It's probably one of the best-known images of World War II, the enduring photograph that captures the last seconds of Leonard Siffleet's life.

The photograph came to light after US troops discovered it on the body of a dead Japanese officer near Hollandia in 1944.

Featured in various newspapers and in Life magazine, it was thought to depict Flight Lieutenant Bill Newton, who had been captured in Salamaua, Papua New Guinea, and was beheaded on March 29, 1943. Even today, the soldier is still occasionally misidentified as Newton.

The soldier, who would become known because of the circumstances of his death, was actually Leonard George "Len" Siffleet.

He was born on January 14, 1916, at Gunnedah, New South Wales, Australia. Siffleet, who loved sports and adventure, moved in the late 1930s to Sydney to search for work. He tried to join the police forces but was rejected for having poor eyesight.

Nevertheless, in August 1940 Siffleet was still called up for military service, and he served in a searchlight unit at Richmond Air Force Base for three months before returning to civilian life. Not long after in September 1941, he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force and joined the 1st Division Signals Company at Ingleburn.

Leonard Siffleet went on a signals course at Melbourne Technical College before he volunteered for special operations in September 1942. He was posted to the Z Special unit. In October 1943 he went to the Z Experimental Station in Cairs, where he would receive further training.

Siffleet was promoted to sergeant on May 5, 1943, and he was assigned as a radio operator in his unit. Not long after his promotion he was transferred to M Special Unit and was sent to Hollandia, Papa New Guinea, with his fellow soldiers.

In mid-September 1943, while part of a team led by a Sergeant Staverman, which included two Ambonese members of the Netherlands East Indies Forces, a Private Pattiwahl and a Private Reharin, Siffleet was underway to Aitape while traveling behind Japanese lines. At some point in October 1943, they were discovered by New Guinea natives and surrounded. Siffleet fired on some of the attackers before fleeing, but he was quickly caught along with his companions.

The New Guinea natives turned them over to the Japanese troops. The men were taken to Malol, where they were brutally interrogated. After being interned there for two weeks, they were moved to Aitape.

On October 24, 1943, Sergeant Siffleet, Private Pattiwahl, and Private Reharin were marched to Aitape Beach. Bound and blindfolded, kneeling before a crowd of Japanese and native onlookers, they were forced to the ground and executed by beheading.

Vice Admiral Kamada, the commander of the Japanese Naval Forces at Aitape, ordered the execution. Yasuno Chikao, who carried out the beheadings, was sentenced to death after the war. The sentence was subsequently commuted to 10 years imprisonment as it was determined he had acted in a subordinate capacity.

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1. The Green Beret founder of Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training used a math problem to trick the Viet Cong. 

In the grand scheme of things, the Vietnam War tends to get the short end of the stick when it comes to great stories of war — maybe it’s too recent or painful an event to be remembered with the nostalgia associated with World War II.

Regardless, the story of James Nicholas “Nick” Rowe is one that deserves a spot in the limelight, and it might be one you haven’t heard before.

Not only was Rowe a Green Beret during Vietnam, he would also create the Army SERE course, a grueling training course that teaches methods of “survival, evasion, resistance, and escape” for when soldiers are captured by the enemy.

One of the training’s more notorious tasks is learning how to drink snake blood to keep up your calorie intake, so it’s safe to say Rowe was a pretty hardcore guy.

But even the best of the best can get caught by surprise. 

While on a mission supporting South Vietnamese irregulars against the Viet Cong, Rowe and his fellow Green Berets walked into an ambush. The men fought valiantly, but after exchanging fire they were overpowered and taken as prisoners. When they reached the POW camp they were separated and locked in cages, entering a living hell that they would endure for the next five years.

It only got worse for Rowe. The Viet Cong knew he was the leader of his unit, and suspected he had information. They were right. Rowe served as the captured unit’s intelligence officer, and possessed exactly the kind of information the Viet Cong desperately needed.

As a result, Rowe had to endure near-constant torture, on top of the already deplorable conditions of the prison. At one point Rowe confessed his “true” position, claiming he was just an engineer, but the VC weren’t going to let him off easy.

They cut the torture to give Rowe engineering problems to solve. Amazingly, despite the fact that he was starving, living in a cage and was not an engineer, he completed it correctly. His torturers were satisfied, and Rowe thought he could rest easy thanks to West Point’s mandatory engineering courses.

He was wrong. Around the same time, a group of American peace activists were on a mission to visit American officers in Vietnamese prisoner of war camps. The goal of the excursion was a little fuzzy, but they essentially wanted to prove that the North Vietnamese’s prison methods were above board. Rowe’s name was on their list of officers to visit, along with the fact that he was a Special Forces intelligence officer.

When the Viet Cong discovered the lie, they forced Rowe to stand naked in a swamp for days on end, leaving him ravaged by mosquitos and dizzy with lack of food or water. They were fed up with this phony engineer and his multiple escape attempts, and decided enough was enough. They gave Rowe an execution date, eager to rid themselves of his antics.

When the day finally came, Rowe was led far away from the camp, when suddenly a group of American helicopters thundered overhead, rustling the jungle trees and giving Rowe the split second of time he needed to break free, fend off his captors and sprint after the helicopters. Amazingly, one of the choppers noticed Rowe waving like a maniac in a clearing, and was able to rescue him from his scheduled death.

2. The British soldier who escaped The Gestapo’s “unescapable” castle

Escaping a prisoner of war camp is no easy feat, and many who have made it to freedom recount plotting their escape plans for months, even years, to execute it right on the first try.

This, apparently, was not Airey Neave’s style. Instead of biding his time, the British soldier escaped from World War II POW camps whenever he could, undeterred by failed attempts.

Finally, when he and his friend were caught in Poland after escaping German POW camp Stalag XX-A, he was collected by the Gestapo, who sent him to Oflag IV-C, AKA the Castle of Colditz — AKA the last stop for all troublemaking POWs.

It may look like a summer home fit for the Von Trapp family, but this place was no joke. If you’re doubtful you can read up on some accounts of the “escape proof” castle here.

The castle’s prisoners weren’t as confident in its “inescapable” qualities and instead just came up with ridiculously complex plans of escape.

Unsuccessful attempts involved the construction of a small wooden glider, a network of underground tunnels, and prisoners sewing themselves into mattresses to be smuggled out with the laundry. Tempting as these flashy failures were, Neave decided to take a more theatrical approach to his escape.

After he secretly acquired pieces of a Polish army uniform, he painted the shirt and cap green to resemble a German officer’s ensemble. Then he put on his new duds and strolled out of the prison like a Nazi on his way to Sunday dinner with his girl. What he didn’t anticipate, however, was how reflective the paint would be; once outside, he lit up like a Christmas tree under the guard’s searchlight passed over him. It didn’t end well.

But Neave still thought the idea was pretty awesome, and pulled the stunt a second time a few months later, with an updated “uniform” of cardboard, cloth, and more Nazi-green. He also had a partner in crime this time, another prisoner named Anthony Luteyn, who was also sporting a mock German getup.

During an all-inmate stage production that the prison sponsored and put on, Neave and Lutyen quietly slipped off stage, crawled underneath the floorboards that held the dancing inmates and were right above the guards' headquarters.

From there the pair dropped into the room from the ceiling and acted natural, strolling about and exchanging pleasantries in German as if they were simply visiting officers. Once they had ensured no one was suspicious, they calmly made their exit.

Once outside of the prison, they threw away the homemade German uniforms and pretended to be two Dutch workers on their way to Ulm from Leipzeg, with (fake) papers to prove it. Unfortunately, the phony documents ended up getting the two stopped by German police, but they bought the disguises and sent them to the foreign aid office, believing they were just confused immigrants.

Despite this and other close calls, Neave and Lutven continued their journey — all on foot — until they made it to Switzerland, where they were finally free. Neaves would later work to ensure there were quality escape lines for other POWS in Europe, and would also serve on the Nuremberg Trials.

3. The three-prong tunnel system that led 3 POWs to safety

The tunnels, nicknamed “Tom”, “Dick”, and “Harry,” were each 30 feet deep. This way, Bushell hoped, they wouldn’t be detected by the camp’s perimeter microphones. Each tunnel was also only about two feet wide, though there were larger sections that contained an air pump and a space full of digging supplies. Pieces of wood were used to ensure the stability of the tunnel walls.

Electric lighting was installed and attached to the prison’s electric grid, allowing the diggers to work and travel by lamplight 10 yards under the ground’s surface. The operation even advanced far enough to incorporate a rail car system into their tunnel network, which was used to carry tons and tons of building materials back and forth during the 5-month construction period.

Just as the “Harry” tunnel was completed in 1944, the American officers who had toiled over the escape route were moved to a new camp. The rest of the prisoners attempted an escape about a week later on March 24, but they had unfortunately miscalculated where their tunnels would end.

