To understand Hamas, reflect on the Japanese in World War II - opinion

On April 1, the United States marked the 79th anniversary of its invasion of the island of Okinawa. Were the Biden administration to review the military facts surrounding the Battle of Okinawa, it could use the anniversary as an opportunity to walk back its shameful refusal to veto the UN Security Council resolution calling for a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza. 

Hamas has unsurprisingly interpreted the US position as support for its refusal to surrender and release the hostages it has held in underground tunnels for half a year. 

The American military seizure of the Japanese island of Okinawa, an operation dubbed “Iceberg,” was part of a wider strategy to capture and occupy a series of islands as a gateway to the invasion of Japan itself. 

In the battles that lasted for three months, until July 2, 1945 – when the US military declared that the island was conquered and safe for Americans – almost all the Japanese soldiers who had defended it were killed by US forces, between 80,000-100,000 in number. Along with the Japanese fighters, over 100,000 Japanese citizens were killed as well, out of a population of 500,000 people. US troops killed in battle numbered about 12,500. 

Strategically, the capture of Okinawa was important enough for the US to sacrifice a huge number of its soldiers and kill over 20% of the island’s civilian population. Why? Beyond the tactical war importance of securing air and sea space, as well as a convenient logistical base for a planned invasion of Japan itself, the Roosevelt administration realized that it could not let the Japanese culture of death – the creation of then-Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo – prevail. 

Tojo, who was the architect of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, knew that in terms of military power alone, the Americans would eventually win. Therefore, he promoted a concept, a terrorist concept, whose sole purpose was to break the will of Americans to fight. He sent many thousands of kamikaze pilots, soldiers who came from the Japanese elite, to carry out suicide attacks against American warships, killing thousands of soldiers and causing enormous damage to the American Navy fleet.

The US was not only faced with an army of human missiles but also with tunnels from which Japanese soldiers sprang out and killed American troops. The tunnels were dug inside civilian villages and populated areas, and the US found no alternative other than to pour gasoline into the tunnels and burn the Japanese alive. Since in most cases it was dangerous to get close to the mouth of the tunnels, the US Army established special units that were given the name “Flamethrowers.” The modus operandi of the flamethrowers was the high-powered projection of a stream of burning liquid – benzine or napalm – stored in pressure vessels connected to the weapon and an ignition system.

For the sake of objectivity and historical perspective, it is worth taking note: The American army faced tunnels less than 100 kilometers long, in an area of 1,200 sq. km. Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, on the other hand, are dealing with Hamas tunnels at least 650 km long, in an area of 365 sq. km., over six times longer in a quarter of the area.

The intention of the Japanese, with their kamikazes and terror tunnels, was to instill an unconquerable fear of a faith so strong, so supreme, that it could inspire thousands to give their lives to take the lives of others. This is exactly why president Franklin D. Roosevelt and the American war machine realized that it had to defeat the enemy, even if the cost was high.

The Israeli public has not been broken by Hamas's celebration of murder

THE NUMBER of Kamikaze attackers was similar to the number of Hamas Nukhba terrorists who attacked Israel on October 7 murdering 1,200 people. But the similarity between them is not only numerical. 

Similar to Tojo, Hamas’s Sinwar knows that he cannot defeat Israel militarily but his intention is to instill fear and despair and break the will of Israel to live in a free, independent, and democratic state in the homeland of the Jewish people. 

The Israeli public has not been broken and will not succumb to Hamas’s celebration of murder. On the contrary, the heroism of the IDF soldiers, proven every day and every hour anew, and the internal resilience of the Israeli people, despite ongoing domestic disputes, guarantee the defeat of Sinwar and his “kamikazes” and their terror tunnels. 

In his “Day of Infamy” speech immediately following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, president Roosevelt said, “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.”

Like Roosevelt then, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now represents the righteous might of the people of Israel. 

The premeditated Hamas massacre of October 7 was Israel’s Pearl Harbor and there must be no unilateral ceasefire until Israel has achieved absolute victory. Sinwar is our Tojo and he must be destined to the same fate, the gallows or a version thereof. 

Until then, the US should let us do what it has done and would do, again, if faced with a new enemy whose calling card is a culture of death and destruction. 

Despite the all-too-expected deplorable behavior of the UN, it behooves the Biden administration and indeed the entire Western world that requires American leadership, to remember that April 1, 1945, was not just April Fools’ Day. 

And neither, at least not for Israel, was April 1, 2024. 

The writer is a public policy analyst and consultant. He has served as deputy director of the Education Ministry, chief of staff to Benjamin Netanyahu in the Finance Ministry, and acting chairman of Israel’s national port company. His son Moshe, an IDF major who served 15 years in Air Force special ops and led the first Israel commando division into Gaza, was killed in a blast from a Hamas booby-trapped tunnel on October 11.