President Franklin D. Roosevelt - Essay Example

? Since the 1960s, a new breed of post-World War II historians have thought of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as just having idly stood by as six million Jews died in the Holocaust. Barry Frieman and Wendy Lower (Frieman and Lower ) describe the Holocaust as “the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and mass murder of European Jews and other groups carried out by Nazi Germany and its allies between 1933 and 1945.” Most of these Jews were Poles and Russians. It was impossible to save the Polish Jews from the hands of Hitler because Poland was far away from England and that the German Army and the SS controlled all life in Europe. Robert N. Rosen argues in his new book, Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of the few men during his time who understood what has happening and looked for ways to defeat Hitler and put an end to the Holocaust. The Roosevelt administration did everything possible to save the Jews and the victims of the Nazis. Rosen reveals in his book that President Roosevelt, in spite of the Great Depression wherein a lot of Americans lost their jobs after the stock market crashed, widespread American isolationism, strict immigration legislation, and extensive Semitism which then prevailed in America, did not abandon the Jews; he led the Allies in war against Hitler and the Nazis which cost fifty million lives. President Roosevelt also maintained close ties with many Jewish leaders, many of whom he appointed to high-level positions which include the Supreme Court. During the weaker periods of his presidency, he made many attempts to allow Jewish refugees to enter the United States. While the Holocaust was happening, there was clamor in America to remain neutral regarding European affairs and distrust anything that had a tinge of internationalism. The American Jews were also divided with regard to coming up with the best policy for freeing their fellow Jews from the Nazis. Many accusations were thrown at President Roosevelt for the way he handled the Holocaust and Rosen considers these to be unfair. One of these accusations involved the SS St. Louis, a shipload of German Jewish refugees which was turned away from Cuba and denied permission to dock in the United States. The SS St. Louis left Hamburg in May of 1939 before World War I broke out or before the Final Solution was imposed. The Final Solution began when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. Cuba refused to let the German Jewish passengers leave the ship because they had bough visas which were considered illegal under Cuban law. The United States government under Roosevelt immediately acted on the problem. Rosen explains how the Roosevelt administration tried to convince Cuba to permit the Jews to enter and even went as far as bribing the Cuban government to allow the passengers of the ship to enter Cuba. Rosen also made mention of the efforts FDR’s people to arranged for the ship’s passengers to be taken in by England and by other European countries and avoid being returned to Germany. The Jews were aware that the Americans had saved them. Rosen also said that the Roosevelt administration found difficulty in making an exception in U.S. immigration policy. This was due to the fact that a lot of Americans had feared the increasing wave of immigrants who mostly created trouble such as the anarchists who bombed Haymarket in Chicago in 1886, those who gave rise to violent, radical, and revolutionary labor movements, and the Polish anarchist who assassinated President William McKinley in 1901. The Roosevelt administration was also accused of failing to denounce the Holocaust. Because of this FDR was thought of as having been part of the conspiracy of silence while the Holocaust was happening. According to Rosen, there was no such conspiracy and that FDR did not keep silent while millions of Jews died at the hand of Hitler and his Nazis. As a matter of fact, Roosevelt expressed his outrage over the way Hitler treated the Jews. He thought that Hitler was insane. One of the things that Roosevelt did to show his disappointment over the treatment of the Jews was to recall the United States Ambassador to Germany after the Crystal Night program which was held in 1938. Rosen offers as proof a published and widely disseminated 1942 declaration in which Roosevelt, together with Churchill, Stalin, and ten allied governments in exile condemned the German policy of exterminating the Jews. The Allies were also accused for their decision not to bomb Auschwitz. According to Rosen, even Roosevelt’s critics point out that the chance of bombing Auschwitz was small and late in the war due to the lack of preciseness in the aerial bombardment capabilities of the Allies. Jewish leaders and the United States government believed that putting the lives of Jews at stake was an unnecessary risk and that this would also fail to stop the extermination process. For Rosen, judging President Roosevelt by what a lot of people presently know and feel about what Hitler and the Nazis did to millions of Jews would be holding up President Roosevelt to an impossible standard. Using extensive documentation, Rosen was able to prove that FDR’s had prescience to understand the real threat that Hitler posed not only to the Jews but to democracy in Europe and in the United States.. Rosen was also was also able to outline how Roosevelt’s decisions about saving the Jews had to be put second to saving the world from Nazism. It was only through the defeat of Germany that the European Jews would be saved. Aside