Captioning performed by vitac captioning performed by vitac. So i think for the native americans it was a feeling that first of all theyve got some practical skills that are useful, and second that it is an affirmation that that is pan american war. Salvatore in annapolis, maryland. Welcome. Caller hello. My dad fought in world war ii in the pacific. He had Four Brothers who also fought in world war ii. Couple in the pacific, couple in europe, and another uncle who fought in the pacific in the navy. Couple of questions, my dad was a Second Generation italian american. It appears that the prejudice against italian americans was much less than against japanese americans and im wondering if that was true and im wondering why. And the second question, dropping of the atomic bomb probably is the reason im talking to you today. And wondering how that impact had on the outcome of the war and the ability of more american soldiers to survive. Okay, thank you. Well, thanks for the call and the questions, salvatore. Yes, i think it is fair to say that the prejudice is against italian americans were considerably less than against japanese americans. The italians of course were our adversary, at least until 1943 when they switched sides and became our ally. But the italians had not launched the kind of attack that had occurred at pearl harbor the japanese struck in december of 1941. I think there is also a racial component to it, frankly. I think that there was a it was easier to dislike asians and the japanese specifically. So of course they were treated dreadfully. And were just talking about native americans in the war and there were japanese americans who fought valiantly in italy and france during world war ii they were exceptionally capable, ferocious fighters, and they had something to prove, because at home there were tens of thousands interned in camps and treated not only as second class citizens but as noncitizens. With respect to the atomic bombs, yes, i think that the fact that the two atomic bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki in early august 1945 brought an end to the war in the pacific probably saved hundreds of thousands of american lives. When ve day occurs on may 8th, 1945, one of the reasons that the jubilation was not more frenetic than it was is that the battle for okinawa is occurring precisely then. It is a cave by cave blood letting, and this foreshadowed what the toll is going to be in attacking the japanese home islands directly. There were estimates that american casualties could rise as much as to 1 million if that were required. And of course the atomic bombs in one ve day occurs in may of 1945, no one knows about the atomic bombs except a small group of physicists and others in new mexico. But no one knows whether even they are not certain whether it is going to work. So those bombs, horrible as they were and in my estimation brings the war to an absolute truncated end, appropriately it saves Many American lives, it saves even more japanese lives. The russians were ready to come in, the war was going to expand in the pacific because the russians had agreed to be part of it. So the atomic bombs saved a lot of heartache. Were talking about the end of world war ii in the european theater, the 75th anniversary of ve day. Joining us is world war ii veteran on our world war ii veterans line is pete from oklahoma. Caller hello. Good morning. Youre on the air. Caller why, thank you. Yes, i was over there on may the 6th, 1945 and we got on the ship on may 15th heading for the pacific. And we stopped by the United States, was training and flying b24s, was going to train on b29s for a couple of weeks and go to the pacific. And during that period of time is when they dropped the bomb that ended the war in the pacific. But we bombed all of europe from b24 base in mandera, italy. Great to have you with us this morning. Thanks for your story. And rick atkinson, how quickly was the military able to pivot to focus on the Pacific Theater . Well, the commanders in europe, and of course theyre civilian masters back in washington had been thinking about how to take a good portion of that force and move it to the pacific and how you would do that and who would go. Was it fair for those who had been fighting from north africa beginning in 1942 and then in italy in 43 and 44 and then in western europe for them to have to go fight in the pacific. So there were plans that had been put together. There were, in fact, units that were being shifted as he just said. In may of 1945, they were getting ready to retrain for the assault on the japanese homeland. The b29 he mentioned was the newest of the four engine long range bombers that had been doing extraordinary work devastating japan. B29s were used to drop the two atomic bombs. So there was a belief that you were going to have take a good portion of the european force, leaving some behind as an army of occupation, but the majority of it was going to end up in the pacific in one form or another. And in your weekend piece in the wall street journal, there is a photo of eisenhower flashing the v for victory pens at the signing ceremony. One of your early interviews in 2002 on the first book army at dawn, you said that in a different photograph of ike that there is a photograph reflected a certain buoyancy of spirit that i think served him well. You write in your final book, the guns at last light, that there his fellow commander, some of the other allied commanders were not confident that ike was necessarily the commander type. Well, there were frictions, there is no doubt about it and the british in particular had doubts about eisenhower. Not all of them. Some of them were revered him. He had difficulties really through the entire final year of the war with field Marshal Bernard montgomery, field marshall, a very difficult character it must be said. So there were those who had doubts about eisenhower. There were those who had doubts about him when he became the theater commander in the mediterranean in late 1942. He never heard a shot fired in