Yeah, there's a song for that...

SO today, August 9th, the Japanese commemorate the bombing of Nagasaki, the bombing that finally convinced them to end the war they'd started. Of course they still see themselves as the victims.


Every time think of it, I recall a song from a particular musical that seems to fit.

Everybody sing:

They had it coming!
They had it coming!
They only had themselves to blame!
If you'da been there,
If you'da seen it...
I betcha you would have done the same!

B-29 Superfortress

A centerpiece of Thunder Over Michigan was Fifi, the last surviving flying B-29 Superfortress. She was there and stone cold beautiful. We got up close and personal, too.

The question was posed earlier as to whether or not we saw Fifi the B-29 fly. Yes, yes we did.

There's even video.





Yep. Pretty fantastic to see.

Now I know that today is the 67th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan by the B-29 Bock's Car. I know that the usual protesters have been making the rounds, including the handful of Japanese former residents of that city who have once again come to Washington, DC to assume the role of "victim" and pretend yet again that they had done nothing to deserve such a whacking. Some of them and their supporters may find this posting today offensive should they see it.

Well frankly, if they don't like these pictures and videos, they probably won't care for my official statement on the day, either:

People of Japan.

It's been sixty-seven years since you made us flatten Nagasaki. Most people on the planet today weren't even alive back then. Since that day, we've made up and become good friends and trading partners, and America has protected your country from foreign aggression.

Now I like to think that you've learned your lesson and we can all let bygones be bygones. But just in case you get any ideas, please take note of the fact that we've kept a B-29 on stand-by, ready to go back over there again if we have to. So please, don't make us have to do that again and let's just focus on a mutually beneficial future together.

Signed: An American.

Anyway, I thought that this statement might be a little better and more tasteful commemoration of the bombing of Nagasaki than my first idea, a catchy little musical number which admittedly might have struck some as being crass and insensitive.

Anyway... Here's to our World War Two vets, and to Fifi.

More B-29s here.

70 years ago today....

16 B-25 bombers of the Doolittle raid launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet to give the Japanese something to think about.

I found this footage of the raiders taking off on what turned out to be a one-way flight for all sixteen aircraft, a consequence of having to launch early after the task force encountered (and sank) a Japanese picket.

Look at those aircraft barely getting off the deck with full power and full flaps, the ultimate "short field" take-off. B-25's weren't designed to operate off aircraft carriers. But that was ok, because aircraft carriers weren't designed to launch B-25 bombers, either. Thank God that we had visionaries, and brave men willing to try.

It took real men to make those flights. Fortunately America had no shortage of real men back then.

At the time though, it was a great morale booster for every American, and it caused the Japanese to recall some of their fleet to protect the home islands from another strike. This was the first time that the Japanese islands were bombed, and while it didn't cause much damage, it was far from the last time, and subsequent strikes hurt a lot more.

Thanks to drjim at Every Blade of Grass for reminding me, something that our media neglected to do.

Japan is a WHAT?!

As I perused a news article on Fox's website recently, I about came out of my chair when I read an article about the atomic bombings of Japan in 1945 and saw this quote:

"The U.S. justifies the bombings saying they saved many American lives," said Nobuo Miyake, 78, ... "It's outrageous for a Japanese politician to voice such thinking. Japan is a victim."

Japan is a VICTIM?

Excuse me, but this is the nation who, in addition to murdering over 2,600 American servicemen in a cowardly sneak attack on December 7th, 1941, gave us the Rape of Nanking and the Bataan Death March, and brought brutality in the form of deliberate sadistic torture and death to every people that it's armies overran until the United States came back in Round Two and kicked their little yellow asses clean back to Honshu. And even then, when they were clearly beaten and their civilian population was starving, they rejected every offer of surrender that we gave them. It finally came down to either invading their home islands and suffering an estimated one million US casualties (and the Japanese death toll would have been off the charts) or demonstrating once and for all the futility of their continued belligerence. So we bombed them once and asked them nicely to surrender, but they refused and we had to bomb them again. It was their choice 100% to catch a second bomb and if the Japanese were a victim of any kind, it was a victim of their own stubborn arrogance.

My only regret is that we somehow missed Nobuo Miyake with those A-bombs.