps of Engineers. He was practicing to land soldiers in Japan. They were told to expect 70% casualties in the first hour of the landing. Later they were told a big bomb was dropped on Japan and the War was over!

@sliverjack0283

20 күн бұрын

it saved many innocent lives

I always find it amusing how the number 100 million includes not only the people in the main Japanese islands but also 20 million from the Korean peninsula. Did the Japanese command really think Koreans would sacrifice their lives for a colonial ruler?

@Raskolnikov70

Ай бұрын

Forget the Koreans, I think the Japanese command overestimated the number of Japanese inhabitants who would be willing to fight. Starving, unarmed people aren't going to throw themselves against a modern, professional and well-armed military for any reason, political or not.

@dariuszgaat5771

Ай бұрын

I think that even Japanese people itself will by unexpected reluctant. Popularity of emperor and military government really plummeted in the summer 1945.

@peteranderson037

Ай бұрын

Misreading the room to that degree is just par for the course for the Imperial Japanese.

@CultureCrossed64

Ай бұрын

​@@Raskolnikov70no but they might run off a cliff if they've been sufficiently brainwashed

@KitagumaIgen

Ай бұрын

It is so much easier to "fight to the last man" when excluding yourself since you're so important for "leading".

Old McDonald HAD a farm, then the ordinance department turned it into glass

@stevechopping3021

Ай бұрын

E i e i oh

@fredyellowsnow7492

Ай бұрын

In the valley of the jolly green glass.

@rrice1705

Ай бұрын

And on that farm he had a core, eieio. With a white flash here, and a mushroom there, eieio

@novacat3032

Ай бұрын

actually the building is still there main attraction every year during the visiting days...

@luismdgr

Ай бұрын

LOL

I grew up with a man named Dan Saxon. He was too young to go to war and his father was too old. However, when the war started they began growing sweet potoatos. They were not farmers, but they had a few acres they could use. Some of it was theirs and some of it was borrowed from neighbors who weren't there durring the war. All the sweet potatos were sold to the army for use in rations. This was in addition to their regular jobs. It was his family's contribution to the war effort.

"War's tragedy is that it uses man's best to do man's worst." - Harry Emerson Fosdick

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

The heart-breaking paradox of war. Thank you for watching.

@rh906

15 күн бұрын

It also cleanses the weak to allow the strong to advance society as they get to rebuild and hopefully don't rebuild what didn't work. Otherwise you get the West today and even worse atrocities to reset the cycle.

On July 12, 1945, american bombers bombed Utsunomiya. Hayao Miyazaki, then 4 years old, was evacuated by car with his family by his affluent father, head of aircraft manufacturing plant. Despite pleas from their neighboring family to get in car too, father speeded away, only caring for his own. That feeling of terror of war, selfishness and powerlessness in a face of injustice formed a core memory of Hayao, and inspired him to make many stories about willful, brave children seeking peaceful world.

@spacemanx9595

Ай бұрын

So Miyazaki's dad was making zeroes to kill Americans with and was a selfish scared prick? Got it.

@chanhjohnnguyen1867

Ай бұрын

Is that why boy and the heron was so bad?

@applesandgrapesfordinner4626

Ай бұрын

​@@chanhjohnnguyen1867 It was bad?

@ethanbramptom2700

Ай бұрын

Is that actually true? Makes the Boy and the Heron all the more personal.

@Physwe

Ай бұрын

@@chanhjohnnguyen1867 wat

Back when I was studying in Tokyo in late 2000 to mid 2001, I had a Japanese professor who was in his late 60s, still working part time after retiring, and he was a very young kid during the late stages of WW2. He told us how them, pre-school and primary school school kids, were taught how to hide in holes dug in the ground, holding on to an explosive device (something like a landmine or similar, but with some glue they were supposed to use to attach it to the enemy vehicle) and wait for an American tank to roll over, then stick the bomb, and die for the Emperor. Absolutely terrifying how he told it: laughing his ass off. What a great guy he was, and I'm so happy he didn't have to sacrifice himself for a foolish ideal that would have led them nowhere at a point when everyone knew the war was lost. Also told us the bread they were forced to eat instead of rice (as they were taught that everything they had been doing during and before the war was the reason they lost, as in, their "japanness" is what cost them the war) was absolutely atrocious and disgusting. Fortunately, over time, sane heads prevailed.