Initially believing the secret tunnel would dump them inside a forest, they emerged to realize that they were short of the tree line and completely exposed. Still, over 70 men crawled through the dark, dank tunnels to the other side, rushing to the trees once they surfaced. Tragically, on March 25th, a German guard spotted the 77th man crawling out of the tunnel, leading to the capture of 73 of the men, and later the execution of 50 of them.

Only three would survive and make it to freedom, but the escape had gone down as one of the most elaborate in history.

4. Bill Goldfinch and Jack Best’s plan to fly the Colditz coop

You didn’t really think we were going to just breeze by that wooden glider story, did you?

There have been plenty of wacky escape methods, but none as bold or sophisticated as literally building yourself a two-man wooden plane.

At least, this was the plan. Jack Best and Bill Goldfinch were similar to Neave in their can-do, slightly certifiable approach to escape. The men were pilots, and decided that the best way to bust out of the German castle was to do what they did best: fly. Or, more accurately in this case, glide. The Colditz castle was built atop a large cliff, perfect for launching a secret and probably highly unstable aircraft.

Goldfinch and Best began building the glider’s skeleton in the attic above the prison chapel, figuring the height would give it enough time to glide across the Mulde river, which was situated about 200 feet below the building.

To keep the Germans from walking in on the construction, the pair built a false wall out of old pieces of wood, the same stuff they constructed the glider out of. The plane was mostly made up out of bed slats and floor boards, but the men used whatever material they could get their hands on that they thought the Germans wouldn’t miss. Control wires were going to be created from electrical wiring that was found in quieter sections of the castle.

Though the operation was deemed moot before it could ever be carried out (the Axis released the prisoners before it could be flown), we felt this almost-escape deserved some recognition because by many accounts, it would have worked. In 2000, a replica of the Colditz glider was constructed for a documentary entitled “Escape from Colditz”, and was actually flown successfully at RAF Odiham.

It gets even cooler, though. Best and Goldfinch were able to watch the whole thing go down, and witness their “escape” firsthand.

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In 1939, the US Coast Guard had been turning away recruits for years during the Great Depression. But, the Seattle office found itself with seven openings in September of that year and admitted seven new men to the force.

One of them was future Signalman First Class Douglas Munro who would go on to earn a Medal of Honor at the Battle of Guadalcanal. He is the only Coast Guardsman to earn the award to date.

Douglas Munro was born to American parents in Vancouver, Canada in 1919, but grew up in Washington State. After one year of college, he enlisted in the Coast Guard. He volunteered for service aboard a Coast Guard cutter and was promoted.

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Coast Guard to man certain position on Navy ships, Munro volunteered for service on the USS Hunter Liggett.

Munro saw service on different Navy ships, gaining rank and changing commands until becoming a signalman first class aboard the USS McCawley. Meanwhile, US military planners had their eyes set on Guadalcanal, a strategic island chain in the Pacific that was part of the Solomon Islands. Guadalcanal was especially important because Japanese forces were building an airstrip on the island.

The Marines began their campaign on August 7, 1942. The airstrip was quickly captured but Japanese defenders maintained control of the westernmost portion of the island. A river separated most of the U.S. and Japanese territory. Repeated attempts by the Marines to cross the river were rebuffed by Japanese forces.

The Marines adopted a new plan, commanded by none other than then-Lt. Col. Chesty Puller, for three companies of Puller’s Marines to land at Port Cruz, a position north of the Japanese forces, and push their way south.

Munro commanded the ships for the assault, and things initially went smoothly. The Marines landed with no resistance and quickly pushed 500 yards inland without major incident. After dropping off the Marines, all but one ship returned to the American base.

But the Marines had walked past hidden Japanese positions, and their counterattack was brutal. A friend of Munro was in the landing craft that remained at the beach. Then-Signalman Raymond Evans described what happened next in a Coast Guard video.

“In the meantime, all our boats had gone back to the base except the major had requested we leave one boat behind, for immediate casualties.  And so I stayed, I elected to stay behind and I had a coxswain named Sam Roberts from Portland, and the two of us were laying to in this LCP.  Unfortunately, we laid too close to the beach and the Japanese fired an automatic weapon at us and hit Roberts, hit all the controls, the vacuum controls on the boat. I slammed it into “full-ahead” and we tore out of there and I tore back to the, to the base, four miles, and when I got to the base, I pulled it out of gear, but it wouldn’t come out of gear, so we ran up on the beach, which is a long sloping sand beach.  Ran up on the beach the full length of the boat before it stopped.”

Roberts died during a medical evacuation. Soon after Evans returned to the American base, word came down that the Marines at Port Cruz were to be evacuated. Puller headed out to sea to personally supervise the Naval artillery fire covering the evacuation while the Coast Guard hopped into their boats to go and pick up the Marines. Evans moved into Munro’s boat for the return mission.

When the Coast Guard arrived at the beach, it was clear that the Marines were in a desperate position. They had 25 wounded and were under heavy fire. The beach was only five to six feet wide from the water to the jungle, and the Japanese were using the jungle for cover and concealment while firing on the Marines.

All of the Coast Guard boats were made of plywood and were susceptible to enemy fire. To allow the other ships time to load Marines and move out, Munro and Evans began laying cover fire with the .30-cal. machine guns, the heaviest weapons the small landing force had. Under the cover of the Naval bombardment and the Coast Guard machine guns, the Marines were able to scramble onto the small craft.

The small flotilla began making it’s way back out to sea, and Munro ordered his boat in-between the beaches and the retreating craft while continuing to provide cover fire.

When the other ships were clear, Munro and Evans began their own slog back to the American parts of the island. On their way, they saw one of the landing craft stuck on a sand bar. Munro again ordered the ship stopped to assist the beached craft even though the nearby shoreline was controlled by Japanese forces.

Munro, Evans, and an engineer managed to pull the ship back into the water so it could make good its escape. Once Munro’s craft was finally headed out, Evans spotted Japanese forces placing a machine gun. He yelled a warning to Munro, but the engines drowned out his yell. Munro was struck in the base of the skull by a single bullet and died before reaching the operating base.

Munro was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, becoming the only Coast Guardsman to receive the award. Evans received the Navy Cross and stayed in the Coast Guard, eventually retiring as a commander. After Munro’s death, his mother joined the Coast Guard as an officer.

The Coast Guard has a collection of photos from Munro’s life, including him as a baby and him boxing in the Navy.

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Japan marked the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Thursday, with Mayor Kazumi Matsui renewing calls for U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders to step up efforts toward making a nuclear-weapons-free world.

Tens of thousands of people stood for a minute of silence at 8:15 a.m. at a ceremony in Hiroshima's peace park near the epicenter of the 1945 attack, marking the moment of the blast.

Then dozens of doves were released as a symbol of peace.

The U.S. bomb, "Little Boy," the first nuclear weapon used in war, killed 140,000 people. A second bomb, "Fat Man," dropped over Nagasaki three days later, killed another 70,000, prompting Japan's surrender in World War II.

The U.S. dropped the bombs to avoid what would have been a bloody ground assault on the Japanese mainland, following the fierce battle for Japan's southernmost Okinawan islands, which took 12,520 American lives and an estimated 200,000 Japanese, about half civilians.

Matsui called nuclear weapons "the absolute evil and ultimate inhumanity" that must be abolished, and criticized nuclear powers for keeping them as threats to achieve their national interests. He said the world till bristles with more than 15,000 nuclear weapons.

He renewed an invitation to world leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to see the scars themselves, during the G-7 summit in Japan next year.

"President Obama and other policymakers, please come to the A-bombed cities, hear the hibakusha (surviving victims) with your own ears, and encounter the reality of the atomic bombings," he said. "Surely, you will be impelled to start discussing a legal framework, including a nuclear weapons convention."

The anniversary comes as Japan is divided over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to pass unpopular legislation to expand the country's military role internationally, a year after his Cabinet's decision to loosen Japan's war-renouncing constitution by adopting a new interpretation of it.

"We must establish a broad national security framework that does not rely on use of force but is based on trust," Matsui said. He urged the Japanese government to stick with "the pacifism of the Japanese Constitution" to lead the global effort of no proliferation.

Abe, also addressing the ceremony, said that as the sole country to face a nuclear attack, Japan had a duty to push for the elimination of nuclear weapons. He pledged to promote the cause through international conferences to be held in Hiroshima later this month.

With the average age of survivors now exceeding 80 for the first time this year, passing on their stories is considered an urgent task. There were 5,359 hibakusha who died over the past year, bringing the total death toll from the Hiroshima bombing to 297,684.

U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and representatives from more than 100 countries, including Britain, France and Russia, attended the ceremony.

"Little Boy," dropped from the Enola Gay B-29 bomber, destroyed 90 percent of the city. A "black rain" of radioactive particles followed the blinding blast and fireball, and has been linked to higher rates of cancer and other radiation-related diseases among the survivors.

