Nagasaki Remembered

9th August 1945 - the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing more than 70,000 people
1st February 1955 - I am a 17 year old lad sailing into Nagasaki Harbour on a British tramp ship serving as an apprentice deck officer. I have already visited Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Tokyo in the previous year, 1954, on my first deep-sea voyage. I was deeply aware of the terrible event that had taken place just over 9 years earlier but to me it looked little different to those other places in Tokyo Bay. The Bay area had been massively firebombed. Widespread reconstruction, bomb sites, horrible roads, paper shacks, the smell of human excreta overridden by the familiar aroma of hair oil everywhere, loads of neons lights at night, the glare of furnaces, and brief sights of old Japan. It was hard to find any sign of death and injury in the populace.
Now the Second Mate’s name was Dai Jones,I have never forgotten that, he came from Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, in Anglesey. He was in his twenties and had just missed the war. He was one of my mentors on board. I asked him why? why did they use the bomb? He looked at me as if I was daft and said “ Ginger, boyo, if the hadn’t then millions would have died! Take a look at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and you’ll understand why! Carnage!”
I did look at those massive battles. On Iwo Jima of 20,530/21,060 Japanese defenders entrenched on the island, from 17,845 /18,375 died either from fighting or by ritual suicide. Only 216 were captured during the course of battle. The 36-day assault resulted in more than 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead,
Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaign (April 1—June 22, 1945) involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese.  At stake were air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan. By the end of the 82-day campaign, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties—including 14,000 dead.
Conservative estimates have said that had the war continued then THREE MILLION LIVES would have been sacrificed. Japan was bound to lose.
Truman had no option, none at all.
Tuesday, 24th March 1981.  I am Harbour Master at Castletown Berehaven in West Cork. Tina sets a Brownie Pack with the help of Dr Aidan MacArthy’s daughter. This wonderful man survived Nagasaki and in fact if the bomb had not been dropped would have been executed.
castle.jpg
Aidan MacCarthy wrote a book that we have and the final sentence reads as follows :
“But the greatest gift I have had is the appreciation of life around me. To be able to love my wife and children, to breathe the air, to see a tree in the golden stillness of a Cork evening, to take a glass of Irish whiskey, to see my children grow up, to fish in the grey-green waters of my favourite river - and to see the dawn come up again on a new day,”

President Truman’s heart rending decision in choosing the lesser of all evils gave millions more the opportunity to live like Aidan MacCarthy.

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