@ashtonmattrt3668

Ай бұрын

Wow, they really (almost) went Jojo Rabbit at the end there

@RAAM855

Ай бұрын

The stick mine was called the Shitotsubakurai in case you were wondering. The Viet Minh also used them to a smaller degree in the first indochina war

A sidenote this week on July 8 1945 is that Subhas Chandra Bose, leader of the Indian National Army (INA), will attend and lay the foundation stone for the Indian National Army Monument in Japanese occupied Singapore. The monument would be completed by the Japanese within a month in August 1945 but was eventually demolished by the British at the end of the war. On the present day, a plaque commemorating the previous memorial currently sits on the same spot.

@akshittripathi5403

Ай бұрын

Thanks for mentioning. I love the WW2 team's coverage of the war, but I don't think they'll be doing any episodes on the INA and the aftermath of WW2 in India (up to August 1947). Unfortunate, but their focus is shifting to the Korean War now and Indian viewers are probably a small part of the audience.

@ennui9745

27 күн бұрын

@@akshittripathi5403 Is it true that Subhas Chandra Bose is seen as a hero by Indian people despite the whole, you know, collaborating with the Imperial Japanese thing?

Nice in remembering the farmer. Just as important during and after WW2. The home front infrastructure matters too for victory. The farmers may not have been in battle, however without their efforts on the home front, everything would be harder in ending WW2.

@janschutte9796

Ай бұрын

you could also think of the British Coal miners

@ghostinthemachine8243

Ай бұрын

During WW II, almost all civilians in the USA contributed to the war effort. My maternal grandfather was a truck driver who also raised chickens. He'd drive them to the meat packing plants where their meat was used to feed the military. My paternal grandfather was a railroad man who kept the trains moving to and from the war plants. He also raised rabbits. This meat was not rationed, so he gave it to people who didn't have any food. The fur was used to line flight helmets and jackets to keep aviators warm. My Dad was the one who did the fighting. He was a US Navy rear gunner-radioman on a dive bomber that flew off of the USS Intrepid. His plane was shot down over the Phillipines. After crashlanding in the water, he and his pilot paddled to a leper colony. The doctor running the place contacted local guerrilla forces, and they came and took the pilot and my Dad to their stronghold. He spent two months with the guerrilla forces hiding from the Japanese until the Navy got him out by submarine. This post is my way of honoring the Phillipino guerillas, my father, and my grandfathers by telling their story.

This is one of the best episodes so far. It shows well the preparations for the invasion of Japan. I got tingles when Indy was describing the US Okinawa base storage capacity. Thank you.

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

Thanks for the comment and thanks for watching!

A summer job on the extra gang in 1974 on the Milwaukee Road Railroad brought me under the supervision of a section chief Kenny Ohm(sic). He described his war time service as a railroad Maintenance of Way worker, "always too much work and endless hours", with no chance of escape because of his job classification. He even went into Chicago to enlist, was enlisted and got caught up with by the War Production Board in Basic Training and sent back to his job on the Milwaukee Road. He said Basic Training was a vacation for him. All of that gone now, just motes of dust of history.

@davidwright7193

Ай бұрын

In the UK there was a drawing of lots in each batch of draftees and the losers were sent to the coal fields to spend the war working in the pits. They were known as the Bevin Boys after Ernest Bevin the minister of labour who instigated the practice. They had a particularly hard time as not only did they have a hard and dangerous job in the local towns they were often shunned as it was assumed that they had chosen to come and work in the pits to avoid military service. A cruel injustice for lads who were working in the pits as their military service, and one that the drawing of lots was supposed to avoid.

