3m 47s: Lenght

Bombing of defenceless civilian populations meets the definition of international war crimes and a crimes against humanity. Killing innocent civilians under the cloak of war is nothing but murder. U.S. firebombing campaign of Japan, which began in 1944, destroyed 50-90% of 67 Japanese cities killing an estimated 315,922 innocent Japanese, a greater number than the estimated deaths attributed to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The firebombing of Tokyo alone resulted in roughly 100,000 Japanese killed. All this prior to dropping the first atomic bomb (uranium) on Hiroshima 6th August 1945, the explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city, then 3 days later dropped the more powerful plutonium A-bomb on Nagasaki, the physical destruction was even greater than in Hiroshima. Virtually nothing was left standing. Altogether, the two A-bombings killed an estimated 110,000 innocent Japanese citizens and injured another 130,000. By 1950, another 230,000 Japanese had died from injuries or radiation. ===================================== PEARL HARBOUR | PEARL HARBOUR | PEARL HARBOUR Word of the disaster reached Secretary Knox, who reported to Roosevelt. "No!" the President is supposed to have cried. The reaction would suggest that he was surprised. "Of course, he was surprised," said Jonathan Daniels much later. Daniels was the President's administrative assistant and press secretary. Then this trusted subordinate of Roosevelt made some revealing remarks: . . ."The blow was heavier than he had hoped it would necessarily be. . . . But the risks paid off; even the loss was worth the price. . . " Looking back over an extended history of the private thoughts of the President and his intimates, one encounters markers in the mentality that produced Pearl Harbor: "except in case of attack" "again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars." ". . . they (the Japanese) could not always avoid making mistakes, and that as the war continued and the area of operations expanded, sooner or later they would make a mistake and we would enter the war." ". . . there might be a possibility of war with Japan without the involvement of Germany . . . and it was determined that in such a case the United States would, if possible, initiate efforts to bring Germany into the war against us in order that we would be able to give strong support to the United Kingdom in Europe." ". . . the United States desires that Japan commit the first overt act" —inserted as "a direct instruction from the President." "The question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves." "Of course, no one anticipated that that overt act would be the crippling of the Pacific fleet." "The blow was heavier than he had hoped it would necessarily be. . . . But the risks paid off; even the loss was worth the price. . . ." MRS. ROOSEVELT: "December 7th was like any of the later D-Days to us. We clustered at the radio and waited for more details but it was far from the shock it proved to the country in general. We had expected something of the sort for a long time." SECRETARY OF LABOR PERKINS: ". . . in spite of the terrible blow to his pride, to his faith in the Navy and its ships, and to his confidence in the American Intelligence Service . . . [Mr. Roosevelt] had, nevertheless, a much calmer air. His terrible moral problem had been resolved in the event." SECRETARY OF WAR STIMSON: " We three [Hull, Knox, Stimson] all thought we must fight if the British fought. But now the Japs have solved the whole thing by attacking us directly in Hawaii. MRS. CHARLES HAMLIN, for many years a close friend of Mr.Roosevelt and a guest in the White House in November and December, 1941: The President, the night of his broadcast to the nation on the coming of war, "looked relieved, as if a load was off his mind at last, now that fate and the Japanese had finally settled everything that had been brewing for so long." POSTMASTER GENERAL FRANK WALKER: "I think the boss [Mr. Roosevelt] really feels more relief than he has had for a few weeks" MR. ROOSEVELT, the night of Pearl Harbor: "Well, we were attacked. There is no question about that." MR. ROOSEVELT, in a message on December 8 asking Congress to declare the existence of a state of war with the Japanese Empire: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. . . . Always feels more relief than he has had for weeks." MR. ROOSEVELT, in a radio message to the nation on the night of will we remember the character of the onslaught against us." December 9: "We are all in it—all the way."