Guest Post: History is in the Hands of the One Who Writes It by Shirley Miller Kamada
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Zachary Whitlockknows sheep. He knows farming and knows what it’s like to have his best friendforced into an internment camp for Japanese Americans. What he does not knowmuch about is goats and traveling by sea on cargo ships, yet he makes adecision to go with a group of volunteers to Japan to help deliver a herd ofmore than two hundred goats, many of which are pregnant, to survivors of theU.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Black Rose Writing: https://www.blackrosewriting.com/historicaladventure/p/zachary
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Zachary-Seagoing-Shirley-Miller-Kamada/dp/1685136400/
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/zachary-a-seagoing-cowboy/7abbf249813d25c0
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/237980236-zachary
History is in the Hands of the One Who WritesIt
Sincewriting Zachary: A Seagoing Cowboy, I’ve been asked why so few peopleknow about the World War II firebombing of Tokyo and other Japanese cities.I’ve found a number of opinions, but little verifiable fact. I did not knowabout the firebombing until I began work on the book. The story begins with the bombing of PearlHarbor. Then comes the question: Why did Japan’s military bomb Pearl Harbor? Theanswer—empire building.
Japanwas a small nation with big ambitions stymied by a lack of resources,especially oil. In their quest to procure such resources, their sea route wascontested. The U.S. refused to allow Japanese ships to pass. By bombing PearlHarbor, Japan’s military expected to both cripple the United States Navy andintimidate the country into negotiating a settlement. Japan’s militarymiscalculated. The U.S. declared war on December 8, 1941, a day President Franklin D.Roosevelt termed “a day which will live in infamy.”
Whileit does not excuse Japan’s methodology, one factor must be understood. At thattime, Hawaii was not a state but a territory, and it was a key U.S. military outpost. Americans werein shock. Termed “war hysteria,” people felt a need to subjugate or eradicate Japan andeverything it represented, unable in their minds to separate the military from civilians—evenchildren. Many saw the whole of Japan as a war machine. This form of hate was misinterpretedas patriotism. Japanese forces were famously determined. At Iwo Jima, bombardmentby U.S. troops had relatively little effect on the twenty-onethousand Japanese troops who were, quite literally, dug in. Their defenseincluded eleven miles of tunnels and underground rooms for command andcontrol and other functions. U.S. Marinessustained more than twenty-five thousand casualties. Theprospect of further such battles steeled U.S. commanders to consider moresevere weaponry. Hence, in 1942, napalm was developed in a secret laboratory atHarvard University.
Tokyo was a city built of wood. Streets were narrow. Smallmanufacturing enterprises were situated between houses. The mission on March 9and 10, 1945, was to level broad swaths of urban areas, snuff outmanufacturing, and terrorize and demoralize the populace. Japan’s Emperor wasexpected to surrender, which didn’t happen. Operation Meetinghouse, as it wascalled, wiped out only light industry. People were burned alive or grosslydisfigured as napalm stuck to human skin. While it wasn’t hidden from theAmerican public, it was not trumpeted. Still, it is estimated to have killed ahundred thousand and rendered more than a million homeless. Then, onAugust 6 and 9, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshimaand Nagasaki, overlaying all other news, and the napalm-laden air raids remainedin the shadows.
Katsumoto Saotome, remembered as “The Man Who Won’t Let UsForget the Firebombing of Tokyo,” was a writer who, at twelve years of age,survived the firebombing. As an adult he formed a group to gather accounts ofsurvivors and artifacts. Saotomeis said to suspect that “people do not want to see or know.” Heraised private donations and established a modest museum, known as The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage.
Forfurther reading:
Neer, Robert(2013). Napalm:An American Biography. Cambridge:Harvard University Press
Japanese Homeland:Firebombing · Narratives of World War II in the Pacific · Bell Library Exhibits
The Man Who Won’tLet the World Forget the Firebombing of Tokyo – ICMGLT
About the Author
Shirley Miller Kamadagrew up on a farm in northeastern Colorado. She has been an educator in Oregon,Idaho, and Washington, a bookstore-espresso café owner in Centralia,Washington, and director of a learning center in Olympia, Washington. Hermuch-loved first novel, NO QUIET WATER, was a Kirkus recommended title and afinalist for several awards. When not writing, she enjoys casting a fly rod,particularly from the dock at her home on Moses Lake in Central Washington,which she shares with her husband and two spoiled pups.
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