Bill O'Reilly: Killing the Rising Sun

[ed]

Got a liberal, gay, erudite pal down here, actually my oldest friend, if you can believe it. Was at his home a while back and saw this on a table:

Never read a word by Bill but knew about his "Killing" series of books. I said "WTF are you doing with this crap?" He told me that his bro is an arch conservative and gives out tomes like that for Xmas. He said, "if you want it, take it. I won't touch it".

So, being into a WW2 history mode, I did indeed bring it home to read.

That was a mistake.

Jesus Christ Jesus Christ Jesus Christ Jesus Christ Jesus Christ

My eyes were bleeding.

It was horrid. I got tghru like 3 pages. It was written by a child. It quoted people that were impossible to quote. Made up dialog, made up events.

Capote could pull off a non-fiction novel, Bill and his ghosting pal can't.

I like this review from Amazon:

If you wanted to develop a good perspective on World War II in the Pacific this book is not the place to go. It’s written on a 10th grade level, leaves you knowing very little about the subject and almost no understanding of why the war against Japan happened in the first place.

Far better accounts of this subject can be found in Bankrupting the Enemy, by Edward S. Miller; Japan 1941, by Eri Hotta; Day of Deceit, by Robert B. Stinnett; A Time for War, by Robert Smith Thompson; and Operation Snow, by John Koster. It’s a complex subject and requires something far superior to O’Reilly’s book to even begin to understand.

Horrid, self referential, poorly written and the worst sin of all: boring.

[Doctor X]

--J.D.

[Nyarlathotep]

Bill O'Reilly writes self serving ahistorical bullshit. Film at 11

[ed]

--J.D.

Yes, read that one on your reccomendation. It was excellent. I think it was written by an adult.

[Doctor X]

This is a lecture he did two years ago on CSPAN.

--J.D.

[Mentat]

It's really simple. The war was won because our fireworks were better than their fireworks. There, book done.

[ed]

This is a lecture he did two years ago on CSPAN.

--J.D.

That book was interesting because, as I recall, it contained the latest scholarship regarding the attitude of the emperor who some had thought was inclined toward peace. He wasn't and the battle for Japan would have been long and bloody. Okinawa was a mere taste, and that was very very bad.

The nuke was the best alternative.

[Mentat]

This is a lecture he did two years ago on CSPAN.

--J.D.

That book was interesting because, as I recall, it contained the latest scholarship regarding the attitude of the emperor who some had thought was inclined toward peace. He wasn't and the battle for Japan would have been long and bloody. Okinawa was a mere taste, and that was very very bad.

The nuke was the best alternative.

Even the noble will make horrible decisions during war, when their enemies afforded no better alternatives.

[Doctor X]

The book is pretty definitive given the access to the Japanese and Russian materials as well--as the lecture explains--declassified information from the US. The Emperor as a puppet to the military was a myth promulgated by the Japanese and the Americans--MacArthur. The Japanese to recast the defeat as the South tried with the "Lost Cause"; the Americans out of fear of a communist uprising or otherwise general instability throughout the country.

He also details the monthly casualties in China, Korea, and other places as well as Japanese civilians due to actual fighting, famine, disease. We are talking a good 200,000 per month of non-Japanese casualties. So opponents of the bomb have to accept those. Generally, they ignore them.

They also ignore what was known long before the revelations regarding the Japanese military's willingness to fight on. There was this belief there could be a The new material Ketsugo or "Great Really Massive Infliction of Casualties" on the Americans that would convince the Americans to accept the following:

• 1. No occupation.
  2. Japan retains its polity.
  3. Japan will try its war criminals--and she did not believe in the concept.
  4. Japan will disarm its own forces.

the military--and the Emperor--held out hope for those to the end. The newer material reveals that, when asked if he would insist on a fight to the end if the institution of the emperor was threatened, he responded "mochiron"--"of course!"

The bomb(s) convinced him as well as enough of the military that continued resistance was Vogon poetry.

--J.D.

[ed]

He also details the monthly casualties in China, Korea, and other places as well as Japanese civilians due to actual fighting, famine, disease. We are talking a good 200,000 per month of non-Japanese casualties. So opponents of the bomb have to accept those. Generally, they ignore them.



--J.D.

This, on it's own, is enough to justify the bomb. This was also something that I didn't realize/know about till I read this book.

[Anaxagoras]

Toward the end of the talk he gets into reasons why the bombs also saved Japanese lives.

First of all was the fact that they drafted every man from age 15-60 and every woman from 17-40 into an emergency combat force (often armed with weapons as primitive as bamboo spears), blurring the distinction between combatants and non-combatants.
Second, there was going to be a famine in 1946 that would have killed millions.

[Anaxagoras]

Oh, btw today is Genbaku no Hi in Japan. (Atomic Bomb Day)

[ed]

A day of celebration? It very well could be.

[Doctor X]

He also mentions Hirohito wryly referring to the bombs as a "gift from the gods" since it gave an excuse to end the war.

--J.D.

[Bruce]

To be fair, he probably didn't write it himself. He's a busy guy. He's got lackies to write his books, read his hate-mail, settle his lawsuits, etc. Who has time to write a book when there's ranting and womanizing to do?

[Doctor X]

Oh, btw today is Genbaku no Hi in Japan. (Atomic Bomb Day)

Coming just after Pantsu Day

--J.D.

[Anaxagoras]

Second, there was going to be a famine in 1946 that would have killed millions.

Hell, there was already a food shortage. Just watch Hotaru no Haka.

[Doctor X]

Second, there was going to be a famine in 1946 that would have killed millions.

Hell, there was already a food shortage. Just watch Hotaru no Haka.

A light shonen harem comedy?





何ですか？

--J.D.