The Destruction of Cities

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Darrell Castle talks about the 75th anniversary of the end of the war with Japan along with the current destruction of American cities.

Transcription/Notes:

THE DESTRUCTION OF CITIES

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is the 21^st day of August in the year 2020 and here in the Castle family we are doing just fine except that the family daughter has had her hopes for an escape from her jungle island dashed again by a few cases of virus in New Zealand so flights have once again been cancelled. So, we talk to her on zoom, we wait, and we pray for her and her husband as they endure their 6^th month of captivity.

Now here is a bit of information you might not be aware of. The destruction of the cities of the world  has not always been the result of Democrat politicians although, by a strange coincidence, the two we are going to remember today were destroyed under a Democrat politician. This month of August 2020 is one of such historic importance that I must take you back 75 years into history to talk about it. Why do I remind you of World War Two anniversaries and talk about that event in history so much? Because the men who fought there should not be forgotten, and because it was the last time in our country’s history that we were completely united as a people against a common enemy.

This month is the 75^th anniversary of many things having to do with World War II and specifically with the war against Japan. It is the 75^th anniversary of the peace treaty that ended the war with Japan. It is the 75^th anniversary of the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan, and it is the 75^th anniversary of the death of the last American killed in World War II. His name was Anthony Marchione and he had just celebrated his 21^st birthday. The date was August 18, 1945, two days after President Truman had ordered all American forces to cease offensive operations against Japan.

The United States had a new bomber called the B-32 Dominator, which was not even used during the war, but was then being used for photo reconnaissance to make sure that Japan was complying with the cease fire agreement. The bomber was to take off from the southern tip of Okinawa and fly to Japan to photograph a Japanese airfield north of Tokyo. Tony Marchione was not a member of the regular crew but was assigned as a photographer and assistant gunner on the flight.

There were a lot of Japanese military who would not accept the Emperor’s statement to the Japanese people that he had accepted the Allied terms of unconditional surrender. He explained to them in his national broadcast that the Americans had a new and most cruel bomb of such devastating power that further resistance was futile.  Ordinary Japanese viewed the Emperor as a god and when he spoke that was the law, so they accepted his decision, but much of the remaining military refused and committed mutiny rather than lay down their arms.

In the meantime, as Tony Marchione’s bomber reached its assigned area and began to take pictures it was attacked by four rogue Japanese fighter aircraft flown by mutinous aviators and Tony was hit at his gun turret. He bled to death in the sky while attempting to make it back to his base. Tony Marchione was the last of almost half a million American combat deaths in World War II. That was 75 years ago August 18, 1945 so he would be 96 years old if he were still alive today.

A few days before that on the 6^th of August 1945 a B-29 named the Enola Gay took off from its island base at Tinian headed for the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The Enola Gay dropped a 5000-pound atomic weapon named Little Boy which exploded over Hiroshima with a force equivalent to 15000 tons of TNT. Eighty thousand people died instantly with 10’s of thousands more dying of radiation over the following few days.

Three days later Emperor Hirohito and his generals still scratched their heads like Hamlet, so another bomb named fat boy was used against Nagasaki with similar results. Two cities were wiped off the map and the world had what remained of its innocence taken away that day. The two mushroom clouds became a symbol that has dominated the world and appeared in its nightmares for 75 years.

We have been held hostage to thoughts of nuclear annihilation for all that time and most of us realize that one mistake by one leader could set it off. We all, hopefully we all, understand the awesome power that has been placed in the hands of each person who has occupied that office since then. The Japanese Emperor understood after Nagasaki that these Americans were not planning to give his warlords that glorious chance to die in the streets of Japan fighting one million American troops. Emperor Hirohito probably expected Tokyo to be the next city to disappear.

He was told by President Truman through diplomatic channels that if he surrendered his nation unconditionally, he could remain as the symbol of Japan. General Douglas Macarthur was appointed pro consul of Japan and he was in effect the new Emperor. There is a new movie starring Tommy Lee Jones as Macarthur called Emperor which you can get for free on You Tube, and I can recommend it most highly.