This week also marks 8 years since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which caused the war in Asia to begin in earnest. In the intervening time, the war in Europe has begun and ended, and all this time China and Japan have been in all out war.

@isaiahkayode6526

28 күн бұрын

You know what they say “it began their and it’s gonna end their”.

I loved the story of the Hansen farm. My dad grew up on a farm during WWII. He was only a child. He remembers hearing the announcement of the Pearl Harbor attack on the radio. Not many know there was a system of ratings for farms during the war. The ratings designated efficiency and productive capacity and indicated priority for war-vital commodities. My grandpa's farm held the highest rating. They enjoyed highest priority for fuel, spare parts, lubricants, etc. No A ration sticker for them. My dad recalls fuel never being an issue - they always had plenty. Same with meat, butter, etc. Of course they produced all their own. I still own that farm about 5 mi ENE of Phillipsburg, KS today.

This episode is important for anyone who questioned the atomic bombing. Actually took less lives than the alternative.

Another group that seems to be largely ignored in military history - the cooks. Without them no one got a good, hot meal.

@ceciljohnrhodes4987

26 күн бұрын

Good? Hot?

Pilot Trainee Shiro: Sooo...when do I train on landing procedure? Trainer: ...

The story about Roy Hanson. Reminded me of our farm neighbor that i worked for in the early 70s. I was only 10 years old but I drove tractor raking hay and driving his old pickup that was made into a hay buck. No matter what Harold Burdick would stop in time to be at the house at straight up noon for lunch give or take 30 seconds max! His wife June was amazing cook! Then as soon as lunch was over it was back to the hay field. One day a P-38 was being use as a crop duster over head. I found it strange that Harold quit working to watch this plane the whole time is could be seen. He never took a break from work any other time all summer. I mention this too my dad. Dad said that Harold had flow the P-38 at the end of WW2.

Ironically, farmers with their skill set and ability to "generally survive & overcome" were possibly the members of society the frontline needed most. But all food producers should be celebrated as much as many combatants.. Great episode

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

I’m starting to think this war might not develop necessarily to Japan’s advantage

@biggus8158

17 күн бұрын

I'm also starting to think that the fruits of victory are tumbling a bit to fast for Japan

The gloruis 100 million is oftem forgotten when people talk about the use of the atomic bombs. They try to argue every other aspect would have worked, and that the Japanese were on the verge of surrender.

@brianlong2334

24 күн бұрын

People seam to forget the unconditional surrender wasn't so unconditional, the USA was the one who made contact with the Japanese, the Japanese even after both bombs made no attempt to contact or answer the USA attempts at communicating, the reality is the USA offered terms and the Japanese took it.

My Grandfather was a farmer during the war. And for many years after. His tractors during the war ran on propane. And he never had problems getting fuel. He raised corn to feed to the hogs and cattle he raised. He also had chickens, so they where not hurting for food. He even had two German POW's work for him, for a time. I think during harvest. So yes, Farmers are very important, even to this day.

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

Absolutely! Farmers play such a vital role during the war and in regular day to day life. They continue to be essential today, thanks for sharing a bit about your Grandfather and his experience.

I've got one of those last ditch Type 99s and one manufactured in 1941. The difference between the two is remarkable. On the 45, no cleaning rod but there is a bayonet mount. Priorities.

@littlekong7685

Ай бұрын

Gun jesus did a great video on the last ditch guns of Germany and Japan, it is insane how cheaply a gun can be made from scrap and wood debris.

@allangibson8494

Ай бұрын

The Japanese fitted bayonets to heavy machine guns…

I was hoping you would cover the 100-ton test prior to Trinity. It was important for calibrating the effects of the actual test.

@akshittripathi5403

Ай бұрын

There's probably a big special episode coming up. Or maybe it just forms the core of the main episode, since the fighting in the main fronts has ended.