anger. He and his west point class both missed world war i, they had not been deployed. And so there was a feel that who was this guy and why is he the one to be the supreme commander. My feeling is i lived with Dwight Eisenhower metaphorically for 15 years. And my admiration for him grew every year during that span. He was an extraordinarily capable war leader. He was an extremely capable political general in that his primary job was to hold together this fractious allied coalition. Eventually there are more than 50 countries in what Franklin Roosevelt called the United Nations fighting with the United States. And eisenhower was brilliant about Holding Together that centrifugal force trying to pull apart every wartime coalition. So eisenhowers laurels at the end of the war i think are fairly earned. He showed himself to be a capable allied commander and that big smile of his which one of his subordinates said was worth at least an army corps in morale terms was fairly earned when we goat to may 8th, 1945. Lets hear from tom next, saint petersburg, florida. Tom, youre on the air. Caller hello. My name is tom willis. The reason im calling is i often wondered who engineered the end of the war. Was it admiral dornus . Secondly, did he honestly believe throughout his entire career that his losses in the atlantic were not caused by the amemorialic machine . And thirdly, what happened to him at the end of the war . Well that is a lot of questions. Admiral dornus was the commander of the german navy at the end of the war. There wasnt much of a german navy left to command by that point. The german submarine force had been almost completely destroyed by may of 1945. In terms of who engineered the end of war, well, there were conversations among those who were still surviving in berlin, he was actually to the north to the northwest of berlin, about how to go about contacting the allies and how to go about bringing this catastrophe to a close. Hitler having killed himself on april 30th had essentially tried to pull the temple down around him as he perished, but not everyone was willing to take that route. Not everyone was suicidal. So there had been a basically an agreement that they would send a delegation to allied headquarters, first to montgomery and then they end up as i mentioned at eisenhowers forward headquarters. Its all a bit catch us if you can. They are making it up as they go along. They are very aware that every day that passes there are more germans who fall under soviet control. And this theyre determined to avoid. Theyre trying to stall as long as they can to allow germans to flee westward. They are fleeing westward by hundreds of thousands, eventually by millions, in order to avoid being under soviet control. So when the final decision is made that okay were going to give up and secede to the allied demands for Unconditional Surrender at that point it is a fait accompli. Steve calling from providence, rhode island. Hi there. Caller yes, hi. Good morning. I would like to make a comment. This gentleman knows and i know that the war was decided on the Eastern Front. The western front was like a little skirmish compared to the Eastern Front and if the germans prevailed on the Eastern Front, there wouldnt have been any western front. There would have been a settlement. But the most important issue i want to state is the russian crime when they entered berlin and over 2 million german women were raped by those communist animals. Im a german american, and my father is a german american who served in the italian campaign. Steve steve well get a response from rick atkinson. Thanks for the call, steve. Yeah, there were crimes of the first order committed by the soviets not only in berlin but through all of Eastern Europe as they overran poland and then pushed into the eastern precincts of what was then the german empire. And the reason the soviets were doing that, besides fatal lack of discipline, was a feeling that the depravity that the germans had visited on the soviet Union Beginning with the invasion in 1941 and extending right on through the end of the german advance was to be repaid in kind. So more spirals out of control in ways that no one could see at the beginning, and this is a food example of it. The atrocities that the germans committed are repaid, probably with interest, by russians. I agree with you, the russians certainly carried the weight of the war for all of the allies. It is estimated that soviet soldiers killed nine german soldiers for every one who was killed by british and american troops combined. And i mentioned 26 million soviets dead, they did most of the dying, they did most of the killing. And it was absolutely vital to have them remain as part of the alliance. It is the 75th anniversary of ve day, victory in europe day. Here on American History tv and washington journal, were joined by rick atkinson, the author of the liberation trilogy, the guns at last light, the three book series on the war in the european theater. More of your calls and comments coming up momentarily. We are joined next, though, by senator pat roberts of kansas who is chair of the eisenhower memorial commission. The senator from kansas. Senator we saw you yesterday on the floor with your i like ike button on the senate floor. You were a youngster when ve day happened. Tell us your memories of that. I was nine there. The button says i still like ike. They handed them out at the congressional lunch as of yesterday. They were a hot item. But i think most of my memories came when i was about 16 and got to go to the Republican Convention in 1952 where eisenhower won on the first ballot as opposed to taft and the inaugural. Those are the only times i personally met the man. Obviously, at 9 i was back in kansas. I remember that day, though, because i was swinging on the front porch, and my mom came in with tears in her eyes and she said, we have defeated hitler. Ike defeated hitler. And i asked her, does that mean that dad could come home . Not at that particular time, he was in the pacific. He was a marine