[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 135 (Friday, August 11, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12424-S12426]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



       THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, next week America will commemorate the 50th 
anniversary of the end of the Second World War in the Pacific.
  As we mark this anniversary, we should pay tribute and remember the 
over 3 million American airmen, soldiers, sailors, and Marines who 
served in the Pacific and Asian theaters from 1941 to 1945. General 
Douglas MacArthur described those who fought in the Pacific with these 
words:

       He plods and groans, sweats and toils. He growls and 
     curses. And at the end, he dies, unknown, uncomplaining, with 
     faith in his heart, and . . . a prayer for victory on his 
     lips.

  The story of the Pacific and Asian theaters is a story of courage. It 
is a story of places like Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Guadalcanal, where 
American soldiers fought in some of the most brutal battles of the war. 
Their heroism and their sacrifice will live forever in the annals of 
history.
  Mr. President, this anniversary has also stirred some debate over the 
wisdom of President Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb to bring 
the war to a conclusion.
  Some revisionist historians have suggested that Japan was so weak in 
1945 an allied victory could have been achieved through a military 
invasion.
  The best response to that assertion comes from our colleague, Senator 
Mark Hatfield. Senator Hatfield was one of the first Americans to visit 
Hiroshima in the days following Japan's surrender, and he saw the 
weapons that would have been used to repel American soldiers invading 
Japan.
  Senator Hatfield was scheduled to participate in such an invasion, 
and he has said that as he looked at the weapons, he had no doubt that 
he, like countless thousands of other Americans, would have been 
killed, wounded, or somehow injured.
  Mr. President, the veterans of the war in the Pacific and all 
Americans can take pride in the fact that Japan is now one of America's 
most important allies. America did not enter the war seeking territory. 
We entered to defend democracy. And when the war was finished, we set 
about the work of rebuilding a free and Democratic Japan.
  In short, Mr. President, at war's end, we looked to the future with 
hope, instead of the past with recrimination. And that, perhaps, is the 
great lesson of World War II and the great lesson of this century, that 
as long as America is engaged and as long as America provides the 
leadership, then the future for nearly everyone in the world will be 
filled with hope.
  Mr. President, at this time I send a resolution to the desk and ask 
for its immediate consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution.
  Mr. DOLE. I send it up on behalf of myself and the Democratic leader.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res 164) expressing the sense of the 
     Senate that America's World War II veterans and their 
     families are deserving of this Nation's respect and 
     appreciation on the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in 
     the Pacific.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the immediate 
consideration of the resolution?
  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, on August 14 we will mark the 50th 
anniversary of V-J Day, the end of the war in the Pacific. As much as 
the war in Europe, the American role in the Pacific war definitively 
created the modern-day role of the United States in the international 
community.
  The attack without warning that Japan's military rulers launched 
against Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, had the effect, in the United 
States, of uniting Americans against the Axis Powers in the global 
conflict. The almost immediate declaration of war on the United States 
by the Nazi regime in Germany solidified that unity.
  For the first time, Americans poured into recruiting centers to 
volunteer in the Armed Forces. From every city in the country, and 
every State in the Union, men--and many women--lined up to defend their 
Nation. The men and women of South Dakota, like those of all other 
States, did their share.
  The war in the Pacific was a difficult conflict, unprecedented in 
human history. Never before had nations contended across such vast 
miles of open sea, over such small, scattered island groups. Until the 
development of carriers and air flight, a war like the Pacific war 
could not even be imagined.
  Tragically enough, in our century, it came to pass, and at enormous 
cost in lives and treasure to all participants.
  From the devastating loss of men and materiel at Pearl Harbor at the 
end of 1941, the United States struggled to regain momentum in the 
Pacific theater. The demands of the war in Europe competed with the 
needs of the men and women stranded on Pacific islands, and the whole 
weight of the Nation bent to the task of filling those needs.
  It was not until the Battles of Midway and Coral Sea that the tide 
turned in the Pacific war. And it was not until after the use of the 
atomic weapon in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that Japan's military rulers 
were willing to concede and surrender.
  The technology that gave mankind the power of the atom and ended the 
war in the Pacific has, understandably, overshadowed much of the 
history of the Pacific war. That is understandable, but it is 
unfortunate.
  There are stories of heroism, bravery, courage in the face of 
incredible danger and sheer human endurance that deserve to be honored 
in our national memory.
  Some of those stories are the stories of South Dakotans who served. 

[[Page S 12425]]