@Orvieta

Ай бұрын

Try and watch the documentary "Trinity and Beyond", excellent footage.

@WalterReimer

Ай бұрын

@@Orvieta I've seen it several times.

@WalterReimer

Ай бұрын

@@akshittripathi5403 I'm fairly certain there'll be a special episode on The Day.

@Orvieta

Ай бұрын

@@WalterReimer Good.

My father was on an amphibious command ship during the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He was on his way to the western Pacific when the war ended, I recently learned that during the invasion of Japan, that the japanese were going to switch from prioritizing warships to making anything that looked like a troop transport a prime target, which means that my father's ship was going to be a prime target.

The 'glorious' death of the one hundred million. War has often been depicted as being glorious, but I am minded of the following: "I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell."--William Tecumseh Sherman

@Turf-yj9ei

Ай бұрын

bUT iT wAs tHe sOvIeT iNvAsIoN oF mAnChUrIa tHaT eNdEd tHe wAr

@caryblack5985

Ай бұрын

@@Turf-yj9ei no

Thank you so much for mentioning the American farmers! Both of my grandparents worked so hard duing the war. They worked night and day raising cattle,pigs, chickens,Turkey's along with wheat and corn. Times were hard for them at that time.

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

That's amazing to hear about your grandparents hard work! Thanks for sharing their story!

I have no idea whether the Hiroshima bombing was justified, namely because it's just not well known whether it actually caused Japan to surrender. But the more I learn about the preparations Japan was making for an invasion, the more convinced I am that said invasion would have killed more Japanese civilians.

@Cailus3542

Ай бұрын

Even if Downfall didn't happen, the Japanese faced famine and endless bombing by the Allies. It's often missed that the American firebombing of Tokyo was comparable in horror and devastation to the atomic bombings. Worse, the US was still sending more bombers, while even the British were preparing their own bombers to hit Japan. Even without the atomic bombings, Downfall and the Soviets, Japan was still facing an unimaginable nightmare.

@allangibson8494

Ай бұрын

An atomic bomb produced the same damage and casualties as a raid by 227 B-29’s loaded with incendiaries. The U.S. had over 900 B-29’s on Tinian alone (but were running short on incendiaries in August 1945). Nuclear weapons were a labour saving device.

@dkerr6449

14 күн бұрын

Hirohito himself mentioned the atomic bombing in the radio address to the Japanese people when explaining the rationale for the surrender.

@jackspade5316

13 күн бұрын

Even if it didn't convince leadership to surrender, it gave them an excuse to do so.

The invasion of mainland Japan, I'd have to think, would have been absolutely horrifying, in my opinion.

@allangibson8494

Ай бұрын

And simply a continued blockade of food supplies from Korea even worse.

I just realized I'll be watching Indy for the next 23 years if they decide to do Vietnam War too after the Korean War.

@Raskolnikov70

Ай бұрын

Their week-by-week coverage of the First Gulf War should be pretty easy to get through, but GWOT is going to be a slog.

Imagine being the guys who had to recruit these German aviation experts. Most of them probably didn't even get to the sales pitch when the experts in question already accepted.

Tell Seth that his grandfather, Roy, is one of the biggest heroes of WWII. Those who labored without thanks and with few resources to feed, equip and supply the front line forces made every victory possible. Without people like Grandpa Roy, the United States Armed Forces would have been hungry, naked and shore bound on American soil.

Once the war ends, I hope you have some additional specials about the Japanese soldiers who never heard the war ended and continued to fight the fight on isolated islands for many more years.

growing up in the 50's one of my friends mom was there for the first blast. in a side note an older man who used to take my dad and i fishing was at the Hindenburg disaster and was holding one of the lines as it burst in to flames.

A great episode my grandfather and father were in Los Alamos the summer of 1945 working on the Manhattan project. My grandfather was an accountant and Dad was a draftsman on the project. Dad talked about big surveys he did in the New Mexico desert.

