Okinawa, Nuclear War then The Berlin Airlift

The cold war in 1948 saw Stalin close the road to Berlin.. This American Generals mistake was now to come home to the UK people.. Two thirds of the population of Berlin were totally cut off...Without fuel or food. The west's response was to mount a massive airlift to keep the population alive and warm. Many in this country would have willingly given all of Berlin to the Russian population. But no it was decided to start a massive airlift. The aircraft manned by British and American crews would take off from the UK to fly food and fuel into Berlin. We did not have sufficient food to feed our population so it was not understood why we should do this at all. We had bombed them in 1945 and now we feed them in 1948. Aircraft payloads in those days were very restricted given the fuel load required to fly from the UK to Berlin and back as Berlin had no aviation fuel. Thousands of flights were needed as it became a major effort from a country that was still on it's knees after the war.

This was international politics at it's worse .... as all that mattered was the "Cold War Attitude" that was to become a familiar problem for the rest of this century... Why???....Simply because America was brainwashing its population that the Russian Bear was some kind of threat to it's population.. Even Kennedy was to play this silly game in the early sixties and as these political papers are now a matter of public record it is clear to see that all the time this was a political game to be played out on the world stage and in truth had no foundation in facts. Politicians by and large are there to serve their own egos, often at the expense of the people they allegedly represent. There are very few real honest ones in this world, and in my view it is a dishonourable profession as history continuously teaches us.

The war in the pacific carried on for some time after 1945 with the Americans responsible for pushing Japan back to it's boundaries. Any British involvement here was small as we were busy elsewhere and many British Servicemen were prisoners of War at the hands of the Japanese These men suffered badly .... many dying of malnutrition, beatings and disease.

I am not qualified to talk of these engagements with the exception of Okinawa. I served on this Island many years ago and took the time to research the war history of this place. This Island is really the most southerly of the chain of Islands that form the Japanese Nation. As the Japanese were pushed back into their corner of the world the fighting became more intense. It is wise never to underestimate the power of men fighting on their own land. The Japanese was no exception and the Battle for Okinawa became extremely fierce. But here entered something that western nations were not prepared for and was certainly unprecedented in my experience.

Once the Island fell, the Japanese overrun, The civilian population started to commit suicide on a massive scale. This was an outward display of Japanese culture and I think it shocked western eyes. I have seen the actual black and white newsreels of this time which show many (Probably Measured in thousands) Japanese women with their children jumping from the cliffs to their certain death. The Japanese population would chose death before it would be defeated. This spectacle must have made military Commanders wonder what on earth was in store for them as they needed to take one Japanese island after another. Clearly the Japanese would fight all the way and then civilian populations would also die as their culture demanded.

Clearly many millions of lives were now at risk.. A stroke of luck now enters the equation as America had invented the first nuclear weapon..(incidentally with the help of German Scientists) I do not think that they were too sure that it would work at that time. But the first was used on the Japanese mainland, followed by a second just days apart.... The world had never seen the likes before of such destruction and even the Japanese now had to come to terms with this reality.

Some may think that the immense loss of life in these two nuclear explosions was some sort of atrocity, My own personal view is that these weapons saved more lives of both American & Japanese Servicemen to say nothing of the entire Japanese civilian population who otherwise would have committed suicide... Nuclear weapons had arrived on the world stage & in this instant saved lives

The British took back much of Malay, Singapore and of course Hong Kong as the Japanese retreated back to their national boundaries. At both Singapore & Hong Kong, we were so short on the ground that we actually used the defeated Japanese as policemen to maintain law & order. This was a major mistake as natives in these colonies saw for the very first time that the British was in fact weak and were no longer masters of this world. This started the drive for independence for many of the former British Colonies. India was the first and closely followed all the others with even Hong Kong just recently being handed back to the Chinese.

The world map was changing rapidly as one colony after another sought and was given it's independence, often with poor results to follow ...as most of these third world countries operated racism either by tribe, colour or religion. For Example Pakistan was formed by the expulsion of Muslims from the Hindu India that cleansed itself and became united behind its own religion. Odd when you know that there are 14 different languages in India & I have known of many cases where Husband and wife have to use English to communicate as neither speaks the others language.

I am unsure why America & Britain joined forces to fight in Korea. I do not know why either of us got involved in the first place. After all we did very little trade with this country and it was not a source of oil. But get involved we did. Maybe the motivation was once again the fight against communist growth throughout the world. The same mistake was made in Korea as had been made in Berlin. The American General in charge of the operation simply wanted to fight the Chinese. A major push to the northern Chinese border was mounted. Only the road was taken and on either side the higher ground was left to the North Koreans.

They must have thought this move very foolish as the north moving forces met very little opposition. The North Koreans were happy to let the British and Americans get to the Chinese border. The Chinese may well be unsophisticated. But they simply threw wave after wave of men over the border until the western forces had to retreat south. Now came the carnage as the North Koreans occupying the high ground cut our forces to pieces. The British lost a full battalion during that retreat... American Generals with their hatred of communism once again behaved like schoolboys and cost many lives.

The country finished up partitioned with a false border separating the two diverse cultures. The south has developed rapidly as American Money and influence has been brought to bear on their economy, whilst the North stagnates and recently suffered major famine following a series of natural disasters.. In my view false borders never work in the long term as we the British partitioned Northern Ireland separating two different religious beliefs. This false partitioning of Ireland has cost the lives of 2,000 servicemen since 1969 as we tried to keep the peace between the 2 warring fractions.