大象传媒

I was posted to the far east, and joined the 25th Indian Infantry Division which was reforming in India after service in Burma. During some preliminary training we were informed that we would be joining a task force for the retaking of Malaya from the Japanese. Sailing from Madras to the west coast of Malaya we were not informed that the first atom bomb had been dropped. Arriving off the coast offMalaya, we were transferring onto landing barges when word began to filter through that the second bomb had been dropped and Japan had surrendered. Up to this point the only thing that kept me from being in a state of terror was the fact that the division had fought and defeated the Japanese in Burma. This operation involved probably over 100,000 men. It does not require a lot of imagination to judge their feelings at this point and would probably have some effect on judging the morality of dropping atom bombs to end the war. It was only much later that I learned that another division landing further up the coast had been given misinformation of the topography of the sea bed and over 100 men had drowned in the landings. I believe there is a plaque there now commemorating the tradgedy.

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