Why the Japanese government surrendered As with some aspects of science, many facets of history are not definitive. Over time, new evidence is discovered, reviewed and verified, altering past understandings in ways that seldom go so far as to disprove a detail, but rather result in a more nuanced appreciation. The surrender of Japan underscores the …
Emperor Hirohito reigns over an inferno In Herbert Lord’s seminal study of the Titanic disaster, A Night to Remember, White Star Line’s president, J. Bruce Ismay, is revealed alternating between distinguished passenger and company operative, at times questioning Captain Smith about estimated arrival times in New York, and at others, slipping into one of the …
George Washington faces a dilemma My own reference to American history begins with my birth only a decade and a half after the end of the Second World War, during the height of the Cold War. In my formative years, the Vietnam War caused a tumultuous schism among Americans, in part due to mutually exclusive …
“I have always considered Saipan the decisive battle of the Pacific offensive.” – General Holland M. Smith, USMC, Coral and Brass, 1949 D-Day Saipan – 70 year anniversary Like millions from many nations of the world, I followed the generally good coverage of the Normandy invasion’s 70th anniversary. Since that day in 1944, the landings in France …