Farrell previews book for K-12 teachers across US

Don Farrell speaks during a presentation last Monday at the American Memorial Park’s Visitors Center auditorium. (MARK RABAGO)

K-12 teachers from across the U.S. who are visiting Saipan as part of a weeklong educational program were treated to a preview of CNMI historian Don Farrell’s book, Tinian and the Bomb: Project Alberta and Operation Centerboard.

During a presentation last Monday at the American Memorial Park’s Visitors Center auditorium, Farrell traced the roots of the American-Japanese conflict leading up to World War II before talking about how the Marianas were integral in finally forcing Imperial Japan to their knees by dropping the atomic bombs nicknamed “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” three days apart on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945.

Before delving into his research on the atomic bombs decades ago, Farrell had a moral dilemma and it took some encouragement from his late father to proceed with his lifelong work.

He said Japan was introduced to the U.S. in 1853 when American Commodore Matthew Perry led a small squadron of U.S. Navy warships to Tokyo Bay with the goal of establishing relations with Japan as a coal refueling stop for U.S. ships trading with China.

Japan radically modernized after its first encounter with Perry’s warships and, by the turn of the century, has become a power in the East, punctuated by Japan defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.

Now somewhat part of the big boys, Japan sided with the Entente powers during World War I and gained possession of erstwhile German-controlled Micronesia after the Great War.

That brought Japan squarely in the crosshairs of the U.S. as its Micronesian possessions crowded its colonies in the Philippines and Guam.

It also didn’t help that resource-hungry Japan made a whole lot of ruckus by invading Korea, Manchuria, and part of China to fuel its imperial ambition.

Fast-forward to the invasion of the Marianas, Farrell said the taking of Saipan and eventually Tinian was crucial because of Army Gen. Henry Harley “Hap” Arnold’s need for a base to operate his beloved B-29 Superfortress long-range bombers.

Despite the U.S. only using two atomic bombs during World War II, Farrell said it actually had components to build more (as a way of scaring the Soviet Union who wanted to divide Japan a la Korea).

Farrell also shared the answer to the age-old question why Col. Paul Tibbits gave the assignment to bomb Nagasaki to Maj. Charles Sweeney—that, unlike the bombing of Hiroshima, the Nagasaki mission was not a guaranteed success and Tibbits didn’t want to besmirch his newfound fame by following it up with a dud.

“The Hiroshima mission was the perfect mission and that’s why they called it a milk run. Fly the plane from home. Fly into your target. Drop your bomb and come home. No flak and no shooting. Perfect airplane, perfect weather. And he [Tibbits] got to hand-pick every member of the crew. They took them from all the B-17 crews in North Africa and Europe. He got the best machine gunners. And yet he turned it over to Sweeney and Sweeney was a non-combat pilot.”

Sweeney and the crew of Bockscar successfully dropped Fat Man, but Tibbits, according to Farrell, wasn’t exactly thrilled with how they accomplished the task.

“What happened was Sweeney got the commission and didn’t fly exactly the way Paul would have done it and Paul tried to court-martial Sweeney for not doing exactly as he told him to do it. Gen. [Curtius] LeMay in Guam turned around and told Tibbits ‘best you just shut up!’ and that was the end of it.”

To add insult to injury, Farrell said, Tibbits didn’t get to command a new B-29 bomber wing after the war. He assumed he would get it, but then the Air Force decided to have a contest. Tibbits lost and swore that it was fixed. Eventually, Tibbits quit as a brigadier general (one star), while Sweeney ultimately got the last laugh, retiring as a major general (two stars).

In the question-and-answer portion of the presentation, Farrell was asked if the decision to use the atomic bomb was spurred by how the Japanese furiously fought American G.I.s on Saipan and eventually in Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Quoting Rear Adm. William Reynolds Purnell, who used to be commanding officer of the Asiatic Fleet and Adm. Ernest J. King’s personal representative to the Manhattan Project, he said, “There was no way that the Japanese would surrender just because you blew up one town. He said we’ve already destroyed 64 of their cities the size of Pittsburgh. We burned them to the ground. Why would they quit just because we destroy another one? It will take two, at least. He suggested they use two—one right after the other—and make them think we have plenty.”

And that’s why there was this insistence to get the Fat Man ready and locked and loaded to fly from Tinian aboard the Bockscar, according to Farrell.

“That’s why they pushed the Fat Man bomb forward so that they could get that one-two punch. And sure enough, the first one didn’t do it. And the second one by the time Sweeney and his team were preparing to fly to Nagasaki to deliver the second atom bomb, the message was already sent by Tokyo to the Swiss that they were ready to accept the terms of unconditional surrender. They expected that it would take more bombs than that and I’m sure that’s one of the reasons they had so many extra parts to make more bombs on Tinian. “

Farrell also clarified the decision to use the atom bombs in Japan to save hundreds of thousands of American lives in an invasion of the Japanese mainland instead of Germany.

“The answer to that was very easy. Originally the bomb was supposed to be used on Germany. The only problem was Gen. Arnold could not get the B-29s constructed in time to get them to Europe. And so, Gen. Ira Clarence Eaker, who was the commander of the U.S. air forces in Europe, finally got tired of waiting for the B 29 and said, ‘Never mind sending me those B-17s. Otherwise, it would and could have easily been used on Germany. Because we used it on Japan, they called it a racial things, but in fact we’re really ready to use it on Germany and those were white people.”

The K-12 teachers from across the U.S. were joined by their local counterparts from the CNMI in the “Saipan’s Land and Sea: Battle Scars & Sites of Resilience” program sponsored by the National Endowment for Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culture program. It’s being conducted in collaboration with East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

Dr. Anne Ticknor, professor in the College of Education, and Dr. Jennifer McKinnon, professor in the Department of History, are leading the team made up of educators, historians, archaeologists, authors, and cultural guides to provide a view of World War II history and heritage from multiple perspectives with a contemporary lens and K-12 resources. The second program is currently underway and will conclude on July 18.