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Hiroshima Nagasaki The Naval Historical Society of Australia Inc. HIROSHIMA AND 1 NAGASAKI 9 3 7 to EVENTS LEADING TO 1 THE BOMBS 9 4 5 WAS THEIR USE JUSTIFIED? NagasakiNagasaki J R W Richmond MONOGRAPH 167 Hiroshima and Nagasaki J R W Richmond Monograph No. 167 HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI 1937 TO 1945 EVENTS LEADING TO THE BOMBS WAS THEIR USE JUSTIFIED? An extended transcript of a lecture to The Naval Historical Society of Australia Inc by Lieutenant J R W Richmond RN Rtd - May 1996. The author served aboard HMS SWIFTSURE, a unit of the British Pacific Fleet, during "Operation Iceberg" and in the preparations for a significant involvement in "Operation Olympic". THE JAPANESE GREAT EASTERN-ASIAN WAR 1995 saw the celebration of ‘Australia Remembers’. We heard of many deeds of great heroism and bravery during the World War II years, wonderful stories, but the cynic in many of us must ask ‘what has Australia, and indeed, the world, forgotten’ and how much of what we accept today as being ‘true’ history is the result of distortion, diminishment and re-written accounts, particularly by political apologists and groups with economic and other special interests including many latter-day historians with an axe to grind? It is an emotive issue, this Battle in the Pacific. Most people take it for granted that it started in 1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. It seems to have been forgotten that Japan started its Great Eastern- Asian War in 1931, when they annexed Korea and Manchuria, set up puppet governments and moved on into the northern states of China. There were many long, bloody battles. It was about that time that the Washington Naval Treaties were being negotiated and many in naval circles have looked upon the results of those treaties with dismay. Nicely organised by politicians, who carved up the proportional size of major naval forces between America, Britain, Japan, Italy and France in the ratio of 5:5 each to USA and Britain, 3 to Japan, 2 to Italy and 2 to France, with special constraints on tonnage and armament of battleships and cruisers. Britain, as will probably be recalled, had far too many old battleships and warships from World War I and thus had little leeway in producing new vessels; although the Pacific powers, USA and Japan, took the opportunity of developing and building powerful new warships within this 5:5:3:2:2 relationship. However, that era produced the seeds of doubt in London about Japan’s intentions and, as I understand from very good sources, the British Admiralty anticipated a confrontation with Japan coming to a head somewhere about 1945. Of course, in the early 1930’s Germany wasn’t considered a threat. Japan was the only problematic issue, and that presumably in 10 to 15 years hence. Nevertheless it did give the Royal Navy an opportunity to think, conceive and design. Out of those deliberations came the Town Class, and later the Colony, 6 inch gun cruisers, the Tribal Class destroyers, the concept of the King George V battleships and aircraft carriers with armoured flight decks. With the Pacific in mind, Britain wanted more 8 inch gun cruisers but couldn’t fiddle the tonnage figures to do anything about it. So it was proposed to modify, in what I suppose might now be called a ‘mid-life update’, the 8 inch County Class cruisers. HMS LONDON was taken out of service in the late thirties to be reconstructed as a prototype for the other 12 Countries. What a difference there was to be in profile and style! REFER DIAGRAM 1 Tragically, the events of Europe overshadowed this construction program. LONDON was not given the intended new engines and boilers to improve her range with existing fuel storage and consequent weight saving, but she was given an updated fire control system, much better bridge superstructure, more modern communications and better aircraft handling facilities. I had the privilege of being a member of her recommissioning crew in 1941. Monograph 167 - Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1 DIAGRAM 1 LONDON (Portsmouth Dockyard, September 14 1927) Displacement: over 10,000 tons. Complement: 650. Length: pp 595 feet; oa 633 feet. Beam: 66 feet, Draught: 17 feet (mean). Guns Guns: ArmourArmour: 8-8"; 50 cal.8-8 inch, 50 cal. 4"4” Deck Deck. 8-4" AA 8-4 inch AA. 2"-1.5"2”-1½” Gun houses.houses Many smallerMany smaller. 3"3” C C TT. TorpedoTorpedo Tubes Tubes: 8-21" (quadrupled)8-21 inch (quadrupled) As Built After Reconstruction Machinery: Parsons geared turbines. 