Two Americas
05-10-2011, 06:32 PM
I stumbled onto the book First Into Nagasaki (Anthony Weller, Crown Publishers, 2006) and being on the road with nothing else to read I picked it up and read through it the other night. Glad I did.
The book is a compilation of previously lost cables and articles by war correspondent George Weller put together and published by his son Anthony after his father's death in 2006. The material had been intercepted, confiscated and presumably destroyed by the US military in General MacArthur's HQ. However, Weller had made carbon copies and mailed them out of Japan to a trusted colleague. Those carbon copies were then mislaid and presumed lost until his son discovered them.
Four weeks after the detonation over Nagasaki, Weller defied US military orders and made his way there and the cables and articles describe his interviews and observations from the scene. He discovered several POW camps full of US prisoners and interviewed them, so two stories evolved - first hand reports of the detonation, as well as descriptions of the prison camp conditions, and especially the story of the "hell ships," the conditions on the cargo ships that transported the prisoners to Japan in the closing months of the war.
Here are a few of the things I found interesting:
* The US POWs did not know the war was over until Weller told them, even though it had been weeks, and there had been no US troops in the area and the Japanese authorities were still in control over all of the southern half of the country. The men said that the guards had started treating them better, but that they had not trusted that. Food was being dropped by the US Air Force - landing in many cases on a number of prisoners and killing them, which is part of a story ruthlessly suppressed by the US government: the number of US POWs killed by friendly fire and other actions by the US military, not to mention the systematic neglect and abandonment of them. Weller told the POWs that about 100 miles way C-47 cargo ships were landing 24 hours day with supplies for military headquarters, and flying back to Guam light. The US Air Force had commandeered and repaired the infamous "South Wind" Kamikaze base in Kanoya, the southern most tip of Kyusha in order to refuel transport planes which otherwise could not make the flight in one jump to Tokyo. He said he had no authority to tell them what to do (he was masquerading as a US colonel on a secret mission in order to mollify and evade Japanese military and police officers) but that were he in their position, he would make his way to that airbase and ride a transport plane to Guam. Most of the POWs did just that. The POWs were subsequently scattered, never officially interviewed, and other than Weller's account their stories never got to the public.
* US POWs, including a couple of hundred in a camp just 200 meters from the epicenter of the blast were largely unscathed by the bomb. How can that be? This contradicts the official US government narrative about the event. Those who survived were those who had leaped into a trench when the B-29 came overhead. Those who did not were killed, or at least injured. Japanese civilians and officials did not take cover, however many survived unscathed if they happened to be below ground, or even merely behind a brick or stone wall and therefore shielded from the concussion and the gamma rays emitted by the blast.
* Most of the victims in Nagasaki were burned to death, however that was not caused directly by the blast, which again contradicts the official narrative. Nagasaki suffered a firestorm. The concussion from the blast blew the roofs in on thousands of structures. Since it happened at noon, thousands of people were cooking lunch on open charcoal fires when it occurred. The collapsing roofs scattered the coals (and trapped occupants and blocked the streets to fire fighters) and this started numerous small fires which eventually merged into a firestorm. That firestorm was not unlike the one in Tokyo just a week prior to the Nagasaki blast, and intentionally caused by the US Air Force, that incinerated three times as many people in one horrific night as had died in Nagasaki.
* Weller spent much time in the hospital in Nagasaki, and did extensive interviews with doctors, staff and patients. They were struggling with what they called "disease X" - a mysterious malady they had never seen and were at a loss to explain. The people suffering from it all had extremely low blood platelet counts and were hemoragging to death, usually internally. Symptoms started showing up within a few days after the blast, but were still coming in 4 weeks later. None of those people had been injured seriously in the blast, but they had all been exposed to the "flash" including a brief but heavy dose of gamma rays. There was no correlation to subsequent time spent in the vicinity of the blast by the victims and the likelihood of contracting "disease X." That is to say, many were quite a distance from the epicenter of the blast, immediately left Nagasaki, and had been many miles away when the symptoms started showing up. At the same time those who stayed in the vicinity for the four weeks after the blast were not contracting "disease X" unless they too had been directly exposed to the "flash." Those who were not directly exposed to the "flash" never contracted the disease, even though they had remained at the epicenter, eating the food and water available and breathing the air. The doctors had been desperately begging US military authorities for assistance with this, but had been ignored. Again, all of this is contradictory to the official US government narrative.
