The Tokyo Station South in 2008, facing the old Daimaru department store building now already removed
Toward the Tokyo Station on Tokyo Bay
Great is the Tokyo Staton
Survivors and Witnesses (and Kennedy)
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Mr. Roos attended the Hiroshima anniversary event today.
It is the first time that a U.S. ambassador joined the memorial service held in Hiroshima on August 6 every year.
President Mr. Barack Obama reportedly asked Ambassador Mr. Roos to join the event.
Accordingly, the French Government and the U.K. Government have sent their representatives to the Hiroshima event for the first time.
In the past year, 5,501 Hiroshima atomic-bomb survivors (radiation victims) died, further increasing the accumulated number of the victims of the 1945 Hiroshima nuclear-bomb attack to 269,446.
As the U.S. military was afraid of losing one million soldiers on battles planned to be carried out on the mainland Japan, the U.S. Government decided to use all the two atomic bombs they had in the summer of 1945.
Not only using atomic bombs, the U.S. Government wrongly asked the Soviet Union to join the Pacific Stage of WWII which was almost to be given up by the Empire.
But, some U.S. officers of WWII could not survive till 2010, like JFK.
SECTION I: Kennedy in August 1943
John F. Kennedy was prepared for the Pacific Theater of WWII, joining the U.S. Navy in September 1941 when he was 34 years old, though the Pearl Harbor Attack happened in December of 1941.
Kennedy had used his family influence to get into the war quickly. The Allies were in a campaign of island hopping since securing Guadalcanal in a bloody battle in early 1943. Kennedy was assigned PT-109 upon arriving at Tulagi. By August 1943, the Allies had captured Rendova and moved PT boat operations there. The US Army was driving the Japanese out of Munda airfield at New Georgia by August. All of the islands around Blackett Strait were still held by the Japanese.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Torpedo_Boat_PT-109
However, his commanding torpedo boat encountered a battle-tested destroyer of the Imperial Navy, Amagiri, around 2 a.m. on August 2, 1943 to be charged and cut half, since Imperial sailors found PT-109 800 meters far or within a 30-second range. (The collision might have caused explosion of torpedoes in PT-109, which must have largely destroyed Amagiri. So, there is still an argument about which of the captain of the dstroyer or the admiral of the fleet on board the same ship decided to take a risk of crashing Amagiri into PT-109.)
On 2 August, while returning from another Tokyo Express night reinforcement fast transport mission to Vila, Amagiri rammed and sank the future U.S. President John F. Kennedy's PT-109 torpedo boat. Many believe that the ship was not even aware of PT-109, which was difficult to see because of its small size and lack of lights. However, Robert J. Donovan in his book PT 109: John F. Kennedy in WWII, after interviewing many of the crew, concludes that it was not an accident, and he talked to the man at the wheel who was ordered to steer for a collision course. Amagiri also engaged other PT boats in the Blackett Strait south of Kolombangara. Lieutenant Commander Kohei Hanami — who commanded Amagiri at that time — attended President Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Amagiri
However, Kennedy swam for five hours helping and pulling other 10 crews through a rope to eventually reach a small uninhabited island. Then, Kennedy started to swim again, though his back bone was injured, to another island where he might have found a help, since he had been a good swimmer in Harvard.
Kennedy reached the next island to meet a native resident, so that he picked up a coconut on which to inscribe a message requesting rescue to the Allied Forces. The native islander took it and left Kennedy, but later he returned with a correspondence from a New Zealand unit. Accordingly, John F. Kennedy and other 10 crews were rescued.
The coconut was later placed in the Oval Office; it was there even on the day of the tragedy in Dallas.
(http://nezu621.blog7.fc2.com/blog-entry-970.html )
John F. Kennedy visited Tokyo once on his way back to America from some international conference, which has not been widely known even today.
In the autumn of 1951 Kennedy, a U.S. congressman, visited Japan and got in touch with Hanami through Dr. Gunji Hosono, chairman of the Japan Institute of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo.
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/drmusou/58314735.html
During his stay in Tokyo in 1951, John F. Kennedy tried to find whether or where Kohei Hanami, the captain of Amagiri that destroyed PT-109 , still lived. Hanami lived in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, working as a mayor.
In the magazine TIME issued on August 18, 1952, Kennedy's campaign for the Massachusetts senator seat was reported. In a footnote of the article, Kennedy's experiences in August 1943 was mentioned.
Hanami read this footnote and sent a letter to John F. Kennedy which was introduced in the issue of November 3, 1952 of the TIME.
Since then, Kennedy has heard from Kohei Hanami, who wrote; "When I read the TIME magazine of Aug. 18, which mentioned the battle in question, my memory being refreshed, I can vividly recall what happened...
I come to know from TIME that you are going to run for the next election of Senators. I am firmly convinced that a person who practice tolerance to the former enemy, like you, if elected to the high office in your country, would no doubt contribute...to the promotion of genuine friendship between Japan and the U.S."
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/drmusou/58314735.html
To this letter from Hanami, John F. Kennedy replied with a mail including his picture with a message on it written by himself, "Yesterday's enemy is today's ally."
They continued to exchange letters. Hanami celebrated Kennedy's marriage and then victory in the Presidential election.
Even though Hanami himself did not fly to America to help Kennedy's presidential campaign, ex-sailors of Amagiri visited America to boost Kennedy's popularity among voters. As a consequence, Kennedy could defeat Nixon at a margin of 0.04% in the share of the vote.
It might be said that Kennedy owed his victory in the 1961 election to ex-captain Kohei Hanami and ex-sailors of the Imperial Navy.
(http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/bonbori098/23033211.html )
Note: As for Hosono Gunji who helped John F. Kennnedy find former Lieutenant Commander of the Imperial Navy Kohei Hanami, refer to the following paper.
This paper introduces the life and career of the internationally minded scholar, Professor Hosono Gunji, 1895-1969,who lectured on international law at Takushoku University in the postwar period. After studying at USC and Columbia University (MA 1922; Ph.D. 1926), Hosono served as a member of the Japanese delegation to the ILO in Geneva. While he worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he received LL.D from Tokyo Imperial University. The article traces his extensive personal relationships including John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States of America. Hosono played an important role in the foundation of the United Nations Association of Japan. He organized Japan Institute of Foreign Affairs and became chairman of the Board of Directors. Dr. Hosono worked throughout his life to promote friendly relations between the United States and Japan.
http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110001219950
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Hiroshima is a centeral city west of Osaka/Kyoto and east of the Kyusyu island.
It was also a key military city since the Meiji Restoration of the imperial authority in 1868.
The second atomic bomb was first planned to be dropped on Kokura, an industrial city located at the north end of the Kyusyu Island facing the Korean Peninsula.
But, due to weather condition, a B-29 bomber changed the course to Nagasaki located on the north-west part of the Island. So, Nagasaki was attacked with the second nuclear bomb on August 9, 1945, three days after the Hiroshima tragedy.
So, soldiers and citizens then living and working around Kokura survived as a kind of miracle. Some of them must be still alive, though 65 years have passed.
The Japanese people are not different from any other peoples in the world.
But, only samurais and samurai-spirited generals are different, since they do not mind atomic bomb attacks. If they lose a war to be killed, their shame cannot be alleviated by a fact that their enemy has used atomic bombs.
Inevitably, the Empire of Japan fell and was gone forever with atomic-energy-heated waves of the air, taking the last remnants of samurais with it, but leaving the Emperor and politicians in Tokyo for the new era.
Mar 8:5 And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven.
Mar 8:6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.
Mar 8:7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them.
Mar 8:8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.
Mar 8:9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.