Great article in @spectator by Francis Pike countering the malign untruth that Japan was about to surrender in August 1945 before the A-bombs were dropped. I made the same point on @BBCOne on VJDay. It’s a piece of wishful, woolly thinking. Likewise, MacArthur’s I’ll-judged

post war dictats meant that Japan has never accepted its war guilt. The Japanese invasion of SEAsia was not the result of US sanctions, but of a war-mongering military caste in Tokyo already on its way to killing 20-million people in China alone since 1937. Not stomping hard on

this myth after 45 has meant that Japanese have distanced themselves from war culpability. I saw this in 2000s when associated with British veterans seeking reconciliation with their Japanese counter-parts. The Japanese were keen to meet, but not to say sorry; never once did any

accept guilt, apologise or seek mutual reconciliation. I have only met one Japanese veteran to do so; Masou Hirakubo, of 31 Division, a #Kohima veteran. He was a Roman Catholic & was led to seek forgiveness as a result of his faith.