The book is a compilation of previously lost cables and articles by war correspondent George Weller put together and published by his son Anthony after his father's death in 2006. The material had been intercepted, confiscated and presumably destroyed by the US military in General MacArthur's HQ. However, Weller had made carbon copies and mailed them out of Japan to a trusted colleague. Those carbon copies were then mislaid and presumed lost until his son discovered them.
Four weeks after the detonation over Nagasaki, Weller defied US military orders and made his way there and the cables and articles describe his interviews and observations from the scene. He discovered several POW camps full of US prisoners and interviewed them, so two stories evolved - first hand reports of the detonation, as well as descriptions of the prison camp conditions, and especially the story of the "hell ships," the conditions on the cargo ships that transported the prisoners to Japan in the closing months of the war.
Here are a few of the things I found interesting:
* The US POWs did not know the war was over until Weller told them, even though it had been weeks, and there had been no US troops in the area and the Japanese authorities were still in control over all of the southern half of the country. The men said that the guards had started treating them better, but that they had not trusted that. Food was being dropped by the US Air Force - landing in many cases on a number of prisoners and killing them, which is part of a story ruthlessly suppressed by the US government: the number of US POWs killed by friendly fire and other actions by the US military, not to mention the systematic neglect and abandonment of them. Weller told the POWs that about 100 miles way C-47 cargo ships were landing 24 hours day with supplies for military headquarters, and flying back to Guam light. The US Air Force had commandeered and repaired the infamous "South Wind" Kamikaze base in Kanoya, the southern most tip of Kyusha in order to refuel transport planes which otherwise could not make the flight in one jump to Tokyo. He said he had no authority to tell them what to do (he was masquerading as a US colonel on a secret mission in order to mollify and evade Japanese military and police officers) but that were he in their position, he would make his way to that airbase and ride a transport plane to Guam. Most of the POWs did just that. The POWs were subsequently scattered, never officially interviewed, and other than Weller's account their stories never got to the public.
* US POWs, including a couple of hundred in a camp just 200 meters from the epicenter of the blast were largely unscathed by the bomb. How can that be? This contradicts the official US government narrative about the event. Those who survived were those who had leaped into a trench when the B-29 came overhead. Those who did not were killed, or at least injured. Japanese civilians and officials did not take cover, however many survived unscathed if they happened to be below ground, or even merely behind a brick or stone wall and therefore shielded from the concussion and the gamma rays emitted by the blast.
* Most of the victims in Nagasaki were burned to death, however that was not caused directly by the blast, which again contradicts the official narrative. Nagasaki suffered a firestorm. The concussion from the blast blew the roofs in on thousands of structures. Since it happened at noon, thousands of people were cooking lunch on open charcoal fires when it occurred. The collapsing roofs scattered the coals (and trapped occupants and blocked the streets to fire fighters) and this started numerous small fires which eventually merged into a firestorm. That firestorm was not unlike the one in Tokyo just a week prior to the Nagasaki blast, and intentionally caused by the US Air Force, that incinerated three times as many people in one horrific night as had died in Nagasaki.
* Weller spent much time in the hospital in Nagasaki, and did extensive interviews with doctors, staff and patients. They were struggling with what they called "disease X" - a mysterious malady they had never seen and were at a loss to explain. The people suffering from it all had extremely low blood platelet counts and were hemoragging to death, usually internally. Symptoms started showing up within a few days after the blast, but were still coming in 4 weeks later. None of those people had been injured seriously in the blast, but they had all been exposed to the "flash" including a brief but heavy dose of gamma rays. There was no correlation to subsequent time spent in the vicinity of the blast by the victims and the likelihood of contracting "disease X." That is to say, many were quite a distance from the epicenter of the blast, immediately left Nagasaki, and had been many miles away when the symptoms started showing up. At the same time those who stayed in the vicinity for the four weeks after the blast were not contracting "disease X" unless they too had been directly exposed to the "flash." Those who were not directly exposed to the "flash" never contracted the disease, even though they had remained at the epicenter, eating the food and water available and breathing the air. The doctors had been desperately begging US military authorities for assistance with this, but had been ignored. Again, all of this is contradictory to the official US government narrative.