General Macarthur brought order to Japan and helped the Japanese rebuild and rejoin the modern world. Within a few years of being completely devastated and turned into a nuclear wasteland, Japan was a G-20 economy so there should be statues to Douglas Macarthur all over that country. He ran the country with dignity and respect for its people and customs and the natural ability of the Japanese people were channeled into economic production instead of military conquest. Even the old military became involved in the rebuilding project. Germany was also completely devastated and had to be rebuilt from the ground up. The American taxpayers, through the Marshall Plan, rebuilt the cities of Europe very quickly. America needed the nations of Europe and Japan as trading partners for their own economy, so the rebuilding helped both sides.

The destruction of our cities today at the hands of Democrat politicians can’t be compared with the atomic blasts that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the round the clock bombing of German cities, but the destruction is rather complete, nevertheless. Especially in New York where millions have fled the devastation the lockdown and later riots and looting have almost destroyed that city. This is the worst economic disaster in New York history. It is worse than 9/11, worse than the 2007/2008 Wall Street crash, even worse than the Spanish Flu epidemic or the polio epidemic.

Never before have the stores on 5^th avenue been completely closed and boarded up. Fifth Avenue is perhaps the busiest shopping district in the world with millions walking that avenue constantly day and night. It is currently lined with boarded storefronts from the destructive looting which Governor Cuomo and mayor De Blasio refused to stop. Couple the riots and looting with the economic destruction from the lockdown and what you have left is a destroyed city.

New York, the greatest city in the world, the capitol of the world, is currently deserted. There are no tourists walking the streets and I mean none as in zero. Broadway is closed and dark as are at least 60% of the 18,000 restaurants in the city. Tourist attractions are not open because there are no tourists. The streets look like a ghost town and the question becomes; will it ever be back to normal.

My guess is that it will not return to normal since millions have left permanently taking the tax base with them. Businesses, forced to close for 6 months, have found ways to work remotely, or they have died. Those people will not be coming back to pay the most expensive real estate rents and taxes in the country. They have found, by necessity, that there is a new and perhaps better life in Nashville, Austin, and Winston Salem where they have relocated. Their work can be done from anywhere so why not avoid the cost and the hassle of living in Manhattan if the fun has been removed from the equation.

My daughter went to college in New York, so a lot of my money and my time was left there over several years. I’ve seen recent videos plus I have talked to people who have been there since the lockdown, and it is not the same city. Andrew Cuomo and Bill De Blasio can certainly be proud because they have destroyed the greatest city in the world. New York now faces a monumental, perhaps unsolvable, rebuilding task.

The West Coast Democrat cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle speak for themselves. The riots and looting for months, soaring rates of violent crime, coupled with the lockdown from the virus, and anyone who can escape has done so. I spoke to a business associate who has lived in both New York and LA this year and she told me that the cities have changed places with regard to the economic devastation. LA is showing signs of returning to its pre virus normal, but New York is a ghost town.

Portland and Seattle have some terrible Democrat leaders, but I repeat myself. I have talked about them so many times that it gets boring, but they are Democrat poster cities right now. Violent crime, riots, looting, destruction, and no work, all add up to a destruction of the cities that were once great. In Chicago we have the murder capital of the nation coupled with all the other headaches and hassles of living in such a Democrat utopia, including the looted and broken shops of Michigan Avenue.

People are voting with their feet and getting out just as fast as they can. Many of the people I have talked to who managed to stay out the lockdowns of their cities, fled from the riots and looting. I suppose the lesson is that if we just keep voting for those Democrats, we will get our socialist utopia sooner or later. Those of us who are fortunate enough to live somewhere else still enjoyed a visit to the city from time to time. We went to LA to enjoy the beaches and Hollywood, and we went to New York for Broadway, or to see a baseball game, and in the winter for Rockefeller Center and Macys on 34^th and Broadway which is now looted and boarded up. Too bad, I loved those cities, but maybe this will spark a movement toward decentralization.

Finally, folks, do I really think the devastation after World War Two compares with today? Only in principle, not in fact, after all, it took years of round the clock bombing, plus a final nuclear blast to devastate the cities of Germany and Japan but Democrat Mayor De Blasio turned the greatest city in the world into a ghost town in only five months.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.