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Seventy years ago, the US Air Force's "Enola Gay" B-29 Superfortress bomber dropped a 15-kiloton nuclear bomb, code-named Little Boy, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The blast, which was the first detonation of a uranium-based nuclear device in history, instantly killed 70,000 people, while the lasting effects of the radiation brought the toll up to 140,000.

Hiroshima, a city of 310,000, was almost completely annihilated.

The nuclear chain reaction unleashed by a mere two pounds of concentrated uranium atoms, created when two hemispheres containing a total of 140 pounds of highly enriched uranium slammed into one another about 1,900 feet above Hiroshima, created an over 1,000-foot fireball, ended tens of thousands of lives, and vaporized an entire city.

It's impossible to truly grasp the enormity of an atomic blast like the one that leveled Hiroshima, but The Nuke Map is an invaluable attempt at it.

The work of Alex Wellerstein, a historian of nuclear technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology, the Nuke Map lets users detonate bombs of various yields over any point on earth and then calculates potential casualties, fatalities, and fallout. 

The tool gives a jarring perspective on the Hiroshima bomb by allowing users to superimpose Little Boy's blast radius over a variety of familiar locations. In each map, the inner circle indicates the fireball created by the nuclear reaction's release of energy. The next circle denotes the "air-blast radius" where rising air pressure would crush most buildings and kill or injure nearly everyone. The green circle indicates the area where radiation will be lethal it goes untreated within a period of hours or days. The two outer lines are the air blast and thermal radiation limit of the explosion, respectively.

In Washington, DC, a 15-kiloton bomb, with an explosive yield equal to 15,000 tons of TNT, would kill 126,000 people and injure over 190,000 more:

A 15-kiloton nuclear weapon has a fireball radius of over 500 feet, giving the most destructive section of the explosion a width of more than four Manhattan blocks.

If detonated over 20th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the air-blast radius of Little Boy-sized device — a zone where increased air pressure would crush most buildings and where the casualty rate would be in the 100% range — would span from the East Village to the southern edge of midtown Manhattan. The bomb would kill an estimated 445,000 people.

Another look:

The bomb's enormity can also be glimpsed by dropping it on midsized cities. Little Boy would irradiate the entirety of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, and kill 32,000 people out of a population of around 500,000.

The examples of Hiroshima and the attack on Nagasaki three days later convinced the world of the bomb's destructive potential and created a still vital sense of urgency among diplomats, politicians, military planners, and activists for ensuring that atomic devices are never used in war.

But there are still nearly 16,000 nuclear weapons on earth, many of which have far higher explosive yields than Little Boy. It's been 70 years since the last nuclear strike. But if that streak ever comes to an end, the cost would be unimaginable.

The bombing of Nagasaki ended up being the last nuclear strike in history — but only so far.

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A sniper demonstrates his camouflage (note: German Waffen-SS Camo Pattern: named unofficially "Early Plane Tree") at a sniper school in a French village, July 27, 1944.

A sniper applying camouflage face cream at a sniper school in a Normandy village, July 27 1944.

A 6th Airborne Division sniper on patrol in the Ardennes, wearing a snow camouflage suit, January 14 1945.

A British sniper aiming through the telescopic sights of his rifle on the range at a sniper training school in France, July 27, 1944.

A British sniper, Private Sutcliffe, at a window of a house in Caen watching for enemy snipers through telescopic sights.

A camouflage suit for a sniper of the British Army.

A sniper from C Company, 5th Battalion, The Black Watch , 51st (Highland) Division, in a ruined building in Gennep, Holland, February 14 1945.

A sniper from C Company, 5th Battalion, The Black Watch, 51st (Highland) Division, in the loft space of a ruined building in Gennep, Holland, February 14 1945.

A sniper from the Seaforth Highlanders aiming from behind a carrier as 15th (Scottish) Division troops deal with German resistance in Uelzen, April 16 1945.

Canadian Sniper, Pte. L. V. Hughe.

Lance Corporal A P Proctor, a sniper with 56th Division, cleaning his rifle, November 24, 1943.

Sergeant sergeant H.A. Marshall of the Calgary Highlanders Sniping Platoon. Kapellen, Belgium.

Snipers at a sniper school in a French village, July 27, 1944.

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Shortly after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, the Enola Gay's tail gunner Bob Caron wrote his wife that the crew had just received a medal and she'd be reading about what they had done in the newspapers.

"It seems our crew and airplanes made history or something," wrote then-Tech Sgt. George Robert "Bob" Caron, of Wendover, Utah. 

"When they let us write about it from here, I'll be able to tell you all about it. Our picture will probably be all over the states before we can say anything."

Caron and others in the 11-member crew of the B-29 Superfortress still weren't quite sure what it was that had dropped from the bomb bay on that bright morning 70 years ago, but Caron was the first to see the effects from his position in the tail. They had given him a K-20 camera to take the first photos.

The pilot, Col. Paul Tibbets, who named the B-29 the "Enola Gay" after his mother, told Caron to describe what he saw to the crew over the intercom.

"It was an awesome sight. I described the mushroom cloud as it grows. Well, it was white on the outside and it was sort of a purplish black towards the interior, and it had a fiery red core, and it just kept boiling up. I think that's how I described it on the intercom," Caron said years later in an interview.

"As we got further away, I could see the city then, not just the mushroom, coming up. I could see the city, and it was being covered with this low, bubbling mass. It looked like bubbling molasses, let's say, spreading out and running up into the foothills, just covering the whole city."

"And fires, I could see fires spring up through this undercast, or whatever you would call it, that was covering the city. Flames in different spots would be springing up. It was about that time that Tibbets turned the airplane around, so that everybody could get a look at it."

Then the co-pilot, Capt. Robert A. Lewis, of Brooklyn, NY, saw it. He was keeping a log of the flight, scribbling on the backs of old War Department forms. He wrote:

''If I live a hundred years, I'll never quite get these few minutes out of my mind. Everyone on the ship is actually dumbstruck even though we had expected something fierce."

"I honestly have the feeling of groping for words to explain this or I might say, my God, what have we done?"

Lewis, Caron and the others, however, would later say they had no regrets about dropping the bomb. It had hastened the end of the war and saved the lives of US troops who were then preparing for the invasion of Japan.

Capt. Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, of Northumberland, Pa., later said that "I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run, but I pray no man will have to witness that sight again. Such a terrible waste, such a loss of life."

The crew also hoped that the bomb would never be used again but it was, three days later on Aug. 9, when a B-29 called "Bockscar" dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Jacob Beser would be the only one to see the aftermath of both explosions. He was a radarman on the Enola Gay and performed the same duties on Bockscar.

Beser would later write that "No, I feel no sorrow or remorse for whatever small role I played. That I should is crazy. I remember Pearl Harbor and all of the Japanese atrocities."

"I remember the shock to our nation that all of this brought. I don't want to hear any discussion of morality. War, by its very nature, is immoral."

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My dream history lesson includes a tropical Pacific island where I step off a beautiful boat soaked in sunshine in the warm Micronesian waters and descend on a coral covered ship that was part of World War II.

This dream and these ships came to life for me during a recent trip aboard the MV Odyssey live-aboard. Truk Lagoon, now known as Chuuk, is most certainly one of the world’s greatest wreck diving destinations.

These lush green islands with palm trees and calm blue waters make it almost impossible to fathom the immense battle that took place on February 17 and 18, 1944.

Under Japanese occupation during World War II, Truk served as one of the Japanese Imperial Navy’s main bases in the South Pacific Theater. This logistical and operations base for the Japanese Combine Fleet was the target of a US attack called Operation Hailstone.

Known in Japan as Torakku-tō Kūshū (the airstrike on Truk Island), the United States took Japan by almost complete surprise with two days of daytime and nighttime airstrikes, surface ship actions, and submarine attacks.

Ordered by Admiral Raymond Spruance, Vice Admiral Marc A Mitscher’s Task Force 58 included five fleet carriers (the USS Enterprise, USS Yorktown, USS Essex, USS Intrepid, and the USS Bunker Hill) and four light carriers embarking more than 500 planes.

There were also seven battleships, numerous cruisers, destroyers, submarines and other support ships assisting the carriers.

Airstrikes, employed fighters, dive bombers and torpedo aircraft were used in the attacks focusing on airfields, aircraft, shore installations, and ships around the Truk anchorage throughout the day and night. Many airplanes were destroyed as they were unable to take off, having just been delivered off cargo ships and still being disassembled.

Although still a major success for the Americans, just a week before Operation Hailstone, much of the Japanese fleet’s larger warships were sent to sea to be relocated out of Truk. This was probably due to the base becoming too vulnerable.

