"1945 - Crucible of Deliverance " Audio Recordings on MP3 Format CD

Held at Trinity University in San Antonio, the 1995 Admiral Nimitz Museum symposium "1945 - Crucible of Deliverance" is one of the most controversial of the series. The program concerned two topics that have been the subject of much heated debate. The first was the treatment and release of POWs of the Pacific War. The second, the decision making process in the development and use of the atomic bomb. Once again, Nimitz Museum Symposium Director Helen McDonald assembled a premier panel of veterans and historians to explore these very sensitive issues. Captain James Barber of the United States Naval Institute which co-sponsors the symposia series, opens with a historical context. The first day's sessions view the policy for interning civilians by both the Japanese and American governments during the war. You will hear real-life recollections by Japanese Americans interned during the war, and by Americans and other nationalities who were held by the Japanese. The issue turns to military POWs with a keynote address by Governor Harold Stassen who had been on Admiral Halsey's staff in 1945 and had been assigned to assist in the relie of the POW camps as they were recovered after the surrender. Author Gavin Daws makes a presentation based on his best seller "Prisoners of the Japanese" in which he compared Japanese POW camps to the Nazi concentration camps in Europe. Next, six former POWs relate their own experiences during their captivity during the war. A Japanese-American soldier captured by the Japanese, a survivor of the sinking of the USS Houston, a member of the British Army, a U.S. Army doctor from Bataan, a Navy nurse captured in Manila, an Army veteran also captured on Corregidor, and a B-29 crewman who parachuted into Tokyo. Each speaks of the conditions of their captivity and the belief that the use of the Atomic bomb saved their lives by producing the surrender of Japan before an invasion became necessary. Information is presented that the Japanese high command had issued orders that in case of invasion, all POWs were to be "destroyed individually or in groups, with mass bombings, poisonous smoke, drowning...and not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not leave any traces". The second day's session looks at the use of the Atomic bomb. This remarkable day begins with a keynote address by Dr. Edward Teller, who along with Robert Oppenheimer, created the Atomic bomb. Teller had indicated that for years he believed the use of the bomb to end the war was unnecessary, but that the testimony of POWs brought about a dramatic change of heart in the 87 year old nuclear physicist. On this historic recording, you will hear Dr. Teller depart from his prepared text to say what many POWs had yearned to hear for half a century. Teller says that after learning all 100,000 surviving POWs were to be killed when the planned invasion of Japan began "for the first time, I had a real impression which almost amounts to a moral justification for using the atom bomb." But, Dr. Teller's change of heart not withstanding, the debate burned anew. Dr. Barton Bernstein of Stanford University, and journalist Kai Bird defended their positions critical of the decision to drop the bomb. Next, historians Dr. Robert Morris, Richard Frank, Dr. Edward Drea, Norman Polman and Tom Allen review all aspects, including a close-up look at a potential invasion, and what role proffered casualty estimates might have played in the decision to use the bomb. The conclusions panel, moderated by Hodding Carter, III, features questions from the audience, and offers perhaps some of the most riveting remarks of any Nimitz Symposium. Historian Norman Polmar provided the last word in the debate when he told the audience about a remark made by Menoru Genda, who was not only one of the planners of the Pearl Harbor attack, but also the first post-war Commander-in-Chief of Japan's air defense force. During a 1970 interview at the U.S. Naval Institute, Genda was asked whether Japan would have used the A-bomb on the U.S. "Of course." he replied with a shrug. Order here on-line and SAVE $20.00! *