SHANGRALA'S

TINIAN ISLAND!

      Tinian Island, is a small island in the Pacific Ocean. It's less than 40 square miles, a flat green dot in the vastness of Pacific blue.
      Flying over it, you'll notice a slash across its north end of uninhabited bush. A long thin line that looks like an overgrown dirt runway. If you didn't know what it was, you wouldn't give it a second glance.
Shangrala's Tinian Island

      On the ground, you see the runway isn't dirt but tarmac and crushed limestone, abandoned with weeds sticking out of it. Yet this is arguably the most historical airstrip on earth. This is where World War II was won. This is Runway Able:
Shangrala's Tinian Island
      On July 24, 1944, 30,000 US Marines landed on the beaches of Tinian .... Eight days later, over 8,000 of the 8,800 Japanese soldiers on the island were dead (vs. 328 Marines), and four months later the Seabees had built the busiest airfield of WWII - dubbed North Field - enabling B-29 Superfortresses to launch air attacks on the Philippines, Okinawa, and mainland Japan.
      Late in the afternoon of August 5, 1945, a B-29 was maneuvered over a bomb loading pit, then after lengthy preparations, taxied to the east end of North Field's main runway, Runway Able, and at 2:45am in the early morning darkness of August 6, took off.
      The B-29 was piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets of the US Army Air Force, who had named the plane after his mother, Enola Gay. The crew named the bomb they were carrying Little Boy. 6 hours later at 8:15am, Japan time, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima .
      Three days later, in the pre-dawn hours of August 9, a B-29 named Bockscar (a pun on "boxcar" after its flight commander Capt. Fred Bock), piloted by Major Charles Sweeney took off from Runway Able. Finding its primary target of Kokura obscured by clouds, Sweeney proceeded to the secondary target of Nagasaki, over which, at 11:01am, bombardier Kermit Beahan released the atomic bomb dubbed Fat Man.
      Here is "Atomic Bomb Pit #1" where Little Boy was loaded onto Enola Gay:
Shangrala's Tinian Island
      There are pictures displayed in the pit, now glass-enclosed. This one shows Little Boy being hoisted into Enola Gay's bomb bay.
Shangrala's Tinian Island
      And here on the other side of the ramp is "Atomic Bomb Pit #2" where Fat Man was loaded onto Bockscar.
Shangrala's Tinian Island
Shangrala's Tinian Island
      The commemorative plaque records that 16 hours after the nuking of Nagasaki, "On August 10, 1945 at 0300, the Japanese Emperor, without his cabinet's consent, decided to end the Pacific War."
      Take a good look at these pictures. This is where World War II ended with total victory of America over Japan. I was there all alone. There were no other visitors and no one lives anywhere near for miles. Visiting the Bomb Pits, walking along deserted Runway Able in solitude, was a moment of extraordinarily powerful solemnity.
      It was a moment of deep reflection. Most people, when they think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , reflect on the numbers of lives killed in the nuclear blasts - at least 70,000 and 50,000 respectively. Being here caused me to reflect on the number of lives saved - how many more Japanese and Americans would have died in a continuation of the war had the nukes not been dropped.
      Yet that was not all. It's not just that the nukes obviated the US invasion of Japan , Operation Downfall, that would have caused upwards of a million American and Japanese deaths or more. It's that nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki were of extraordinary humanitarian benefit to the nation and people of Japan .