But even with those ships gone, the Americans sank twelve Japanese warships, 32 merchant ships, and destroyed 249 aircraft. Many of the ships were loaded with supplies to be delivered to other parts of the Pacific and little of the cargo was recovered, thereby hindering the Japanese Navy in the Central and South Pacific and ending Truk as a threat to Allied operations in the Central Pacific.

Many ships sank and many lives were lost, but the ships of Truk Lagoon now serve a new purpose underwater. Reborn as artificial reefs, the wrecks have become covered with marine life and become home to schools of fish, anemones, corals, sharks and much more.

The wrecks of Truk Lagoon had been on my ‘must dive’ list for years, but Chuuk is a long way away from almost everywhere. Serviced only by United airlines, a stop in Honolulu or Guam is required to get to Truk. My flights included eight hours to Honolulu, eight more to Guam, and a thankfully short two hour flight to Chuuk. Arriving very late, and very tired, I was greeted at the airport by several pleasant crew from the Odyssey who took us to the boat.

Much too excited to sleep, I laid awake in my cabin waiting for morning and our first wreck.

Diving the wrecks

Finally morning had come, breakfast was served and Captain Nelson gave us the dive deck briefing.

He touched on several important topics concerning diving these wrecks, the first being that these wrecks were not sunk on purpose.

Unlike many wrecks sank artificially that are cleaned and made safer for divers, these are actual sunken warships with potential hazards requiring divers to be aware at all times of what they’re doing, especially inside the wrecks.

Visibility inside the wrecks can go from great to zero quickly from bubbles knocking off rust from overhead environments and stray fins can kick up silt leading to low visibility situations.

These ships, having been underwater for almost 70 years, are beginning to show their age. For example, one of the Lagoon’s most famous wrecks, the Fujikawa Maru, known for its spectacular engine room penetration, has had most of its super structure collapse in the past year, making it dangerous to access its famous engine room.

Airplanes

Some of the more popular airplane wreck dives in the Lagoon include the Kawanishi H8K1 “Emily” Flying Boat and the Mitsubishi G4M “Betty” Bomber. Bomber aircraft were often given female names and fighter aircraft were often nicknamed with men’s names.

The Emily Flying Boat was known for its long range and nicknamed the “Flying Porcupine” was very difficult to shoot down because it had self-sealing fuel tanks and internal fire extinguishers. It held a crew of 16, had a 37m (124ft) wingspan and was 28m (92ft) long. It had four 1850 horsepower Mitsubishi Kasei engines.

This particular wreck was bringing back the Commanding Officer of the Fourth Fleet, his Chief of Staff and other senior Japanese Naval Officers from a meeting in Palau. US fighters repeatedly attack and the pilot still managed to escape the fighters and return to Truk, although while trying to land the damaged aircraft the pilot lost control and it crashed and sank. The pilot, Admiral and Chief of Staff survived.

An easy wreck to dive at 15m (50ft), much of the plane is intact including several propellers. Near the plane sit several gauge panels and other airplane parts.

The Betty bomber was a small twin engine plane that sits in 15-18m (50-60ft) in the sand. Made to be as light as possible, the fuel tanks were unprotected and easily caught fire, making them very vulnerable. This wreck crashed on trying to land on Eten Island and it is unknown if it was shot down or crashed on its own.

The engines are found about 90m (300ft) in front of the rest of the wreck closer to the island. This plane would hold a crew of seven, had a wingspan of 25m (85ft), was 20m (66ft) long and would have four 12.7mm machine guns, one 20mm cannon, and one 1750lb bomb.

Nippo Maru

Hit and sunk by three 500 pound bombs in its stern, the Nippo Maru was a 106m (350ft) transport ship mostly carrying water. Originally a passenger and cargo freighter, she was seized in 1941 by the Japanese and sits mostly upright with a 20 degree port list between 15 and 45m (50-150ft).

The Nippo has a very noticeable wheelhouse with an intact telegraph and steering helm. Hold #4 is particularly interesting with its aluminum water containers, bottles and bike parts. On the port side bow a small, mostly intact tank is found as well as a truck chassis.

San Francisco Maru

One of the deeper wrecks in the lagoon sitting upright from 45 to 63m (145-205ft), it is unique as there is not much growth due to its depth. It is also a very interesting wreck because it has three intact Japanese Type-95 light tanks that were crewed by three people these tanks go up to 30mph and had ½ inch armor. The San Francisco Maru was built in 1919 as a freighter she became a cargo ship in WWII.

Known as the million dollar wreck because of her estimated worth of cargo, divers find many very interesting war artifacts on this ship. Hold #1 contains sea mines and detonators, hold #2 has several trucks, fuel and aerial bombs and torpedoes and depth charges are found in the aft holds.

Rio de Janeiro Maru

Before WWII the Rio de Janeiro Maru was an eight-deck passenger luxury liner that carried people and cargo from Japan to many areas of the world including South America, South Africa, the USA. Built in 1940 and converted into a submarine tender in 1940 for the Japanese Navy she serviced six submarines. After Japan lost most of its submarines she was reclassified as a transport ship. Sunk by at least one bomb from an Essex aircraft she now rests on her starboard side at 40m (130ft).

Another of my favorites, this 137m (450ft) wreck has an easily accessed large engine room with many knobs, gauges and pipes. There is also a hold referred to as the ‘bottle room’ with stacked boxes of beer bottles. The ship also has very large, photogenic, propellers. One needs several dives to fully explore this large, mostly shallow wreck.

Heian Maru

The largest wreck in the lagoon at 155m (510ft), the Heian Maru was built in 1930 as a passenger cargo ship. Recalled to Japan during a normal voyage between Hong Kong and Seattle in 1941 she was then converted to a submarine tender. Her name is found in English and Japanese on the hull and she was named after the ancient city of Heinkyo, “The City of Peace and Tranquility.”

Sunk on her port side and sitting between 10 and 30m (35-100ft) of water one of the most notable parts of the Heian Maruare Type 95, 7m (23ft) long torpedoes that are stored upright in the forward holds. Artifacts have also been gathered from inside the ship and placed together including a fantastic medical kit with several different colored bottles.

Kiyosumi Maru

Stepping off the Odyssey and descending upon our first wreck, the Kiyosumi Maru, feels like entering another world. The intact ship body, sitting 12m (40ft) below the warm Micronesian waters starts to bring to life the battle that took place here. In Japanese, maru, means circle or round. This name is given to ships that circle back to where they came from. The warships did not have that distinction, as they were sent into battle, not expected to return. The Kiyosumi Maru was a 137m (450ft) long and 18m (6ft) wide freighter that also carried passengers launched in 1934 and converted into an armed merchant raider in 1941. She participated in the Battle of Midway and had been towed to Truk for repairs after being damaged by aircraft bombs.

Sunk on her port side, laying in the sand at 31m (100ft), we swam the length of the ship and eventually entered hold #2 through the hole caused by the bomb that sank the ship.

Covered in growth, particularly long branched bushes of black coral, jellyfish seemed to be strategically placed around the outside of the ship as if they guarded it. Originally holding eight guns, all have been removed, but the platforms remain. Our dive guide led us into hold #5 to see parts of two bikes and then hold #6 to see two massive spare propeller blades.

Collections of bottles found inside the ship have been gathered in several places on the outside for divers to see. We also came upon a gas mask that almost looks like you could put it on and use it today.

She was sunk in Truk Lagoon on February 17, 1944 when USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown planes scored direct bomb hits. 43 seamen lost their lives on the Kiyosumi Maru.

Yamagiri Maru

The Yamagiri Maru was a 133m (437ft) passenger/cargo carrier launched in 1939 and converted to a military transport ship in 1941. This ship was damaged by two torpedoes in 1943 from the submarine USS Drum and repaired in Rabaul before sailing to Truk and then sank by dive bombers from the Yorktown and Bunker Hill.

Sitting at 36m (120ft) with its shallowest parts around 18m (60ft), this ship’s most interesting feature is in hold #5. On their way to be delivered to the battleships Yamato and Mushashi were Armor piercing shells 45cm (18in) long, weighing over 3000 pounds each, that could be hurled 38 kilometers. These gun rounds were for the largest guns ever made for a battleship, the largest American battleships had only 40cm (16in) guns.

Being a lover of macro ocean life, I couldn’t help but be amazed at all the little creatures that could be found making their homes in these sunken ships. One second the dive guide would be pointing out 45cm ammunition and the next moment I would find a nudibranch crawling its way up across the bow of the WWII wreck. Anemones seem to have happily made their homes all over the wrecks and their respective anemone fish eagerly come up to look at you, looking back at them.

Fujikawa Maru

The Fujikawa Maru is one of the lagoon’s most famous wrecks. Covered in lush coral this ship was built in 1938 as a passenger cargo ship that carried raw silk and cotton between South America and India. Commissioned into the Japanese Navy in 1940 and outfitted with 15cm (6in) guns on her bow and stern, she was tasked for transportation, including the delivery of aircraft and aircraft parts to Pacific islands.