and on okinawa and iwo jima and all of that effort. Well were talking at any rate, the one thing i remember about ike, you knew he came into the room even though your back was too him. He had that presence, that charisma and a very ready face, a wonderful smile and everybody met that liked ike and that stuck. Were talking about general eisenhowers role in the victory in europe. Talking to you, though, about the eisenhower memorial. General eisenhower led the allies to victory in europe. He served two terms as president. Why has it taken so long for a memorial to be created in washington for president eisenhower . It is amazing how many groups that you have to go through at the National Capital commission and the fine arts council, et cetera, et cetera. Secondly, you have to raise the money for it, and then you have to have federal funds. You have to have all members of the family on board. There were changes, i was the second chairman way back but danny inouye, the medal of honor winner, the senator from hawaii, and then senator ted stevens, two world war ii vets pushed very hard on this. If you take a look at most memorials, not many are built on a very rapid basis. It takes step by step. But the process, basically, is just not simple. You have site selection, to the design approvals, the construction. It is a monumental undertaking. Pardon that terrible pun. We are thrilled now, finally, to see the hard work come to fruition. It is done. And all we have to do now is wait hopefully until september when social distancing will not be that much of a problem, we hope. If it still is, well have the dedication accordingly. It was supposed to be today on the 75th anniversary of ve day. What quick comments were you going to make . What were you going to say in that dedication . Well i think i had four minutes. The president had accepted the invitation to speak. We had a flyover. Basically the eisenhower family would have spoken. We have a number of world war ii veterans, including bob dole, who helped raising money on the private side of it. And i just think this memorial honors not only a very extraordinary man and favorite son of kansas but served as a symbol for all generations of the promise of america and what our values made possible here and around the world. I think he really was the president that basically was president when we entered on the world war stage and then more especially when he was the supreme allied commander in europe. Well senator pat roberts from kansas, we look forward to the dedication when that does happen. Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the 75th anniversary. You bet. I hope you can be there. And back to our guests. Rick atkinson, the author of the liberation trilogy taking your calls on comments on this 75th anniversary. James is in sturgis, south dakota. Go ahead. This is Master Sergeant keating, retired air force. I was an iraqi war veteran. And post 9 11, saudi arabia, ground zero. Served a year in korea. And i did a fundraiser with my dad, he was a world war ii veteran. Graduated in may, 1945. And he delivered coffins, and there was a lot of them. And he went to florida, portland, oregon, may of 45 and he graduated. And anyway, just calling to thank all of the veterans and share a little history. Thanks, james. And rick atkinson, your dad served in world war ii, and you yourself an army brat, your dad a career military veteran. Tell us what that experience, what was the experience in particular like, ve day when that would come up every year with your dad . My dad had was from new jersey. He enlisted in the army right after he turned 18 and in late 1942. He went to ocs, officer candidate school and became a Second Lieutenant and got to europe right after the war ended. He was in the constabulation an occupation force in bulgaria with Extraordinary Police powers because in germany was in ruins obviously and anarchy was a big threat, not only in bavaria but everywhere else. And he came home in 1946 and went to penn state and then went back into the army. He liked it well enough to make it a career and served for 30 years. He died about 18 months ago at the age of 94. Ve day was not anything particular in his world view. He marked veterans day, memorial day, fourth of july, these were important holidays for him as they are for many of us. Ve day in and of itself, he was worried as one of our earlier callers was about whether we could end up in the pacific, i think. Fortunately for me and for him that wasnt necessary. I was born in munich because my father as a lieutenant having gone back in the army went back to europe and was part of the army of occupation in salisbury, where the American Army hospital happened to be in munich and at that point austria was still in the occupation force until 1955 when the russians and americans both left austria. So the residual effects of the war have persisted in many ways, and even ten years after the war we still had Occupation Forces in austria. And of course to this day, we have American Forces in germany. They arent Occupation Forces because they are allies now. But the consequences of the war in terms of the military topography were profound. It affected me personally and certainly my father. Next up is robert calling from portsmouth, virginia. Caller good morning, gentlemen. I just got a comment. My grandfather served in both theaters. He was in the navy during the europe conflict and when they decided they were going to call it quits, ve day, he transferred over to the United States marine corp so he could go to the what do you call it the Pacific Theater, and he actually seen action and thank god he come home to us. And he served in two different branches of the service and two theaters of war. Okay, robert. Any specific question or any other comment in. Caller well, i have a question for him. Is it true that during the second world war, they had a secret group of nazis to make a fourth reich after the war . Im sorry, i didnt hear that. A fourth reich. A fourth reich. Well, there were certainly good nazis who got