      Let's go to this cliff on the nearby island of Saipan to learn why:
Shangrala's Tinian Island
      Saipan is less than a mile north of Tinian .... The month before the Marines took Tinian, on June 15, 1944, 71,000 Marines landed on Saipan .... They faced 31,000 Japanese soldiers determined not to surrender.
      Japan had colonized Saipan after World War I and turned the island into a giant sugar cane plantation. By the time of the Marine invasion, in addition to the 31,000 entrenched soldiers, some 25,000 Japanese settlers were living on Saipan, plus thousands more Okinawans, Koreans, and native islanders brutalized as slaves to cut the sugar cane.
      There were also one or two thousand Korean "comfort women" (kanji in Japanese), abducted young women from Japan's colony of Korea to service the Japanese soldiers as sex slaves. (See The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War, by George Hicks.)
      Within a week of their landing, the Marines set up a civilian prisoner encampment that quickly attracted a couple thousand Japanese and others wanting US food and protection. When word of this reached Emperor Hirohito - who contrary to the myth was in full charge of the war- he became alarmed that radio interviews of the well-treated prisoners broadcast to Japan would subvert his people's will to fight.
      As meticulously documented by historian Herbert Bix in "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan ", the Emperor issued an order for all Japanese civilians on Saipan to commit suicide. The order included the promise that, although the civilians were of low caste, their suicide would grant them a status in heaven equal to those honored soldiers who died in combat for their Emperor.
      And that is why the precipice in the picture above is known as Suicide Cliff, off which over 20,000 Japanese civilians jumped to their deaths to comply with their fascist emperor's desire - mothers flinging their babies off the cliff first or in their arms as they jumped.
      Anyone reluctant or refused, such as the Okinawan or Korean slaves, were shoved off at gunpoint by the Jap soldiers. Then the soldiers themselves proceeded to hurl themselves into the ocean to drown off a sea cliff afterwards called Banzai Cliff. Of the 31,000 Japanese soldiers on Saipan , the Marines killed 25,000, 5,000 jumped off Banzai Cliff, and only the remaining thousand were taken prisoner.
      The extent of this demented fanaticism is very hard for any civilized mind to fathom- especially when it is devoted not to anything noble but barbarian evil instead. The vast brutalities inflicted by the Japanese on their conquered and colonized peoples of China, Korea, the Philippines, and throughout their "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" was a hideously depraved horror.
      And they were willing to fight to the death to defend it. So they had to be nuked. The only way to put an end to the Japanese barbarian horror was unimaginably colossal destruction against which they had no defense whatever. Nuking Japan was not a matter of justice, revenge, or it getting what it deserved. It was the only way to end the Japanese dementia.
      And it worked - for the Japanese. They stopped being barbarians and started being civilized. They achieved more prosperity- and peace- than they ever knew, or could have achieved had they continued fighting and not been nuked. The shock of their getting nuked is responsible.
      We achieved this because we were determined to achieve victory. Victory without apologies. Despite perennial liberal demands we do so, America and its government has never apologized for nuking Japan ..Hopefully, America never will.
Shangrala's Tinian Island
      Oh, yes...Guinness lists Saipan as having the best, most equitable, weather in the world. And the beaches? Well, take a look:
Shangrala's Tinian Island
      Although we do not forget, history fades into the shadows of our mind and we seldom think about it. But, we should remember and we should be constantly reminded of our history, where we came from, how we got here and always be thankful to God for our troops and the sacrifice they and their families have given us then and now for our continued freedom.



Today, we are reminded of how things haven't changed all
that much. Our enemies still "Commit Harry Carrey"...


Share This AMAZING HISTORY...
With All Your Patriotic Friends...

They'll Be Glad You Did! :)

        


Share






^BACK To TOP^



For those of you who Want More FUN - Visit The Shangy Fun List! Variety is the
spice of life! The Shangy Fun List is an ezine packed full of Poems, Inspirational and
Heart Warming Stories. Jokes from G to slightly R, and Anything else that just
might make you SMILE! Join In The Free FUN!! ... :)

Yes! Click Here To GO TO THE ARCHIVES!-



share

Like This Page?



If you are looking for more, here are some good places to start:

More Animation!
In Days Past!-
Liberty Air Show!-
WWI Human Art!-
Lest We Forget #2!-
Angel Wing Decoys!-
Ray's Freedom Rock!-
Empire State Building!-
Proud Of Our Troops 5!-
Military WWII Posters!-
Enter At Your Own Risk!
Daily With Our Troops 3!-
Amazing Gibraltar Airport!-
Bible: Our Valuable Anchor!-
Military Motivational Posters!-
Northern Lights Over Teepees!-
USS New York LPD-21 Tribute!-
A-Z Animated Images!-

FUN URLS



BACK To SHANGRALA -To SHANGRALA-


SPECIAL THANKS Goes To LINDA For Sharing This With Us.



Copyright © 1996 Netscape Communications Corporation. Mozilla is
a trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation.
Note: This is an Unofficial God, Jesus Christ, Family, & Cartoon Fan Site.
© All graphics representing Disney characters are copyrighted by Disney.
Likewise all other graphics & music Copyright © by their own Individual Artists.
I do not own any graphics on this site. If you do, please notify me and I'll give
you proper credit, a link, or remove it immediately according to your wishes.
~*~ Copyright © 1997-2011 Elrhea M. Bigham ~*~