The bombings of Hiroshima (68 years ago today) and Nagasaki were
anti-British no less than anti-Japanese acts. They were designed to prevent the
War from instead being ended by the British re-conquest of the Empire in
Asia and the Pacific.
That was the end to which the British Pacific Fleet had
been cheered into Sydney Harbour because it was not the American one
that had been expected to turn up and require that Australia and New
Zealand cut all trading and migration ties to Britain, adopt American spelling, teach American rather than British
history in schools, and abolish the
monarchy.
Those remain key American objectives. All but the last is well on the way to being realised. And it is therefore irrefutable that the last is the one that matters least.
Interesting-is there any documentary evidence that this was the Americans real aim?
ReplyDeleteYes.
ReplyDeleteCare to point out where it might be located? I can't find sources for this on Google.
ReplyDeleteOh, well, they cannot possibly exist, then.
ReplyDeleteThere is a clue in the post.
I wasn't suggesting they don't exist-are you a little grumpy today?
ReplyDeleteI was asking an honest question. Never mind.
I am in a very cheery mood this evening, as it happens.
ReplyDeleteNo, the post refers to a specific historical event. Several, in fact, but one that is pertinent to your question. Go looking.
The closest I could find was this, from the prologue of Ashley Jacksons "The British Empire and the Second World War".
ReplyDelete""Many British territories in the Pacific as well as in SouthEast Asia fell to the Japanese, and though tied down in other theatres, the British had every
intention of returning to reconquer them."
""To this end the British Pacific Fleet was formed in 1944 to operate from Sydney alongside American naval task forces, and plans were made to base British soldiers in Australia and RAF bombers on Okinawa so that Britain could contribute to the invasion of the Japanese home islands."
"As it happened, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki curtailed the realization of this major British commitment, but still it was British forces that took the surrender in Hong Kong and Singapore, Australians who rounded up the Japanese in Borneo and Sarawak, and Anglo-Indian divisions that arrived to supervise the Japanese surrendering in the Dutch East Indies and French Indo-China."
This still doesn't demonstrate that curtailment of British recapture of the Far East was the secret intention behind America's bombings.
I'd be interested if anyone has any such evidence e.g declassified U.S correspondence at the time etc
Jolly good. You are coming on.
ReplyDelete