Carrying planes to Truk, the Fujikwawa Maru offloaded thirty B5N2 bombers (Jill planes) which lay in pieces on Eten Airfield (Eten Island) during Operation Hailstone. They were unable to help defend against the Americans. Bombed by air attacks on February 17th, the Fujikawa was still afloat on the 18th. Essex dive bombers hit the port quarter with a 1000 pound bomb and finally two Monterey airplanes attacked and witnessed a huge explosion and the ship in flames.

Still aboard the ship during the attack were three Zero fighter planes in cargo hold #2 and a fourth plane that is possibly an A6M “Claude” fighter, the only known surviving plane of that type. The Fujikawa sits upright and we followed our dive guide from the surface down into cargo hold #2 to see these mostly intact planes. In the clear water the planes look as if a pilot could sit in them today and fly right out of the ocean and back into the air. We also saw spare wings and fuel drums.

Often boasted as one of the most beautiful wrecks in the lagoon, this beautiful ship is covered in pink and white soft coral, blue sponges and every inch of it is covered in different colored marine life. On the deck a plaque dedicates the preservation and respect of the Fujikawa and other wrecks in the lagoon. Collections of artifacts from the inside are gathered on different parts of the ship including china with Japanese brandings. Schools of tuna and smaller fish circle the wreck, and a large barracuda seemed to be standing guard over the bow gun.

Often considered one of the best wreck penetrations, much of the superstructure of the Fujikawa Maru has collapsed recently, making it very difficult and potentially dangerous to enter the engine room due to its instability.

Fumitsuki Destroyer

The Fumitsuki is a dedicated warship built for the Japanese Navy, and has no “maru” following its name. One of only two made-for-war ships sunk in Chuuk, it is a 97m (320ft) Mutuki Class destroyer built in 1926 and was in Truk for repairs from an attack by US planes near Rabaul on January 4th, 1944.

Prior to the Rabaul damages, the Fumizuki helped relieve Japanese forces in the battle of Guadalcanal as part of the “Tokyo Express.” Damaged by bombing during Operation Hailstone, her crew abandoned her when she lost power. They attempted to tow her to a new anchorage, but had not noticed the ship had its anchor dropped to avoid drifting on the reef.

Sitting between 24 and 36m (80-120ft) this warship still has intact bow and stern guns and a torpedo launcher. Being built as a warship and not a more comfortable passenger ship, we could immediately tell how much more compact the spaces are on the ship. We swam through companionways and looking into crew spaces are noticeably smaller and reduced in size compared to the passenger ships.

Shinkoku Maru

My favorite wreck in the Lagoon, the Shinkoku Maru, has become a fantastically beautiful artificial reef. Pink and purple anemones can be found all over the top deck and schools of fish, big and small, have populated the ship. Sitting between 9 and 40m (30-135ft) the 152m (500ft) Commercial tanker was built in 1940 and before the war transported oil from the USA to Japan. Its name meaning “Divine country” It was requisitioned by the Japanese Navy into a naval tanker in 1941. She participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Minor damage to the Shinkoku occurred on August 17, 1942 when the ship was torpedoed by the US Submarine Gudgeon and was repaired. Arriving to Truk only three days before the carrier strikes on February 14, 1944, it is thought she received a bomb hit amidships by Yorktown planes, but she did not sink until an unknown air group stuck the ship with a torpedo attack later in the day. Planes from Bunker Hill made six torpedo drops that all missed.

Sinking upright, the masts used to be above the water line, but due to possible boat traffic hazards, they were toppled by explosives. The ship was identified by the ship’s bell that was found with the name engraved.

With the super structure of the Fujikawa Maru collapsing, it’s my opinion that the engine room tour of the Shinkoku is probably now the best in the Lagoon. My dive guide took me into the ship through the smoke stacks that start around 18m (60ft).

Headed straight down to around 33m (110ft) you can exit the ship through the torpedo hole at 41m (135ft) in the bottom port stern. We came out the torpedo hole and looked up at the massive ship and went back in through the hole to tour the engine room, generator rooms and other areas inside the wreck.

Along with the fantastic penetration, this ship has prolific and abundant marine life. Schools of batfish are found along the top deck and several sharks were seen passing the ship. With the superstructure being fairly shallow and so much marine life and abundant artifacts gathered on the deck, this wreck definitely needs several dives to see all of it.

Hoki Maru

Another Lagoon favorite is the Hoki Maru due to her cargo. Construction equipment and vehicles are found in hold #5 including intact trucks, tractors, a steamroller and two bulldozers. The trucks have right hand steering wheels and the tractor looks similar to a John Deere model.

Originally named the Hauraki, this ship was a British/New Zealand cargo and passenger ship launched in 1921 and seized by the Japanese in 1942. Renamed the Hoki Maru she was used for special transport. Sitting around 49m (160ft) in the sand, this 137m (450ft) ship’s bow was severely damaged by two 1000 pound bombs that hit the port side igniting fuel and causing a massive explosion and fire. The deck appears to have been peeled back or ripped open from the rest of the ship.

Afterthoughts

With so many wrecks in Truk Lagoon, one needs multiple trips to see them all, much less explore them adequately. The MV Odyssey, a 40m (132ft) luxury liveaboard with nine very comfortable private staterooms, a spacious dive deck, large camera table, and fantastic meals makes it easy to dive as many of the lagoon wrecks in a week as possible. Offering five dives a day and a fantastic and knowledgeable crew, I can’t imagine a better way to make the most of a week diving Chuuk.

I’ve often heard people talk about diving Chuuk and they think it is too advanced for them. It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. For divers who do not want to go “deep and dark” the outsides of the wrecks have become fantastic artificial reefs with hard and soft corals, anemones, large schools of fish, and plenty of the macro critters found in other parts of Micronesia (most of the time divers are too enthralled with the wrecks to search for them!)

Almost all the wrecks can provide a spectacular dive above 30m (100ft). And usually when the Odyssey dives the very deep wrecks, they will provide an alternative wreck for those who do not want to go that deep.

The experienced and well-trained Odyssey crew will also go above and beyond to make sure every diver on the boat gets the diving they are looking for. Dive guides can recommend easier dive plans for those wanting to stay shallower and outside the wreck.

And if you want to go “deep and dark” they will take you on mind blowing penetrations into engine rooms, cargo holds, and more. Aboard the Odyssey divers are given the opportunity to dive at their leisure or have one of several fantastic dive guides lead them. Technical diving is allowed on the Odyssey for certified or experienced tech divers.

Many lives were lost and ships sank in the waters of Truk Lagoon. But underwater the ships have been reborn as thriving artificial reefs. Almost 70 years in the nutrient rich waters of Micronesia have made these ships stunning and colorful marine habitats. Hard and soft corals cover the outsides of the ships and large school of tuna, barracuda and sharks swim by.

The ships are also the gravesites of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice – their lives for their country. The wrecks provide a tangible history lesson and nothing is more exciting than being able to visit and explore.

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We’ve all seen “Saving Private Ryan” and “Band of Brothers,” but here’s a list of facts from World War II that you probably didn’t know.

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1. The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese.

2. The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians.

3. Over 100,000 Allied bomber crewmen were killed over Europe.

On August 6th and 9th of 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing significant death and destruction in both places. To this day, the bombings remain history's only acts of nuclear warfare.

A lot has been established about the immediate preparations for the dropping of the bombs, known as "Little Boy" and "Fat Man," which were loaded onto airplanes on the North Field airbase on Tinian Island, part of the Northern Mariana Islands to the south of Japan.

Until recently few photographs were available of the final hours before the bombings. But newly declassified pictures shed additional light on the procedures leading up to the nuclear attacks, giving a chilling glimpse into how and where the most destructive bombs ever used in warfare were loaded.

(First seen on AlternativeWars.com)

Soldiers check the casings on the "Fat Man" atomic bomb. Multiple test bombs were created on Tinian Island. All were roughly identical to an operational bomb, even though they lacked the necessary equipment to detonate.

On the left, geophysicist and Manhattan Project participant Francis Birch marks the bomb unit that would become "Little Boy" while Norman Ramsey, who would later win the Nobel Prize in Physics, looks on.

A technician applies sealant and putty to the crevices of "Fat Man," a final preparation to make sure the environment inside the bomb would be stable enough to sustain a full impact once the bomb was detonated.

The two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 have left the country with a legacy of victimhood unique in human history – and uniquely codified in law. In early 1946, US General Douglas MacArthur brought in his staff to write the country’s new Constitution and sanctioned on May 3 1947, stating amongst it that the Japanese “forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation”.