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

That's fascinating, thanks for sharing!

Weird watching these without Indy saying "German, Germans' or 'Germany"

US casualty estimates were made without knowledge of Japan's 9,000 planes or even their jets. The Navy was in for an aweful surprise.

@allangibson8494

Ай бұрын

And the Japanese were unaware of the twelve atomic bombs to be dropped on the landing beaches just prior to the landings occurring (or the five (two used) to be dropped before hand). The atomic bombs replaced the original proposal of chemical weapons to drench the beaches in March 1945. (Which left the U.S. with 146,000 tons of chemical weapons to get rid of after the war (plus the nastier German products) - most of which was dumped at sea).

@Raskolnikov70

Ай бұрын

@@allangibson8494 IMO they wouldn't have resorted to chemical weapons even if Fat Man and Little Boy turned out to be duds. Conventional weapons and starvation would have weakened the home islands to the point where they'd be begging for peace within a year of the initial Allied invasion. Using them would have opened a huge can of worms for the US and later NATO, setting the standard that it was okay to use them sometimes and against some enemies, making their use more likely in the future. The fact that they weren't used during WWII meant that all nations were willing to back down from their production and use and eventual destruction.

@allangibson8494

Ай бұрын

@@Raskolnikov70 The chemical weapons were to clear the landing beaches. Nuclear strikes were substituted as being more “humane” (147,000 tons of nerve gas etc would cause far longer term injuries). The Japanese WW2 use of biological weapons in China are still causing issues by comparison. The Japanese military estimated 20 million civilian deaths due to starvation as “acceptable losses”. The American plan was for five nuclear strikes on Japanese cities (Nagasaki was actually at the bottom of that list and was only hit because the bomber was just about out of fuel (it ran out of fuel on the runway at Saipan)) before the dozen on the landing beaches. The smaller Japanese cities would also be continuously be attacked with napalm. The 1950’s film of troops charging towards mushroom clouds was the actual November 1945 attack plan being implemented.

@brianlong2334

24 күн бұрын

​​​@@allangibson8494The USA didn't have 12 atomic bombs in 1945 or 1946 only in 1947 would that have been feasible.... The USA produced a small number of nuclear weapons it took about 5 years for them to produced substantial amounts and they had to build new facilities to streamline production. Edit: in 1945 the USA had 3 bombs one of them was the test bomb the 4th was unstable and killed half the people who worked on it and moved it, it was put in a hole in the ground for a long time before getting destroyed from memory, in 1946 the USA produced about 7 bombs....

@allangibson8494

24 күн бұрын

@@brianlong2334 The November 1945 inventory showed nine weapons in stock. Three were detonated in 1945. The November 1946 inventory shows thirteen in stock, two more were used in testing in the Crossroads test series (three were scheduled). Plutonium production capacity permitted one to two weapons per month to be built.

Been following week by week for a decade - that’s 520 regular episodes + the specials, now we’ve only got 4 weeks to go

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

Hopefully see you for Indy's Korean War coverage too! Thanks for being with us all this time.

my aunt was japanese. she was 11-12 years old when this happened. she said they gave her a pistol and a bag of hand grenades and put her on a beach near her villiage. they told her to hold back the americans as long as she could.

@spacemanx9595

Ай бұрын

Get that 3% flag off your profile pic, fascist.

@leeboy26

Ай бұрын

She would probably only be able to hold them back 3-4 hours at most.

@warhorse03826

Ай бұрын

@@leeboy26 minutes. they would have seen a little girl with a pistol, and shot her at ranges her pistol couldn't reach.

@leeboy26

Ай бұрын

@@warhorse03826 Yeah I wasn't being serious.

