Kate Smith takes big time cut
New program less than half hour
By Si Steinhauser
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Youngstown Vindicator (June 25, 1945)
ON THE RECORD —
No-politics plan in Germany
By Dorothy Thompson
PARIS, France – I confess that after the enormous effort crowded into the few weeks spent in Germany, I have no notion of what, if anything, is going on in the German mind. There is despair, there is immeasurable shock and disillusionment, there is terrible and unfocused hatred, there is shame and truculence, there is fear. There are all signs of demoralization, callousness, self-pity and, it seems to me more than anything else, a docile, almost imbecile vacuity of morale, both intellectual and political.
It is as though the whole history of Rome from the Republic through Nero and Caligula to the fall has been crowded into 12 years of national experience and all reactions are emotional.
My overwhelming impression is nothing is going on in the German mind at all – everything is happening in the solar plexus and, like dreadful problem children with unaccountable shifts in mood, the German people are, at one moment, throwing themselves into our arms with low moans and, possibly, in another they may be biting our throats or rending their own garments or holding Holy Roller meetings. I just don’t know. Neither, however, do the people entrusted with military government and obviously they never will know as long as they prohibit any sort of political activity.
No way to find out
When we entered Munich, the Bavarian separatist movement was contending with the free German movement. Our people seem to think neither amounted to anything. Probably we are right, but unless the Germans could speak and publish papers, how in the world can we know?
All life of the mind depends upon communication and reactions of others to the communication. We are living in a world here where there is no communication between the Allied Military Government and the people except for the communication of orders, and there is no communication of the German people with one another.
We select officials by asking them to answer questionnaires, though no housewife would hire a cook that ways. The non-fraternization order holds at the highest levels. The military governor of a province may not sit down and talk sympathetically in a two-way conversation with someone he intends to entrust with an important task, such as forming an anti-Nazi cabinet. But one has to talk sympathetically with people even to find out that they are scoundrels.
Devers home, calls German people docile
Says Germans met master, are out for 100 years; Simpson also home
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Lawrence: Exposing war blunders
Urges inquiry before deciding on Army-Navy union
By David Lawrence
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6 GM executives top salary listings for year
Company president first with $459,041; industrial chiefs replace movie stars in lead
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Hitler kept hopes Japs would attack Russia
Even after Stalingrad, he counted on action; admitted he didn’t know what Nips planned
By Jack Fleischer, United Press staff writer
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Eliot: Price Okinawa cost not too high
Compares casualties with Iwo and Saipan battles
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot
While we do not as yet have the full breakdown of the American casualties on Okinawa, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz has made public enough figures so that some comparisons can usefully be drawn. These comparisons suggest that the Okinawa campaign has not been as costly as hasty assumptions have led many of us to believe.
In the first place, we have – in comparing Okinawa with Iwo Jima and Saipan – tended to forget that on Okinawa we were using many more troops than we did at either of the other two places. Hence comparisons based on total casualty figures are misleading; a better comparison may be had by using percentages.
The total numbers of troops and navy personnel employed are not available. But we do know that we used seven divisions on Okinawa as against three divisions at Iwo Jima and at Saipan. We will not go far wrong if we assume hat the amount of naval and air support, special service units, and so on, will be roughly proportionate to the number of divisions employed.
Compares casualty figures
Now let us look at the casualty figures.
| Total casualties | Killed and missing | Wounded |
|---|---|---|
| Okinawa | 11,260 | 33,769 |
| Iwo | 4,630 | 15,308 |
| Saipan | 3,426 | 13,099 |
| Average casualties per division engaged | Killed and missing | Wounded |
|---|---|---|
| Okinawa | 1,608 | 4,824 |
| Iwo | 1,543 | 5,103 |
| Saipan | 1,142 | 4,366 |
If you look only at the first two columns, the natural tendency is to say: “Good Lord, it is getting worse as we go along. At this rate the conquest of Japan will cost us millions.”
But if you also look at the second two columns, you realize that in proportion to the numbers engaged, the losses on Okinawa were about the same as on Iwo, and not vastly greater than on Saipan.
95,000 Japs defended Okinawa
But there is still another yardstick which must be applied to these figures, and that is the number of days that the fighting continued. We cleaned up Saipan in 24 days and Iwo in 26. It took us 82 days to possess ourselves of Okinawa. The reason is, of course, that Okinawa is a much larger place than either Iwo or Saipan, was more heavily garrisoned, and we had to use much larger forces. Iwo was defended by 24,000 Japanese, Saipan by 30,000, while on Okinawa, including a certain number of local selectees, we had to deal with 95,000 of the enemy.
On both Iwo and Saipan, the fighting was conducted in one sustained, intensive operation, almost without pause. On Okinawa, there were operational pauses here and there, as is inevitable in any campaign involving an entire army.
Moreover, it should be remembered that in the Okinawa campaign, we were fighting much closer to the mainland of Japan and therefore to the sources of Japanese power – especially airpower – than we were either on Iwo or Saipan.
And by the time we got to Okinawa, the Japanese were really beginning to get their suicide air attacks going on a large scale. Hence at Okinawa we had a disproportionately high ratio of naval casualties.
Strongest axis co-operation during entire war.
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The Syonan Shimbun (June 26, 1945)
Enemy had to pay terrible price: Okinawa proves costly venture
80,000 casualties, 600 ships sunk, damaged
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Okinawa battle by no means over, enemy will be harassed from air
Air attack corps will render position untenable
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Ushijima unit cited
TOKYO (Domei, June 25) – The War Ministry announced yesterday that TENNO HEIKA has been informed of the awarding of a citation by the Supreme Commander of Nippon forces in the Southwest regions to the Ushijima Unit and an attached unit in recognition of the distinguished services rendered in the course of operations in the Okinawa sector.
Bougainville fighting
LISBON (Domei, June 24) – Japanese resistance is stiffening against the Australian drive down Southern Bougainville, with Japanese transports moving up reinforcements on the east side of the Mobiai River, the Australian Radio reported today. A strong Japanese force has lashed out against an Australian flanking move west of the river, it said.
Local people enjoined to emulate example of Okinawa islanders
Co-operate all-out in crisis; go on land
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‘We will continue armed fight for freedom’ declares Netaji Bose
India will also agitate internationally
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Indonesian nationalist movement underway
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