Pacific War Quotes

“Why is physical love bad and spiritual love good? I don't understand. I can't help feeling that they are the same. I would like to boast that I am she who could destroy her body and soul in Gehenna for the sake of a love, for the sake of a passion she could not understand, or for the sake of the sorrow they engendered.”
― Osamu Dazai, The Setting Sun

“I must go on living. And, though it may be childish of me, I can't go on in simple compliance. From now on I must struggle with the world. I thought that Mother might well be the last of those who can end their lives beautifully and sadly, struggling with no one, neither hating nor betraying anyone. In the world to come there will be no room for such people. The dying are beautiful, but to live, to survive--those things somehow seem hideous and contaminated with blood.”
― Osamu Dazai, The Setting Sun

“How could a nation rich in resources and land, and free from fear of attack, understand the position of a tiny, crowded island empire with almost no natural resources, which was constantly in danger of attack from a ruthless neighbor, the Soviet Union? America herself had, moreover, contributed to the atmosphere of hate and distrust by excluding the Japanese from immigration and, in effect, flaunting a racial and color prejudice that justifiably infuriated the proud Nipponese.”
― John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-45

“Kusaka was shaken by the realization that the American was as determined as any samurai. He silently prayed for him.”
― John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-45

“The Japanese were again committed to a useless fight to the death.”
― John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-45

“The various units of Philippine guerrillas, their tactics, military resources, and vigor to survive and end the Japanese maltreatment of the Philippine people paint the Pacific Theater from 1941-1945 as desperate, dark, and bloody for Asian communities throughout East and Southeast Asia”
― Stacey Anne Baterina Salinas

“Currently reading one of the many examples of the Japanese atrocities inflicted on other Asian- Pacific communities during World War II. Definitely an educational read so far. Check out, Philippines' Resistance: The Last Allied Stronghold in the Pacific!”
― Stacey Anne Baterina Salinas

“GI’s were returning to the United States and many others were being shipped to the Pacific to finish what looked to be a difficult battle ahead. The Japanese soldiers were a formidable foe, many of whom were willing to die for their country. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and three days later dropped one on Nagasaki. The Imperial Japanese Navy was now unable to continue conducting operations and their army would no longer be able to withstand an Allied invasion of the Japanese islands. Less than a week later, on September 2, 1945, Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed the Japanese Instrument of an unconditional Surrender on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo harbor. In the United States, everyone celebrated VJ Day, Victory over Japan Day, and the end of the war.”
― Captain Hank Bracker, "Seawater One"

“No one survives a war's front lines without ghosts clinging to them.”
― Elise Hooper, Angels of the Pacific