@The-yp7lr

28 күн бұрын

My wife is Japanese and from Miyazaki in Kyushu; we've been married 40 years now. I lived in Japan for a dozen years, and my Japanese is...passable. Anyhow one time we were spending New Years week in her hometown and all the family got together. Her old aunts started talking about training with bamboo spears, and digging entrenchments for the expected invasion. Yes, we were all drinking, and in Japan drunks are allowed to speak the truth. I said, of course, "that's crazy! Weren't you scared?" They all said yes, only a little. All their husbands and brothers were fighting. They wanted to help Japan...they were Japanese, and fighting for Japan wasn't something you thought about or questioned. I honestly believe that every one of them would have died with a bamboo spear in their hands, running towards some American soldier. It still horrifies me to think about it.

Point out , Harry Truman had a number of advisory panels - Interim Committee - Joint Chiefs of Staff - The Scientific Panel of the Interim Committee - Target Committee So a huge amount of debate and consideration was put into how to end the Asian Pacific war . . .

This week in French news. The 9th, French Governement pronounces itself for a referendum on new institution and reject the IIIrd Republic. From the 10th to the 4th of July, organized by the CNR and resistance cells, are hold General Stats of the French Rebirth with 1 800 delegates. Most of resolutions are on par with what was proposed by the Communist.

I just rewatched Dr Strangelove, and you know what? Indy kinda looks like early-mid 1960s George C Scott!

@thomasdevine867

Ай бұрын

Only sane and dignified. At least compared to G.C.S.'s character in that film.

@indianajones4321

Ай бұрын

@@thomasdevine867 lol

@jimjam51075

Ай бұрын

Somehow, the fact Indy sounds exactly like Larry Fine of the Three Stooges endears him to me even more.

solid thanks indy and crew

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

First off, salute to Seth's grandpa! Japan: *insane maniacal laughter* USA: *keeps cracking knuckles*

Hi Indy Another interesting week. That's so much work done by us in okinawa. Clearly astonished by the scale. These data's always make me love for history. Thanks for the episode.

That picture of the farmer at the end reminds so much of my great grandpa whose farm wasn’t to far away from Detroit Lakes, even down to the horned rimmed glasses and cap.

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

Your great grandpa sounds like an interesting person. Thanks for sharing!

Great memorial to one of the many unsung heroes whose contributions were essential. Thanks.

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching.

Thank you Indy and team for another important episode 🙏

Actually got to see White Sands and Alamogordo area while stationed at Fort Bliss, TX.

I appreciated the story of the sponsored tribute at the end.

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

Thank you to Seth Hanson for sharing it with us!

My grandfather worked for International Harvester here in Australia, he was in protected industry and therefore couldn't enlist.

I like what you do. Great format and valid information presented in a clear and concise manner.

@WorldWarTwo

28 күн бұрын

Thanks for watching! -TimeGhost Ambassador

Great episode Indy and crew!

Funny how Hirohito and his stooges aren't holding bamboo spears themselves.

@The_Fat_Controller.

Ай бұрын

I'm reminded of a verse from a 1982 Asia song called Wildest Dreams. They decorated all the generals Who fought the war behind the lines. They had forgotten all the soldiers The brandy puts them way behind the times. I guess in the Japanese case, it would have been Sake instead of brandy...

@ChaptermasterPedroKantor-kv5yw

Ай бұрын

@@The_Fat_Controller. In all fairness, generals have no place fighting at the frontline, they're paid to interpret all the incoming battle reports and spot the right trends and points of decision so the troops can do the right thing. Upon their words armies of thousands march, DELETE or succeed. The idea that generals should be at the front is pacifist idealism. Now almost anyone can be a grunt at the frontline, but like fighter pilots not everyone can be a general. Just like how most of us are not cut out to be the CEO of the company we work for. But every general does start at the front, usually as a lowly lieutenant, and then working their way up the ranks. And most of the generals of WW2 were lowly officers in WW1 in the trenches.

@danielortman2527

Ай бұрын

Homie didn't need a spear, he (officially) has a magic sword.

WEEK 307. Wow. That’s a long war.

