Natural Democracy

MAKING  TNT  AND RECAPTURING  THE  JAPANESE ISLAND OF  OKINAWA

    In the first part of WWII, as a chemical engineer I could have been deffered to work in any part of the defence industry. I choose to be more directly involved.

    First, I decided to make TNT. It blew up many thousands of Germans and Japanese.
 
    Then I decided to become more directly involved. I joined the Navy. My eyes didn’t  pass the vision test for submarine duty. So instead, I became a radar officer and served on an attack transport.

    We started up the Japanese island chain, capturing island by island.  At the battle of Okinawa on our way to Tokyo, the Japanese “kamikaze” planes flew in strafing us as they came. We stuck back with anti-aircraft guns bringing their planes down one by one.

    I vividly remember seeing the body of a Japanese pilot floating by in the current. His blood was staining the water. What motivated him to fly was his obedience to the Japanese Emporer. What motivated me to shoot him down was my desire to help save democracy. He was doing what he was told to do.  I was doing what I wanted to do.

    I’ve been  working ever since on ways of making democracy work even better. That is the story I will tell in this book