  One South Dakotan, Joe Foss, returned to the United States to a 
successful career in politics, as State Governor and the first 
commissioner of the American Football League.
  Joe Foss was a marine captain at age 28, in 1943. By then, he had won 
the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross. 
Captain Foss has the distinction of downing more enemy planes than any 
other combat pilot in the war. He equaled the record of the fabled Eddy 
Rickenbacker of World War I, with 26 kills, 23 of them during a 
grueling 34-day-long test of endurance in the sky over Guadalcanal.
  In an interview, many years after the war, Joe Foss described a 
mission on which he was sent as a decoy against a Japanese battleship 
off Savo Island, with the goal of engaging the big ship's guns so that 
a second wave of torpedo bombers could have a clear path to come over 
and drop their armaments to sink the ship.
  He talked about aiming the nose of his Grumman Wildcat almost 
directly down at the ship's smokestacks, knowing that an airplane at 12 
o'clock makes the hardest target, but knowing, as well, that the moment 
a plane changes angles to pull out of a dive leaves it entirely 
vulnerable.
  Twice, during dogfights, he found himself on a collision course with 
Japanese Zeros, heading directly into the Zeros' propellers, knowing 
that the first pilot who peeled away would expose his plane's underside 
to machine-gun fire. He never turned, and those two Zeros were among 
his kills.
  Joe Foss earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for conspicuous 
bravery in the face of the enemy, and his fellow South Dakotans 
rewarded him later by electing him Governor of the State. His story 
echoes many of those of others from South Dakota who served in the 
Pacific theater.
  Another South Dakotan who distinguished himself in the Pacific 
theater is Philip LeBlanc. He was one of many Native American Code 
Talkers. The Lakota-speakers of South Dakota and other States were 
formed into teams, who were dropped on isolated Pacific Islands and 
instructed to radio back reports of enemy activity that to help guide 
strategy.
  They were known as ``MacArthur's boys'' and had priority over the 
air-waves, because so many American lives depended on their reports of 
enemy strength, landings, and shipping.
  Their unique contribution was the use of Lakota, the language of 
their birth, which defied all code-breaking efforts. Their unique war 
experience included the fact that they often felt they faced more 
danger from American troops, by mistake, than from Japanese. Left on 
isolated islands, equipped with camouflage gear and caps, not helmets, 
native Americans were often subjected to rigorous interrogation by 
European Americans questioning their status as American combat 
soldiers.
  Philip LeBlanc served with the 302 Reconnaissance Team in the 1st 
Cavalry Division from 1942 to 1945 in the Pacific theater. He served 
his entire term of service in the field without a single furlough.
  LeBlanc served in New Guinea, where it was impossible to dig foxholes 
because the intense rainforest climate created a groundwater table that 
was barely 5 inches below the surface. He had to be ferried to medical 
care by Filipinos when he came down with malaria in the middle of 
Japanese-held territory, and he was finally felled when he was hit 
riding atop an armored car in the last days of the campaign to retake 
the Philippines. He carries shrapnel in his hip and a bullet scar on 
his chest.
  But much more proudly, he has the right to carry on his chest four 
Bronze Battle Stars, four major campaign medals, a Purple Heart, an 
Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, a Bronze Arrowhead and a Philippine 
Liberation Ribbon.
  He is part of a proud and honorable tradition of native Americans who 
have served courageously and honorably in every U.S. conflict, from the 
Revolutionary War onward.
  The outcome of the Second World War changed our world profoundly, 
with effects that still resonate today. It left the United States the 
sole undamaged world power. With that status came responsibilities that 
most Americans had not imagined at the outset. Victory also carried a 
price.
  In the 50 post-war years, those responsibilities have demanded more 
in American treasure and lives than from any other participant. But by 
1990, it is estimated that the total cost of the Second World War to 
the United States had reached $4.6 trillion--including the post-war 
cost of veterans health care and benefits. The cost of that care and 
those benefits is a cost of war, and should be recognized as such, lest 
we forget, decades later, the price of war in the form of our greatest 
treasure--our young men and women who served.
  In total, more than 16 million American men and women served their 
Nation in World War II. More than 291,000 paid the ultimate price on 
the field of combat; 113,000 others died of wounds, accidents, 
illness--all the risks and dangers that attend service in wartime. All 
told, more than 405,000 American lives were cut short by the war.
  Another 670,000 Americans were casualties in that war--men and women 
who returned with their health damaged, their bodies scarred, their 
lives changed.
  Every State in the Nation sent men and women to the Second World War. 
South Dakota, one of the Nation's least populous States, sent an 
estimated 60,000 men and women to fight. A post-war review in 1950 
estimated that more than 10 percent of the South Dakotans who served 
earned citations for personal bravery, military valor and, in three 
cases, the highest military honor our Nation grants, the award for 
service ``above and beyond the call of duty,'' the Congressional Medal 
of Honor.
  We should honor those who fought for our Nation in the Pacific 
theater. But we should not allow the distance of time to let us forget 
that they served at incredible cost to their lives, their health, their 
well-being and, too often, their futures.
  The Second World War is often sentimentally called the last good war. 
I understand what people mean by the term.
  But for those who saw active duty--who saw friends and buddies die, 
who felt the sheer brutality of heavy artillery attack or the random 
terror of combat on unknown, rough terrain against a well-trained and 
ruthless opponent, who faced years of imprisonment in sometimes 
barbaric conditions, the men who endured the death march of the Kokoda 
Trail, the tortures of jungle imprisonment--there was no ``good'' war. 
There was a job to be done, often at a price that scarred their lives 
for decades afterward.
  In victory, America has been magnanimous and generous to her former 
enemies. That is as it should be. Our ideals command no less. But in 
retrospect, let us not forget the terrible price that our own people 
paid for our victory. Let us not imagine that the historic graciousness 
of our Nation toward the conquered was something bought without pain 
and tears and terrible suffering.
  Victory is a fine accomplishment. But its price is often beyond 
counting. Its price should never be forgotten.
  Today, I hope Americans across the country will pause to consider the 
price of our victory, for those who served, those who died, those who 
suffered. We owe them a debt of remembrance, along with a debt of 
gratitude for their sacrifice.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the resolution.
  The resolution was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution (S. Res. 164) with its preamble is as follows:

       Whereas on August 14, 1945 the Japanese government accepted 
     the Allied terms of surrender;
       Whereas the formal documents of surrender were signed on 
     September 2, 1945, thereby ending World War II;
       Whereas 50 years have now passed since those events;
       Whereas, the courage and sacrifice of the American fighting 
     men and women who served with distinction in the Pacific and 
     Asian theaters should always be remembered: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved, the United States Senate joins with a grateful 
     nation in expressing our respect and appreciation to the men 
     and women who served in World War II, and their families. 
     Further, we remember and pay tribute to those Americans who 
     made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their life for their 
     country.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. 

[[Page S 12426]]

  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Grams). The Chair, in his capacity as a 
Senator from Minnesota, asks unanimous consent that the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  Without objection, it is so ordered.

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