Old McDonald had a farm .... emphasis on "HAD"

The "neutral" Soviet Union had already agreed with the western Allies that they would attack Japanese-held China within three months of the surrender of Germany. There was therefore no chance of the Soviets acting in good faith as intermediaries between Japan and America. Stalin wanted large tracts of China to become part of the Russian far east. In addition, the fractured, factional, and ultimately military-controlled government in Japan would not and probably could not agree within itself to make peace overtures via the Soviets. Such peace overtures were doomed anyway even if not thwarted by Stalin. The Allies had made it clear that only unconditional surrender was acceptable and Japanese "diplomacy" had zero traction with the US given the diplomatic charade Japan had played until after the attack on Pearl Harbor had actually started.

Doctor Akagi (Kanzo Sensei) is a good movie for those who want to see the atmosphere in Japan in the last days of the war, between the suicidal fanaticism of the military, and those civilians trying to get on with their lives in spite of the collective madness. The titular character, a local doctor in a seaside town near Hiroshima, assembles a team of misfits to stop an outbreak of hepatitis when all the authorities want is for everyone to die gloriously.

“We have a plan to save the nation!” “Wonderful! What is it?” “The glorious death of one hundred million!” “So… to save the nation you will sacrifice nearly all the people in the nation?” “Exactly!”

Whoaw I was unaware that Japan had created its own version of "Volkssturm". And from the description it was even more desperate than its German counterpart.

Why does the title sound like your average Chinese war

I admire your dedication to making such detailed and interesting videos.

Blessed are the Farmers

"...and to what end." Indeed. Indy, thank you for another great episode!

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

thanks for watching!

The war situation is not necessarily developing to Japan’s advantage.

Thank you.

Thanks TG

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

Great episode!

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

It's pretty crazy that they never tested little boy.

@geofftottenperthcoys9944

Ай бұрын

Glad they did not.

@martinricardo4503

Ай бұрын

They had no reason to believe it would not work.

@The_Fat_Controller.

Ай бұрын

It was assumed by the designers and physicists that Little Boy was so simple a device, it was pretty much guaranteed to work. The Fat Man design was much more complex, and therefore had more uncertainty about whether or not it would work as designed.

@davidbuckley2435

Ай бұрын

They didn't need to. The design of the Little Boy was a "gun-type" design, shooting U-235 into U-238. It's such a straightforward design that they were confident it would work. The plutonium implosion bomb (Fat Man) did need testing though. Because plutonium is highly unstable, you can't actually have a critical mass of plutonium without it "self-detonating". In order to build a plutonium bomb, you need to take a sub-critical mass and make it a critical mass by compressing it. In order to compress it properly, you need to use explosive "lenses" in order to compress the plutonium simultaneously from all directions. This was the unproven part that needed testing.

@fredyellowsnow7492

Ай бұрын

According to Richard Rhodes, there was only enough uranium to make one bomb of that type, but it was such a simple device it was probably going to work anyway.

My Grandfather was a grain farmer in Manitoba. Left Poland after ww1. Ben Fuhl.

Unlike WW 2 itself will be sorry to see the end of this series.

Imagine a country willing to sacrifice their entire population on a fruitless action.

@ahorsewithnoname773

Ай бұрын

Sadly at this stage no one needs to imagine. Hitler & his inner circle attempted to do the same with Germany.

@answerman9933

Ай бұрын

“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it,”

@l33tnobody1337

Ай бұрын

just shows you how necessary the nuclear strikes were to shake them out of it. And even then there were still morons who opposed surrender and staged a coup

@jameskuyper

Ай бұрын

The defenders of Masada felt that dying at their own hands was preferable to being carried off as slaves to the financial benefit of their captors. Two millennia later they are still remembered for that choice, which has inspired anti-slavery and religious freedom sentiments ever since. The Japanese appear to have a conception of the inherent value of their culture, such that losing it would have been as bad as the slavery that the Jews were escaping at Masada. After ample disgusting examples of what the Japanese Spirit meant for the conquered people, I cannot see it that way, but I can still vaguely appreciate why they might feel that way.

