The Last Beach

If you have read the preceding pages and read the LST detail pages from the sidebar, then you can probably make an educated guess where 920 is bound as she leaves Pearl Harbor with port and starboard sides encumbered with pontoons, her main deck loaded with gear and an LCT., her tank-deck loaded with vehicles and equipment and her compartments loaded with troops. She lumbers along past the long line of islands from which the Japs had fought our troops to the death rather than surrender. Only Okinawa and mainland Japan remain, we make the interim stop at Okinawa , where the desperate Japs attack our ships with suicide Kamikaze attacks, they are beaten but will not give up. The main-land is next, even the formidable Captain Schultz might not be able to save us then!

On August 6, 1945 the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima; a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki three days later. Japan offered to surrender the day after the second bombing. Just in time; President Harry Truman saved our bacon! The president was condemned by many bleeding hearts for his actions, but the hundreds of thousands of sailors, soldiers and marines who would have perished on the beaches were over-joyed! Instead of having to make that last beaching, 920 was assigned to repatriation duty, removing the japs from the countries and islands they had occupied and returning them to Japan. Not long after completing that job, LST 920 made her last voyage--home to USA!

Not much has been said about Japanese war-crimes. Their victims were; the Koreans, the Chinese, Philippine, English and American prisoners, as many or more of them were killed by the Japs as Jews were killed by the Germans. The Japanese government still does not acknowledge their crimes, they are not documented in their history books, most of the victims did not speak English or have the access to media as did the Jews. Half a million Chinese were slaughtered in the "Rape of Nanking" alone. POWs held by the Germans died at a rate of 1.1%. POWs held by the Japanese died at a rate of 37%. "Germany has acknowledged their war crimes and has made restitution to the victims. Japan has denied everything. In their history books and in their school books, they have re-written history in an effort to falsely show they were the victims of the War, citing the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as proof of their victimization.

Last Thoughts: U.S. involvement in W.W.2 was about 3 years, in that time Germany, Italy, and Japan were defeated; Europe was liberated, Jews were freed from the death camps; our allies: Britain, Vichy France and Russia would have gone down to certain defeat without our aid. Our Pacific fleet was almost completely destroyed by the Japanese in the attack on Pearl Harbor, yet we recovered, rebuilt and fought them to the death on the islands of the Pacific. America was fierce in battle and magnanimous in victory. Gen. MacArthur humbled the Japs at the surrender ceremonies aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri, yet went on to become a beloved administrator of Japan. The Marshall Plan: the United States provided more than 13 billion dollars to rebuild western Europe. The plan was a great success and laid the foundations for the European Economic Union (Common Market). For decades, America was loved and admired around the world.

Bush put and end to that!