Seven years later, Japan took its first step towards remilitarisation by creating the Self Defence Forces – but they were not deployed outside a Japanese crisis until the International Peace Cooperation Law was passed in 1992, allowing Japanese troops to participate in UN peacekeeping operations. Japan has since sent troops to assist the US army both in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This slow crawl towards militarisation has gathered pace, with Shinzō Abe pushing through new security laws and potentially rewriting sections of the Constitution that outlaw the use of force.

There’s been plenty of coverage of these moves and their ominous overtones – but much of it has missed the point. Japan’s preferred memories of its own conduct in the war are very selective, and still major bone of contention in east Asia.

Case closed

Unlike certain other axis belligerents, Japan has shown no intention of apologising for its acts in World War II and its pre-war aggression into neighbouring countries. And most worryingly of all, in contrast with Germany, Japan has historically offered postwar generations of students very little education on its conduct in the war.

The Japanese school curriculum largely glosses over the occupations of Taiwan, China, Korea and various Russian islands before the attack on Pearl Harbor; it essentially doesn’t teach the detail of the war in the Pacific and South East Asia until Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

China and South Korea are of course particularly angry at this, especially given the lack of an apology for the assorted war crimes Japanese troops committed in their countries from 1910. That list includes torture, mass slaughter, and the abduction of women to serve as sex slaves for soldiers (“comfort women”).

Certain Japanese prime ministers have stirred up protests among their former wartime enemies by publicly visiting the highly contentious Yasukuni Shrine, a religious Shinto monument to the Japanese war dead that’s closely associated with the imperial era.

In 1985 the then prime minister, Yasuhiro Nakasone, drew condemnation for visiting it for the 40th anniversary of the bombings at a ceremony also attended by the Emperor Hirohito. Junichiro Koizumi, a popular right-wing prime minister, made a similarly controversial visit 20 years later.

Today, there is just as much controversy around the war’s legacy, and no new effort to defuse the old tension. Despite widespread public rancour over the war across the rest of east Asia, the Abe government is making no effort to improve Japanese war education 70 years on, or to flesh out the radically stripped-down memory of Japan’s actions.

While Germany has managed to build holocaust education into its curriculum and is now at the centre of the European project, Abe and his predecessors have never acknowledged that relations with Korea and China would be greatly improved if there were a push for education and discussion about this terrible history.

As things stand, no matter how the militaristic and nationalistic Abe handles the memory of the war in this anniversary year, Japan’s relations with its former adversaries are set to keep festering.

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SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean man in his eighties set himself on fire on Wednesday during a protest calling for Japan to apologize for forcing Korean women to work in military brothels during World War Two, days ahead of the anniversary of the end of hostilities.

The self-immolation came during a regular weekly demonstration outside the Japanese embassy ahead of the Aug. 15 anniversary marking 70 years since the end of Japan's colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula.

With the anniversary looming, the protest was larger than normal, with about 2,000 demonstrators, including three of the 47 known surviving Korean "comfort women", as they were euphemistically called by Japan, organizers said.

Bystanders covered the man with protest banners to put out the flames and paramedics took him to hospital.

"It appears he tried to kill himself by setting himself on fire, given a drink bottle that he had smells of gasoline," a firefighter said.

Yonhap news agency said the man was in his 80s and had traveled from the southern city of Gwangju.

In South Korea, Japan's 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean peninsula remains a sensitive subject.

South Korea's ties with Japan have long been strained by what Seoul sees as Japanese leaders' reluctance to atone for the country's wartime past, including a full recognition of its role in forcing Korean girls and women to work in brothels.

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On August 14, 1945, US President Harry Truman announced the unconditional surrender of Japanese Emperor Hirohito, thereby ending World War II.

The surrender came after months of bombing raids across the Japanese countryside, two atomic bombs, and the Soviet Union's declaration of war on the island nation.

The iron resolve of the Japanese was a major factor the US anticipated while planning the invasion of mainland Japan. The culture known for literally putting death before dishonor with practices such as hara-kiri would not, by any stretch of the imagination, go softly into surrender.

By the time the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, 500,000 Japanese had already died during bombing raids, not just in Tokyo, but in smaller towns too.

This badly hurt Japanese morale as Yutaka Akabane, a senior-level civil servant, observed: "It was the raids on the medium and smaller cities which had the worst effect and really brought home to the people the experience of bombing and a demoralization of faith in the outcome of the war."

But despite several bombing raids a week in the beginning of 1945, and the resulting displacement of 5 million people, the Japanese remained resolute.

And as US forces prepared a ground invasion, they were acutely aware of the challenges they faced against an iron-willed Japanese population.

The planning committee for the US invasion expected that "operations in this area will be opposed not only by the available organized military forces of the Empire, but also by a fanatically hostile population."

Nevertheless, the Allied forces prepared to send 42 aircraft carriers, 24 battleships, and 400 destroyer ships and escorts to Japan's coast. The Allies expected 456,000 deaths in the invasion of Japan's military stronghold at the island of Kyushu alone.

In preparation for what everyone expected to be a bloody, prolonged clash, the US government manufactured 500,000 Purple Hearts to be awarded to troops wounded in the invasion.

At the same time, 32 million Japanese braced for war. That figure includes all men ages 15 to 60, and all women ages 17 to 45. The US anticipated them to bear whatever weapons they could muster, from bamboo spears, to antique cannons, to machine guns.

Children had even been trained to act as suicide bombers, strapping explosives to themselves and rolling under Allied tank treads.

But on July 16, 1945, the US secretly and successfully carried out the world's first atomic-bomb detonation, giving the US another option in the war against Japan.

After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, where 140,000 lost their lives, on August 8, the USSR then declared war on Japan as well, and on the next day they attacked Japanese-occupied Manchuria, China. On that same day, an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing another 40,000 instantly.

Japan had previously been presented the Potsdam Declaration, or terms for an unconditional surrender, but the country had refused it.

Even after the two atomic bombs, Japan would not surrender for fear of how Emperor Hirohito would be treated after the war.

Emperor Hirohito was not merely a constitutional monarch, but a living god in the eyes of the Japanese. They would not see him treated as a war criminal by Allied forces — and after Pearl Harbor and 20 million or so Asian lives lost to Japanese imperialism, the Allies would accept nothing less than an unconditional surrender.

Japan and the Allies spent mid-August arguing over the exact language of the surrender, but on August 15, Emperor Hirohito addressed his nation via radio for the first time ever to announce the country's surrender. Because of a difference in time zones, this anniversary is remembered on August 14 in the US.

Just last month, Japan officially released the master audio recording of Hirohito's surrender. A version of this recording can be heard below:

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Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is sick of apologizing.

In statements made today at an event commemorating the end of the second world war 2, Abe expressed his "utmost grief" about the victims of Japan's World War II era aggressions. But he made it clear that future generations shouldn't have to go on apologizing for their ancestors wrongs.

Abe's Japan wishes to look forward, but China is busy dredging up the past by fighting a propaganda war against Japan, using their imperialist history to strain relationships between the Southeast Asian nations that have recently began to stray from China's sphere of influence with the Trans Pacific Partnership.

China has been ramping up its World War II themed propaganda leading up to a September 3 military parade, with "more than 10 new movies, 12 TV dramas, 20 documentaries and 183 war-themed stage performances" planned to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the war's end, Reuters reports.

There has even been talk of a joint Russian-Chinese film festival that would screen Soviet-era World War II films for the first time ever in China. China and Russia are the two countries that sustained the heaviest casualties during World War II, losing about 20 and 24 million citizens, respectively.

This rush of propaganda has come at a time when Japan is rethinking the pacifist stance of its military and China is cracking down on military corruption. 

"Military parades are to demonstrate Xi is in control over the military and boost morale," a source close to the People's Liberation Army told Reuters.

In China, World War II is the "War of Resistance against Japanese Occupation" and a conflict that predated the eruption in Europe: Japanese forces had already been massacring Chinese soldiers and civilians for two years before the Nazis annexed Poland. 

This bit of history is being used to paint Japan as an oppressive force in the region — at a time when China's neighbors are nervous about Beijing's moves in the South China Sea and elsewhere.

Due to the politicizing of the event, countries like India, South Korea, and the US now have a difficult choice to make when deciding if they'll even send representatives.

In order to avoid the embarrassment of outright refusal, China has reportedly been quietly feeling out nations from around the world and gauging their responses, without sending formal invitations. France's Francios Hollande and Denmark’s Queen Margre can't make it. Other EU leaders seem unlikely to attend.

At the center of the crossfire, is South Korea's president, Park Geun-hye. The media is at odds over whether or not the US has pressured South Korea to attend, but they remain undecided.

China has ruffled feathers all over Southeast Asia through its development of high-end weaponry and extensive claims on resource-rich areas in the South and East China Seas.

But Japan also brings some baggage into the burgeoning regional faceoff. Countries might fear China — but it's Japan that's conquered or occupied much of the region within living memory.