@spacemanx9595

Ай бұрын

​@@jameskuyperlol ok

At the same time Japanese hq in Manchuria is a little worried about Soviet recon planes flying around and Japanese ones being either turned around or never heard from again.

So would it be a war crime if every inhabitants were a fighter themselves?

Some extra news from Australia - Following the death of John Curtin on 5 July, Frank Forde was appointed caretaker. He was succeeded in this role by Ben Chifley following a leadership ballot on the 13th.

Thank you for presenting with the metric system. I'm American and I am over the "old world" system.

Great show

Wow, my mouth is watering. I'm so anxious to see whether or not the first ever nuclear test goes as planned. So many moving parts and things that were never tested before. Sadly, I'll have to wait a whole week to know. What a cliff-hanger.

@10:08 a clear description of the circumstances that caused the Japanese Peace Party to describe the drops of the Atomic bombs as "A Gift from Heaven." at the time.

250 kilometers = 155 miles, which sounds like enough space for vintage atomic warfare.

The OBE is often awarded to Commanding Officers, 'on behalf of' their Troops. As such, OBE is often referred to as stading for "Other Bugger's Efforts".

My dad worked at Chalk River for most of his career! Love to see it mentioned in such an excellent series

13:20 I remember in a time-life book, "Fall of Japan", it was mentioned that teenage girls were being taught on how to fight with spears. In practice drills they can take down boys with kendo sticks by sweeping their legs (spear might be a Naginata?).

Thanks!

My grandfather was in New Guinea for a very long time also Phillipines and Luzon 32nd div red arrow 126th infantry 2nd battalion company F two purple hearts bronze star 48 months in WW2 a man amongst men the greatest generation they just don't make em like that anymore miss and love you grandpa RIP

"Don't worry guys, couple of weeks ago my guy Adolf said Steiner counter attack is coming, they must be halfway through Siberia now"

"Trinity" on Tuesday. "The Gadget" gets tested.

Two other primary documents I highly recommend people read 1 . Recommendations from The Scientific Panel of the Interim Committee - dated June 16th , 1945 " (2) The opinions of scientific colleagues on the initial use of these weapons are not unanimous ... We find ourselves closer to these latter views; we can propose no technical demonstration likely to bring an end to the war; we see no acceptable alternative to direct military use. " A.H. Compton E.O. Lawrence J.R. Oppenheimer E. Fermi 2 . Harry Truman's diary when he was at the Potsdam Conference . .

I like hearing all the family stories from the people who sponsored episodes. It sounds like Roy Hanson, the grandfather of the guy who sponsored this, was a really great person. Some of these stories remind me of my grandpa, and bring a tear to my eye. I know that I’m not the only one watching this who appreciates these things.

I would like to thank American farmers for their hard work every day. Without them, we don't eat very well. Great episode.

@WorldWarTwo

Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

Hi Indy sorry to correct you (I love the show!) but the medal being worn by Zhukov In that photo is the Grand Cross to the Order of the Bath. Rolassevsky is seen wearing the badge of a Companion of the Order of the Bath while the other generals are indeed wearing the rank of Commander within the Order of the British Empire

100 million dead! Then what? Japanese is only spoken in Hell. The Japanese were like Star Trek TOS Klingons. The Oreganians force the Klingons, and The Federation to make peace. Kor the Klingon leader imagines the battle they would have had. "It would have been glorious."

One month and 2 days left.

Can there be a "special" about the organisation of the Japanese air arm?Didnt they have an Army AF,Navy AF,and an Air Force?The chotai and shotai etc.Great as always.

"We need a futile gesture at this stage. It will raise the whole tone of the war."

Regarding the testing of atomic bombs, the Hiroshima bombing was also a test of the gun-type device, since the designers were confident that it would work.