4 shafts. Designed SHP 80,000 = 32.25 kts. Oil fuel: 3200 tons. Boilers: 9 Admiralty 3-drum type. General Notes: LONDON was designed by Sir William J Berry, and ordered under 1925 estimates. Laid down February 22 1926, and completed February 5 1929. Was originally of the same appearance as DECONSHIRE and SUSSEX, but as reconstruction bears no resemblance. She could easily be mistaken for a ship of FIJI type at a distance, but may be distinguished by tall SL platform before mainmast. In 1937, whilst European rearmament was being discussed and plans were being put into practice, with German aggression dominating political thinking, as a result of the Marco Polo Bridge incident on July 7 the Sino-Japanese War commenced and Japan pushed on against China. There were in Peking, massacres, particularly of civilians and, in Shanghai and Nanking. It seems to have been forgotten that 200,000 Chinese people were butchered in ‘The Rape of Nanking’. We’re used to ‘big figures’ being bandied about today, but because of the event in Europe at that time nobody said ‘boo’ - not the League of Nations, not America nor Britain. It’s sad reflection of the memory and research of our latter-day historians that this was the case, and has apparently been forgotten. In October 1938 a Japanese expeditionary force landed at Bias Bay, only a few miles north-east of Hong Kong, and occupied the country lying between Hong Kong and Canton, completely cutting off Hong Kong from the rest of mainland China. Many in Hong Kong then considered the Colony as indefensible, nevertheless a strong British military presence was maintained. REFER MAP 2 - JAPANESE EXPANSION By 1941 Japan controlled Manchuria, North China, and had advanced deep into the Yangtze Valley and occupied strategic coastal provinces. They occupied both sides of the Pearl River delta and Hainan Island off the south coast of China. Hong Kong was surrounded by a hostile army on the Sham Chan River and blockaded by the Japanese 2 Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Monograph 167 Map 2 Navy in the South China Sea. JAPAN MOVES AGAINST THE ALLIES - 1941 The threat of invasion was constant and eventually took place on December 8 1941, simultaneously with the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour and landings on the east coast of Malaya. These were the catalysts for the formation of the alliance between the British Empire, USA and China. British and Indian troops bravely resisted the Japanese onslaught on Kowloon for a few days before retiring to Hong Kong Island. On December 18, the Japanese landed on the island and after staunch resistance the British Forces capitulated on Christmas Day. It is seldom acknowledged that in December 1941, the Japanese extended international involvement started with the invasion of Hong Kong and their landings in Malaya, not the attack on Pearl Harbour, but historians writing up the story of that period of time ignore the fact that Hong Kong and Malaya are on one side of the International Date Line and Pearl Harbour on the other, so the offensive didn’t start in Pearl Harbour 8 hours earlier, but in Hong Kong and Malaya 16 hours before Pearl Harbour. Taking advantage of the European struggle Japan swamped the Pacific Islands and prepared to move further into Malaysia and South East Asia. The rate of advance of Japanese forces into the Pacific area and down to Singapore on the mainland is sufficiently well known and documented to preclude the need of detailing it here. Suffice to say, by 1942 they completely dominated the area. As John Winton has said in his book ‘The Forgotten Fleet’... ‘In six months the Japanese seized an empire of 90 million people, which stretched from Rabaul to Rangoon and contained 88% of the world’s rubber, 54% of its tin, 30% of its rice, 20% of its tungsten and the rich oilfields of the East Indies, at the cost of some 15,000 men, about 400 aircraft and a couple of dozen warships, none of them larger than a destroyer’. It must be remembered that Russia was not at war with Japan at this time, and cool, but reasonable, relations existed between those two nations. Monograph 167 - Hiroshima and Nagasaki 3 THE ALLIES STRIKE BACK By early 1942 America had recovered sufficiently from the shock of Pearl Harbour and the assault into their ‘backyard’, to implement plans to counterattack and recover lost territory. Naval forces were augmented, military strategy formulated and equipment developed. In April 1942 General Douglas MacArthur was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, South West Pacific, Admiral Chester W Nimitz USN, C-in-C Pacific Ocean Area, whilst Britain retained responsibility for the Indian Ocean (Admiral Sir James Somerville RN) Malaya and Sumatra (General Sir Archibald Wavell). Later, in August 1943, Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten RN was appointed Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia. REFER MAP 3 - ALLIED COUNTER ATTACK Arguably the turning point in Japan's assault in the Pacific came with the Battle of the Coral Sea at the beginning of May 1942, and the action off Midway Island a month later.
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