The Chinese contest that Japan hasn't properly apologized for their brutal occupation seven decades ago. Japan also invaded or annexed Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Taiwan during its imperial period.

The Japanese military's use of "comfort women," where South Korean women were essentially kept by Japanese men as sex slaves, is still still a source of tensions as well. Successive Japanese governments have refused to apologize for the practice. But Japan has been slow to rearm after World War II, and its military is constituted entirely for self-defense.

China's parade will be attended by envoys from Russia, Mongolia, Egypt and the Czech Republic. South Korea and the United States haven't made a decision yet, as both nations weigh the pros and cons of accepting such an invitation.

Still, the parade may be largely for domestic consumption. China's hopes to show that their military is firmly under the control of President Xi Jinping after several crackdowns on corruption within the ranks. An added bonus would be to drive a wedge between South Korea and Japan.

"China wishes for more foreign leaders to come," quotes India Today from an editorial in the Chinese Global Times that appeared on Monday. "But it doesn't matter if there will be fewer turning out."

The editorial goes on to explain the high stakes for Japan, should South Korea participate in the parade: "China won't feel uncomfortable if fewer foreign leaders attend than expected, but if a lot show up, we can imagine how heart-broken Tokyo will feel."

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Argunners will be publishing a series of amazing World War II photographs recently uncovered from the archives of Charles Day Palmer, who was a four-star general.

Most of the photographs were confidential photographs taken by the US Signal Corps; Palmer, then a brigadier general, was allowed to have them for private use after censoring (names of places, etc.).

Charles Day Palmer was born in Chicago on February 20, 1902. After graduating from Washington High School in Washington, D.C., he entered the United States Military Academy, where he graduated in 1924.

During World War II, he worked in the British West Indies to establish military bases and ran projects on antisubmarine warfare.

In 1944, he became the chief of staff of the 2nd Armored Division, nicknamed "Hell on Wheels," participating in the invasion of Normandy, the breakout from Saint-Lo, and the crossing of the Siegfried Line. In October of that year, he was transferred as chief of staff to the VI Corps, where he received a battlefield promotion to brigadier general.

After World War II, Palmer took part in the Korean War. During his career, he received various valor and service awards such as the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Bronze Star and Silver Star. He died on June 7, 1999, in Washington, D.C. The photographs were shared by his grandson, Daniel Palmer, honoring the memories and service of his grandfather.

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US soldier examines the grave of an unknown US soldier, who was buried by the enemy before retreating. The first American soldier who noticed the grave decorated it with mortar shells and ferns.

Dead American and German soldiers at a cemetery before burial, place unknown. Each body is placed in a mattress cover. German prisoners are doing the work of digging the graves and placing the bodies in them.

M-10 Tank Destroyer from the 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion supporting the 143rd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division, in Rohrwiller, on February 4, 1945. You can see the town's church damaged by shell blasts.

On August 19th, 1940, the North American B-25 "Mitchell" performed its first flight. It would become the most versatile, widely used, and overall best medium-range bomber of World War II.

The B-25 took 8,500 design drawings and 195,000 man-hours to develop from its design to engineering phase. The effort paid off: around 10,000 of the planes would be produced and sent to allied powers all around the world. 

Eventually the B-25 would become the most heavily armed plane in the world. Its eight forward-facing 50-caliber machine guns took part in legendary strafing runs which would pave the way for modern close air support.

Here are some of the highlights of the impressive B-25 "Mitchell"'s  storied career.

The B-25 came into service as a lower altitude, shorter-range alternative to the B-17.

The B-25's "Mitchell" nickname came from US General Billy Mitchell, who was an outspoken advocate of military airpower since as early as 1906, just three years after the Wright Brother's historic first flight.

The smaller B-25 was adopted by all branches of the US armed forces. Its short takeoff distance made it ideal for taking off from aircraft carriers.

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Spy novels are filled with over-the-top missions and unlikely operations, but some of the wildest spy stories are the real ones.

1. A Polish spy bluffs her way into a Gestapo prison while surrounded by her own wanted posters.

Christine Granville was known for a bunch of exploits in World War II, but her ballsiest was a rescue mission.

She walked into a Gestapo-controlled prison in France and secured the release of three other spies scheduled for execution.

At the time, her face was on wanted posters spread across the country.

She convinced the guards that she was a British spy and the niece of a British general and that Allied Forces were bearing down on the city.

She suggested that they should release the prisoners in return for future payment and clemency.

The Germans bought it and she walked her colleagues out.

2. Operation Mincemeat fooled the Nazis with a corpse.

When the Allies needed to invade Sicily in 1943, they knew the Germans would be rapidly reinforcing it. So, they procured the body of a dead vagrant, dressed him up in a uniform, chained a briefcase of fake invasion plans for Greece to his wrist, and floated him on ocean currents to “neutral” Spain.

As the British expected, the documents were handed over to the Nazis and assumed to be genuine. The Germans prepared for an invasion in the wrong place, saving thousands of Allied lives during the invasion of Sicily.

3. A famed jazz singer smuggled information through sheet music and her underwear.

Josephine Baker was a famous singer and dancer born in America. She became a French citizen in 1937 and, when France fell to the Germans, she convinced the Axis she was on their side. Baker spent the next few years spying for the Allies in high-culture parties with senior Axis leaders.

To smuggle intelligence out, she would plan performances in neutral countries and hand over her sheet music, covered in invisible ink, to Allied handlers. When she needed to smuggle out photos, she’d pin them to her underwear.

4. A Navy commando ran weapons, spies, and explosives through Greece and the Balkan Peninsula.

Lt. j.g. Jack Taylor — sometimes called America’s first SEAL because he was the first American commando to infiltrate by sea, air, and land in his career — served in the OSS in the Balkan Peninsula behind enemy lines from Sep. 1943 to March 1944.

During this time, he and his men reconnoitered enemy troop and supply positions, resupplied friendly forces, and conducted night time raids. They were nearly caught in three different incidents but escaped each time. The famed Maj. Gen. William “Wild Bill” Donovan recommended Taylor for a service cross for the mission.

5. Agent Fifi tested new British agents by being hot and charming.

“Agent Fifi” was Marie Chilver, an English-born woman who was raised throughout Europe. She was jailed in an internment camp in 1940 but escaped to England in 1941.

She tried to get sent back to France as a spy, but wasn’t allowed. Instead, she became the beautiful, seductive final exam for British spy trainees. British agents would be approached by Chilvers during their mission and she tried and get secrets out of them. Any who divulged information were dropped from the program.

6. Virginia Hall led a resistance group despite having only one foot.

Virginia Hall lost her foot prior to World War II, an injury that ended her hopes for a career in the foreign service. So, instead she became a spy.

Her largest contributions to the war probably came when she slipped into France via a British torpedo boat, trained three battalions of French resistance, and led sabotage and intelligence-gathering missions. Her team killed 150 Germans and captured 500 more. They also destroyed four bridges and multiple trains and rail lines.

SEE ALSO: It's been 75 years since the iconic B-25 Mitchell Warbird made its debut

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China spent last week excoriating Japan for twisting the history of World War II while spreading distortions of its own on the 70th anniversary of the war's end.

Even China's Global Times, a tabloid owned by the People's Daily Communist Party newspaper, said China had gone too far by putting photos of an actor portraying Mao Tse-tung (now Mao Zedong) on posters for a movie on the Cairo Conference of 1943.

Mao was not in Cairo for the meeting on war strategy with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill but his arch-enemy, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, was.

The Global Times quoted art critic Sima Pingbang as saying that "By featuring Mao, who was not present at the meeting, but excluding Chiang, the poster shows no respect for history nor to Mao."

China was playing up Mao's exploits during World War II ahead of the Sept. 3 military parade and commemoration of what is known in Beijing as the "Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War."

However, most historians say it was Chiang's Kuomintang (KMT) forces that bore the brunt of the fighting against Japan while Mao saved his troops for the 1945-49 civil war, which ended with Chiang fleeing to Formosa (Taiwan).

The Cairo film was one of more than 10 new movies,12 TV dramas, 20 documentaries and 183 war-themed stage performances in China leading up to Sept. 3, Reuters reported.

The military parade in Tiananmen Square has posed a dilemma for world leaders unwilling to attend a display of China's military might yet also unwilling to offend a world economic power.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he would attend but the U.S., Britain, India and others have yet to commit. It was also not known if Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had been sent an invitation.

Last Friday, as Japan marked the 70th anniversary, the conservative and nationalist Abe expressed "deep remorse" for Japan's actions but did not make an apology of his own. He also said that future generations of Japanese should not have to apologize.

The following day, the 81-year-old Emperor Akihito, whose father Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender, expressed his own sorrow over the war in what some Japanese commentators saw as a rebuke to Abe.

"Reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse over the last war, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never be repeated," Akihito said.

