Thursday, August 6, 2009

Hiroshima History

It is a little known fact that American POWs were in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. While the numbers vary, 12 seems to be the count that most agree with. They were from the air crews of the bombers "Lonesome Lady" and "Taloa", two planes that were on a bombing mission to Kure on July 28. The pilot of the "Lonesome Lady", T.C. Cartwright, was sent to Tokyo for interrogation on August 1, leaving his crew behind. He didn't tell his story until the 70's. A short version can be found here. There is also a book written by a Japanese historian that confirms the story. A link to a book review is here.

1 comment:

tom said...

Few know that one of the D-Day Invasion Beaches was CANADIAN,

that the Soviets Invaded Poland too,

and that a hell of a lot of Invaded people collaborated with the Nazis, where, very few Nipponese conquered people did so by comparison, excluding some Korean/Manchurian/whatever you want to call them who almost nobody ever knows about and they were some of the most brutal of the brutal when it came to Japanese Death Camp, Death March, Prison Camp guards, and did a fair job of being pretty atrocious in battlefield behavior too. Sort of like the Lithuanian, Romanian, and Croatian SS divisions tat nobody seems to remember.

You expect people to remember a few POWs killed at Hiroshima or even heard about it. I'd known that since I was a child and 40-ish now, but I'm keen on military history not pop music, was the same in school.

Most of the world are intentionally uninformed numpties and morons, but you knew that already :-)

Regards for reminding those that may not know or remember the US POWs.