Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths

On This Day In History
1945: Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies at Rheims

Quote Of The Day
"We will go down in history either as the world's greatest statesmen or its worst villains."
(Herman Göring)

Unfortunately, the people of Japan would have to wait another four months before their leaders would abandon their insane policy of total warfare and finally surrender on September 2, 1945. Too late 135,000 victims of the Hiroshima atomic bombing and the 80,000 victims of the Nagasaki atomic bombing. Too late, too, for the 912 people killed and the 1,995 people injured when the Allies bombed Kobe, Nishinomiya and Amagasaki on August 5th, 1945. The photo in the extra shows the city of Nishinomiya, where I live, after the bombing. It's a sobering photograph indeed as I can see where I live (it's in the middle distance on the right hand side of the photograph.)

I took the title for this Blip entry from Shigeru Mizuki's outstanding autobiographical manga which details his experiences before, during and after World War War Two. I highly recommend it to anybody interested in the Japanese experience of World War Two, especially as it is unbiased and highly critical of Japan's leaders.

Forbidden Colours