April 1st

American Minute for April 1st:

60,000 U.S. troops landed on the Island of Okinawa, APRIL 1, 1945, in the largest amphibious attack by the U.S. in the Pacific war. 12,000 Americans died, 36,000 were wounded and 400 ships were sunk or damaged.

Though Japan's casualties exceeded 100,000, their kamikaze suicide attacks grew more intense, not relenting until the bombing of Hiroshima. The U.S. entered the war after President Roosevelt addressed Congress, December 8, 1941:

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage...lives have been lost...ships have been reported torpedoed between San Francisco and Honolulu...the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya...Hong Kong...Guam...Philippine Islands... Wake Island...and Midway Island.

FDR stated January 6, 1942:

Japan's...conquest goes back half a century...War against China in 1894...Occupation of Korea...War against Russia in 1904...Fortification of the mandated Pacific islands following 1920...Seizure of Manchuria in 1931...Invasion of China in 1937 [see American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking: The Courage of Minnie Vautrin below].

President Roosevelt continued

Our enemies are guided...by unholy contempt for the human race...We are fighting...to uphold the doctrine that all men are equal in the sight of God.

ENDNOTES:

FDR, Address to Congress, December 8, 1941. FDR, State of the Union, January 6, 1942. MacArthur, Douglas. September 2, 1945, in a prayer given aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, at a meeting with leaders of Allied forces to sign the treaty of surrender of Japan. Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), p. 178.