Eichelberger laughed. "We have nearly a hundred in total, although many are smaller than the one you rode in. We use them for courier service because the roads here are nonexistent, and you'll be pleased to know that we are using choppers for medical rescues and evacuations. Of course, the wounded have to be heavily sedated or they'll go into shock from the realization of what they're flying in."
"Wonderful," Bradley said sincerely. The care of his wounded was always a primary concern.
"We first used them in the jungles of Burma a year or so ago, and under the circumstances, it was a logical thing to do here. We've also outfitted some choppers with rockets and machine guns and have had a little success with them as gun platforms. Unfortunately, they're so damned vulnerable to almost any kind of gunfire that we've put that idea on the back burner. Pretty soon I'm confident that someone will come up with a helicopter that's larger and will be armored enough to stand small-arms fire."
"Good idea," Bradley said as they walked toward the miscellany of huts and tents that were the headquarters buildings of the American army in Kyushu.
Bradley halted. "Is the air force here?"
"Yes, sir. Per your instructions, you'll talk with LeMay alone, and then with Krueger, Hodges, and myself tomorrow."
"Good." What he had to say to Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay would best be said in private. The air corps was a young service, and Curtis LeMay, at thirty-nine, was a very young general who was brilliant, hard-driving, and innovative. His idea to strip the B-29s of machine guns so they'd be lighter and then fly low-level bombing runs on the Japanese had worked brilliantly. Many Japanese cities had been reduced to flaming rubble with few losses to the B-29 fleet. As recently appointed commander of the Twentieth Air Force, LeMay was the senior air corps officer in the Pacific.
Sometimes, however, LeMay's aggressiveness caused others to question his judgment.
Bradley entered the hut Eichelberger indicated. LeMay, a burly man, stood and snapped to attention. Bradley gestured for him to sit down.
When both were comfortable, Bradley began, "General LeMay, you have a reputation for directness. I want some straight answers to some simple questions. First, who ordered the atom bombing of the straits between Honshu and Kyushu?"
"I did," LeMay answered without hesitation.
"On who else's orders?"
"President Truman's."
Bradley hid his surprise. Marshall had radioed him that the bombing had come as a complete surprise to Truman. This meant that LeMay had liberally interpreted his orders. Or disobeyed them. "Clarify that for me, General."
LeMay's eyes registered mild surprise. "General, following Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we then bombed Kokura. Washington was informed that there were no other targets remaining in Japan that were worthy of an atomic bombing, even though one city, Niigata, did remain from the original list of four. I did not quite agree with the decision, but complied. However, we were able to continue firebombing cities and other targets with conventional bombs, and it was clearly understood that atomic bombs could be utilized in the future against targets that were purely military in nature."
"And the straits bombing fit this description?"
"It did absolutely. Two divisions of infantry were out in the open and packed together like little yellow sardines. We bombed them and we killed all of them."
"What about civilian casualties? I was led to believe that Jap refugees crossed the other way from Kyushu to Honshu."
"Could've been some, but I doubt that. Our eavesdroppers said that the Jap army had grabbed everything that floated for this effort. There would have been damn few civilians, if any, out on the water that night. Besides, who cares? There isn't a target in the world that's one hundred percent military. Civilians have been getting in the way since man invented the club, and that's just too bad for them."
"What about our POWs?" Bradley asked. "Were any of them in the area as hostages?"
"Possibly, although probably not. This was a secret move on the part of the Japs so they wouldn't broadcast the fact that our boys were out there as hostages. It would give away their little scheme. And if any of our guys were killed by the bomb, then it was the fault of the Japs for putting them there instead of in proper camps. Sorry, but it wouldn't be the first time Americans were killed by our own bombs. You do know that a couple of dozen were killed at Nagasaki, don't you?"
Bradley concurred grimly. Japanese usage of Allied prisoners in military and industrial work was contrary to international law and had caused a number of tragic casualties. "General LeMay, are you aware that many of the world's countries are calling us butchers and barbarians for dropping yet another atomic bomb?"
LeMay laughed harshly. He started to take a cigar from his shirt pocket and then thought better of it. "General Bradley, that's bullshit and you know it. Hell, I've killed ten times as many Japs, civilian and military, with conventional weapons as I have with nukes. And don't let them snow you with that crap about radiation. As I see it, anything that kills Japs, whether today or next month or even the next century, is fine by me."
LeMay again grabbed for that elusive cigar and retreated. He was not certain what Bradley's reaction would be to his smoking it. "What the hell do those people want, General? Should we go back to crossbows? Nah, the more we kill, the sooner this war ends and the killing stops. Then we can get prepared for the next one against the Russians. The commies are going to be a helluva lot harder to fight than the Japs."
No argument there, Bradley thought. He too felt that the Russians were the real threat to a peaceful future. "General, don't you think it would have been appropriate to inform your commanding officer of your intentions to bomb the straits?"
"General Bradley, the opportunity came up quickly and we didn't think we'd be able to communicate with you and explain the situation in time. We know the Japs are trying to pick up our broadcasts, and we were afraid they'd realize we were up to something. We also thought you'd approve, even if after the fact."
Bradley leaned back in his chair and glared. "You're right about my approving it. I would have. It's the best possible use of a terrible weapon. But the rest of what you said is pure crap. You don't just throw on a nuclear mission just like that and take off in ten minutes. You've been listening to the Japs planning this thing from the beginning, at least days and perhaps weeks, and decided a long time ago that getting me, or whoever else might have replaced MacArthur, angry was a risk worth taking. You weren't going to take the chance of being turned down, were you?"
LeMay shrugged unconcernedly. "Guilty. I got a war to win and Japs to kill. Screw it, sir, it was a target handmade for an atomic bomb. Conventional bombing would have been worthless because of the bad weather. With an atomic bomb, the bombardier only needed to drop the damn thing in the general vicinity of the straits and accuracy wouldn't matter one damn bit. Colonel Tibbets commands the squadron that's dropped all the atomic bombs and he flew the plane himself, and they managed to drop it right on the bull's-eye. The dumb Japs didn't know that the mist hung only a couple of hundred feet above the water so the bombardier had some recognizable mountains to use as aiming points. We bagged ourselves two full divisions and one field marshal. Not a bad night's work if you ask me, although the scientists say that the mist actually held down deaths from the flash."