from defeating Hitler and the Nazis, Roosevelt also had to worry about defeating the Japanese militarists who attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and committed genocide at a large scale which resulted in the death of 20 million Asian civilians. In spite of what the Japanese militarists were doing in Asia, Roosevelt gave priority to defeating Germany. One of the unforgettable and terrorizing events in World War 2 was the attack Japanese Kamikaze pilots launched against American warships during the closing days of the War. Kamikaze means “Divine Wind.” This was Japan’s last attempt to try to match the power of the Americans who then had the advantage in terms of technology and material as they slowly advanced toward Japan. The Kamikaze attack was the idea of Vice Admiral Onishi of the Japanese navy who was put in command of coordinating the air attacks against the huge American fleet in the Philippines in October 19, 1944. Vice Admiral Onishi was aware that he only had less than 100 aircraft for the task and using conventional means to fight off the American invasion using conventional means would be impossible. The admiral had to think of way to make his small force powerful. Guided weapons are much more better than unguided weapons because they had greater accuracy, were more lethal, and resulted in greater damage per weapon unit and per sortie. However, during the closing days of the war, Admiral Onishi was aware that it did not have the kind of weapons that Germany had. Admiral Onishi decided that pilots would have to guide their aircraft which carried bombs toward their target which were the American warships anchored off Leyte Gulf. Admiral Onishi had the tactic adopted immediately and large numbers of Japanese pilots were recruited for the job. Many of them were qualified and experienced pilots and air cadets who were asked to volunteer for the job. Kamikaze units were formed and each unit was referred to as an “Special Attack” air wing. “One man-One ship” became the official motto of these units. The Japanese focused the attack of most of the Kamikaze pilots during the Battle of Okinawa in ten large attack waves which were made of conventional and Kamikaze attack aircraft. Each attack wave was referred to as kikosui or floating Chrysantemum. Their attack was coordinated with that of naval and ground units which was aimed at causing the most amount of damage particularly on the aircraft carriers. During the first Kamikaze attack, 355 Kamikaze pilots together with 341 conventional aircraft and the battleship Yamato engaged the American fleet off Okinawa and resulted in the destruction and damage of several American ships. Soon, Japan ran out of combat aircraft for Kamikaze attacks. Trainer aircraft were used instead. The Okha which means “cherry blossom” was a small rocket powered aircraft which had a large 1200 kg warhead in its nose. The Okha was carried by a bomber and dropped 20-30 miles from its target. The pilot then ignited the rockets which guided the missile toward its target. Most Okhas were shot by American fighters even before they can be dropped off from their bombers. A total of 5000 Kamikaze pilots were employed for the task. The effort resulted in 36 sunk American ships and landing craft and another 368 were damaged. Watching wave after wave of Kamikaze aircraft fall out of the sky terrorized the Americans. Aside from the Kamikaze aircraft, the Japanese also used other weapons such as explosive speed boats which was an adoption of the original Italian explosive speed boat. Thousands of these speedboats were produced but many were kept for the anticipated American invasion of Japan. These explosive speed boats sunk eight American ships. Another Kamikaze weapon was the suicide torpedo which called the “kaiten.” The kaiten was fitted with a tiny cockpit and periscope for the operator and a 3400 lb warhead. Kaitens were launched from ships or submarines. There were also the suicide midget submarines which carried explosives instead of torpedoes, the suicide divers who carried explosives, suicide infantrymen who carried anti-tank mines, and the battleship Yamato. The Kamikaze campaign failed to achieve its main goal of stopping the American advance toward Japan in spite of the sacrifice made by the pilots. The Americans on their part attacked Kamikaze airbases in Southern Japan to reduce their number. To the Japanese Kamikaze pilots, it was an honor to die for their country. The Japanese public had been brainwashed for several years by the fanatic militarist leaders. They believed that a defeat would result in the extinction of the Japanese people. Many Japanese pilots were convinced that this threat was real after hearing of the very heavy casualties Kamikaze pilots suffered against a huge force of American ships which also killed many of the pilots’ friends and their relatives. It is because of this that many Japanese pilots were willing to die for their country and this became an easy choice for many of them. References Frieman, Barry and Wendy Lower. The Holocaust: A Tool to Teach Children to Respect People Who are Different. http://towson.edu/coe/pdsn/parents/booklet.pdf Kamikaze Pilots: Suicide Warfare in World War 2, and Its Military and Cultural Rationale. http://www.2worldwar2.com/kamikaze-pilots.htm. Rosen, Robert. Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Holocaust. http://www.savingthejews.com/html/carterlibraryspeech.htm. United States History. Wars and Battles, 1944-1945 Japan's Suicide Pilots of World War II. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1740.html Read More