A commentary in China's official Xinhua news agency charged that the "revisionist" Abe had "shied away from assuming responsibility for launching a war of aggression upon other countries, saying Japan tried to 'overcome its diplomatic and economic deadlock through the use of force.'"

The US left its response to National Security Council spokesman Ned Price who said in a statement that "We welcome Prime Minister Abe's expression of deep remorse for the suffering caused by Japan during the World War II era, as well as his commitment to uphold past Japanese government statements on history."

"We also value Prime Minister Abe's assurances of Japan's intent to expand upon its contributions to international peace and prosperity in the years ahead."

SEE ALSO: China is trying to use WWII history to shame Japan and weaken its alliances

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Two treasure hunters have found a stash of what they believe to be Nazi-owned gold inside a hidden train car in Poland. The Nazi train disappeared in southwestern Poland, but according to some historical theories the train entered a secret tunnel and never left.

The Nazis were known for looting gold, jewelry, and artwork from prisoners during World War II, and under Polish law these treasure hunters are now entitled to keep 10% of the gold they discovered.

Produced by Emma Fierberg. Video courtesy of Reuters.

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The pre-war German Army rejected Captain Theodore von Hippel’s idea of using small units of highly trained men to penetrate enemy defenses before main actions began.

They felt it was beneath the dignity of true soldiers to engage in such renegade conduct and so sent the young Captain packing.

Down but not out, he ended up joining the German intelligence agency known as the Abwehr, in whom he found its commander, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, a willing listener. 

His ideas, much of which were learned from studying World War 1 guerilla leaders, were approved and forwarded to the German High Command (OKW), who agreed to the formation of a battalion of men trained in the arts of combat and espionage.

These troops were tasked with capturing bridges and roadways ahead of advances and holding them until relieved.

This first unit became known as the Ebbinghaus battalion. And when it went to war on September 1st, 1939 in the Polish campaign, it performed as expected, slipping across enemy lines, holding vital roads and crossings, as the columns of panzers rumbled triumphantly past, unaware many of those who waved them on had been wearing Polish army uniforms a short while before.

Strange but true, just as they destroyed any lingering doubts to their effectiveness, the order came to disband. Ebbinghaus had been assigned to OKW and no more need was seen for it.

Canaris wanted more units though, but just for the Abwehr. He ordered another unit raised. Called the Lehr und Bau Company z.b.v. 800 (Special Duty Training and Construction Company 800), it was formed in the town of Brandenburg where it soon adopted the name Brandenburg Company.

Hippel brought back many Ebbinghaus veterans in addition to recruiting new members. One thing unique to the Brandenburgers is that Hippel wanted men who looked like the enemy; racial purity was to play no part in selection methods. Even those the Nazi’s considered racially inferior, Slavs and other ethnic groups, soon found themselves training alongside ordinary Germans ranging in specialties from weapons to dog sleds.

Whether operating as a 2-man team or unit of 300, every Brandenburger was required to be fluent in the language of their destinations. They had to know the customs and history of regions so they could blend in and move without being noticed. Even the mannerism of how to properly spit like the locals, for example, was ingrained during training.

After an influx of recruits, the company swelled to a battalion three months after being raised. They went into combat during the campaign against the West in 1940. On May 8, two days before the offensive began, small groups of Brandenburgers slipped across the borders of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. They hit objectives minutes after the campaign began, wearing enemy uniforms as they exchanged fire with similarly attired troops, and sewing confusion throughout the countryside.

Making sure not to be shot as spies if captured, they wore German uniforms underneath.

After the fall of France and the cancellation of planned invasion of Britain, the Brandenbergers, now a regiment, trained to take Gibraltar. Units led by von Hippel shipped out to Libya with the Afrika Korps in early 1941, as others headed to Yugoslavia when Hitler was forced to support Mussolini’s invasion of Greece.

In Libya they were met with resentment by Afrika Korps commander, Erwin Rommel. But after seeing the effectiveness caused by the British SAS LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) to his supply lines, he accepted their methods, hoping to repeat the favor. In action, they proved difficult to provide transportation and resupply for over the vast desert, suffering many casualties and P.O.W.s.

To their dismay, one of those captured was Von Hippel. As the campaign droned on, the first major failure inflicted on the regiment was realized.

Canaris with von Hippel inspecting Brandenburgers

Meanwhile, in Europe, the Brandenburgers achieved another explosive success entering Yugoslavia and taking hold of the important dockyards of Orsova on the Danube one day before the invasion began. But these accomplishments were soon overshadowed, as a flurry of final preparations began for a much larger action that would see them used in greater numbers than ever before against the hated communists in the East…

When Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, commenced on June 22, 1941, the first across the border were again the Brandenburgers. They took roads and railway junctions and caused chaos with feeble resupply lines. As the campaign moved further towards its objectives, a unit went on to capture a vital bridge in Latvia, allowing Army Group North, consisting of a over a million men and thousands of vehicles, to move without interruption to surround Leningrad.

As the weeks wore on Brandenburgers could be found in action all through the country, blending in with locals, gathering intelligence, laying ambushes and conducting many amphibious raids along the coasts of the Baltic, the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

After the Germans were stopped from taking Moscow and the war in the east passed its first year, Hitler launched Case Blue in August, 1942. This was the southern offensive to take Stalingrad and the Caucus oil fields and end Russia’s ability to sustain itself.

When it launched, the Brandenburgers helped clear the way in many sectors, one of which involved 62 Baltic and Sudeten Germans penetrating further into the Soviet Union than any unit before it, entering the oil town of Maikop on August 6.

They were dressed as the dreaded Soviet secret police, the NKVD, guarding a gaggle of Russian deserters. So convincing were the units masquerade and mannerisms that the Soviet commander gave the Brandenburgers commander, Adrian von Folkersam, a personal tour of the cities defenses. The next day they struck, knocking out the military communications center. Folkersam then made rounds to the bewildered defenders telling them a withdrawal was taking place. On August 9th, main German forces entered without a shot being fired.

By February 1943, most Brandenburgers were returned to Germany to help form the division Brandenburg. Once again, though in larger groups, they were sent to the ever increasing hot spots in the conquered territories to perform less clandestine roles and act more as a fire brigade of elite combat troops.

Back to the Balkans, performing anti-Partisan actions, including a small detachment aiding SS commando leader Otto Skorzeny’s attempt to capture Marshal Tito. And also, back to the Eastern Front, for anti-partisan work and finally, to the Aegean Sea where they performed their last notable action.

On September 14th, 1943, British troops invaded Kos, part of the Dodecanese island chain just off the Turkish coast. Churchill hoped to use this island to launch air attacks against German forces in the Balkans and pressure neutral Turkey into joining the war against Germany. Since Italy had turned to the Allied side in summer 1943, the Italian garrison on the island welcomed the British with open arms.

The Germans began constant aerial attacks on Kos, which lasted until October 3rd when 2 Operation Polar Bear comprising two battalions of Brandenburgers accompanied by an Army battlegroup invaded the island by air and sea, meeting little resistance. Throughout the day they cleared areas, and repulsed a British/Italian counterattack that evening. Initiating their own counterattack they defeated their foes and took control of the island the next day.

Under Hitler’s orders, all Italian officers were executed.

Next was the island of Leros, which underwent similar bombardment until November 12th. “We were watching in agony,” a Brit said. “The glowing bows and the grey tulips up in the sky were becoming dimmer, a sign that the batteries were running out of ammunition. Because of that, the German planes were cawing like birds of prey over the defenders’ heads, asking for their flesh and for the soul of dying Merovigli, where the English headquarters were.”

Operation Leopard brought the Brandenburgers and Army/Luftwaffe units by air and sea to battle the British garrison in close quarters until it surrendered 4 days later. They also captured some of the largest naval guns during the war and used them until their surrender. (As an interesting fact, the battle of Leros became the inspiration for the novel and later movie The Guns of Navarone).

The Dodacanese campaign ended as one of the final German victories of the war.

1944 proved to be the decisive year for the division, as its sponsor Admiral Canaris was implicated and later executed in the July 20th assassination attempt on Hitler.

The Abwehr suffered as well, losing most of its power, with the division being turned over to the rival SS intelligence service, the SD.

1,800 men transferred out to Skorzeny’s 502nd SS Jaeger battalion, while the rest found themselves being thrown into battle as Panzer Grenadiers, their morale destroyed and specialist skills disregarded as they conducted a fighting retreat against the Red army for months until being annihilated near the East Prussian city of Pillau as the final weeks of the war arrived.

Now, nearly 70 years later, few Brandenburgers remain alive, and most of their accomplishments still remain but a footnote in history.

Many stories of them still await discovery, telling of how one of the most elite forces in the world rose and fell within the madness created by Hitler, and through it all managed to be the first boots on the ground in most of the Third Reich’s invasions and major offensives.

SEE ALSO: It's been 75 years since the iconic B-25 Mitchell Warbird made its debut

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