Operation Downfall and Government Boondoggles From Japan 1945 to California 2022

On Friday, August 5, 2022, Kim Monson marked the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing with Lt. Col. Bill Rutledge, a 94-year-old retired Air Force veteran who was in Washington D.C. when the first atomic bomb fell. The episode also featured transportation expert Randall O’Toole, who exposed the staggering cost overruns of California’s high-speed rail project.

The Classified Battle Plans for Japan’s Invasion

Start listening at 32:23 – Hour 1

Bill Rutledge brings firsthand perspective to one of history’s most consequential decisions. The retired Air Force lieutenant colonel was 17 years old and in Washington D.C. when President Truman authorized the atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The battle plans for Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan, remained classified until approximately 2005, preventing public understanding of the catastrophic alternatives.

Military planners estimated American casualties could exceed one million men, with Japanese losses far higher. The Japanese military had reserved over 12,000 kamikaze aircraft for the invasion fleet, far exceeding the 300 planes American intelligence had predicted. Rutledge recounts meeting a former kamikaze pilot at a golf tournament in Japan in 1971, a man who owed his life to the bombs that ended the war before the invasion.

“We had actually lost 32 ships and over 400 more American ships had been damaged by kamikazes.”

Bill Rutledge, Lt. Col., USAF (Ret.)

California’s High-Speed Rail Disaster

Start listening at 71:03 – Hour 2

Randall O’Toole of the Thoreau Institute exposes the colossal failure of California’s bullet train project. Voters approved $9 billion in 2008 when costs were estimated at $33 billion. Today, the price tag has ballooned to $100 billion, with O’Toole projecting it could reach $150 billion before completion.

The project originally promised service by 2020 between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now projected for 2030 or 2040, construction has only occurred in the flat Central Valley farmland at $167 million per mile. The mountainous terrain required to reach either major city will cost exponentially more. A 1998 UC Berkeley study found that even at $10 billion, flying or driving would be cheaper than taking the train.

“It’s basically a giant loser, and nobody’s willing to admit it because politicians don’t want to stop spending money on projects that they’ve already started spending money on.”

Randall O’Toole, Transportation Policy Analyst

Free Transit and Rising Crime

Start listening at 84:08 – Hour 2

O’Toole also addressed Colorado’s free transit experiment during August 2022, warning that eliminating fares actually increases crime. Light rail already suffers the highest transit crime rate per passenger mile due to poor fare enforcement. Removing fares entirely signals to would-be criminals that other laws will not be enforced either. Less than 5% of low-income workers use transit, meaning 95% of poor taxpayers subsidize the small minority who ride.

“The big problem with transit today is that people don’t want to ride it because they’re afraid of being assaulted.”

Randall O’Toole, Transportation Policy Analyst