JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

I just wanted to point out that over in the books for sale section of this blog I posted a bit on a small archive of manuscript and carbon copy material that comprise what seems to be the summary of the U.S.Navy (and Allied) bombardment of Kamaishi, Muroran, Hitachi, Kushimoto, Shimizu and Hamamatsu, forming the Navy Bombardment section of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey.  This was about the extent of the Allied naval bombardments against Japan, as it was not possible for battleships to maneuver close enough to the Japanese homeland to fire against industrial and production centers.  (It may have also been the case that the aircraft used to protect the assaulting ships could have perhaps done as much damage to the targets as the ships themselves.)

For those of you with an interest in these things I’ve posted the entire working copy of the “executive” summary of the report, as well as covers of some of the rest of the sections of the survey, here. 

[The archive is from the estate of J.D. Coker, who served in the U.S. Navy on the US Strategic Bombing Survey Ships’ Bombardment section, and who later became a leading official in the U.S. Atomic Preparedness programs (such as the President’s Committee on Emergency Preparedness).]