Happy Hiroshima Day!

[DA SWO]

Monday, August 06, 1945 -- The "Little Boy" (uranium) atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, from the B-29 Enola Gay, commanded by AAF Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr.


I am one who does not think that the US Government was wrong for developing and dropping the bomb. My uncle was a WW II Marine who would have been part of the invasion, I am glad he didn't have to make another combat landing.

People talk about Karma, well the Japanese Army committed incredible atrocities in China, Korea and other locations. I knew a lady whose parents threw her into a haybale to prevent soldiers from making her a "comfort gal". She lost many close friends that day.

I'd rather buy shit from China then Japan.

 

[car]

I had a high school biology teacher who was a pilot in WWII - his favorite phrase was, "We're still at war with Japan.

"Uhhmmm.....today's the 5th......but we have Nagasaki Day coming up on the 8th, according to da bomb chica.

 

[Ranger_Smoothie]

Monday, August 06, 1945 -- The "Little Boy" (uranium) atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, from the B-29 Enola Gay, commanded by AAF Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr.


I am one who does not think that the US Government was wrong for developing and dropping the bomb. My uncle was a WW II Marine who would have been part of the invasion, I am glad he didn't have to make another combat landing.

People talk about Karma, well the Japanese Army committed incredible atrocities in China, Korea and other locations. I knew a lady whose parents threw her into a haybale to prevent soldiers from making her a "comfort gal". She lost many close friends that day.

I'd rather buy shit from China then Japan.

No one should feel bad about the bombs being dropped, the Japanese did not care one bit about anybody they fought or got in their way. Just one stat, and there are soooo many more than this; but the stat was against our soldiers:

Battan Death March: Took place After the fall of the Philippines in 1942. The march, involving the forced march of about 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war to prison camps. Service members who fell, helped fallen and even men who could not keep up were MURDERED by the Japanese military. The exact death count is impossible to determine, but some say 6000 to 11000 men died during the march; one account says 18,000.

I know most deaths during the bombings were civilian, but it is war and we did not want to lose any more trying to take Japan, some estimate we would have lost 1 million trying to take that country.

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

We should have made Japan our bitchs for at least 100 years after making their people glow... I feel no pain for their losses.

 

[LimaOscarSierraTango]

It was tragic, but was needed. I had an uncle that was a Japanese POW.

After reading Ghost Soldiers, I felt like we should have dropped more...

Here's to the days when we had the balls to try an annihilate our enemies!

 

[AWP]

The list of Japanese atrocities is long and distinguished only by its cruelty. At least they were fair about it in that they hated everyone...

The Japanese brought it upon themselves actually. The length of the Okinawa campaign plus the ferocity of the battles fought during it and at places like Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Pelielu, etc. convinced our leadership that similar conditions would not only exist on the home islands, but that the fighting would be worse.

These revisionist hug it out types would have you believe that the bombs weren't necessary and even Curtis LeMay thought he could force a surrender by October or November, but in an odd way we needed the bomb, we had to use it. Not just because of the lives we saved by not invading, but how different would the Cold War be without the specter of those two cities hanging over the world? Obviously, the latter is a bit of hindsight, but the reality is that at that time we were going to condemn the bulk of a generation of Americans to their deaths to subdue that nation....and the bomb changed that. Hell, we probably saved a few hundred thousand Japanese by using the bomb.

We did the right thing.

 

[Lefty]

Amen to all of the above.
And to all those who preach about negotiating with rogue nations, e.g. Iran, do not forget the US was negotiating in good faith with the Japanese right up to the very day of Pearl - when they intentionally deceived their own rep to the US so they could buy time to move into position without the US noticing.
The Japanese to this day are one of the most racist cultures on the planet and are completely unapologetic about it.
After all the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians they intentionally massacred in the years preceding the nuclear climax and all the destruction they caused thoughout Asia, they were shocked, I tell you, shocked that someone would have the nerve to drop atomic weapons on them!
Spare me the handwringing and gnashing of teeth over the event - they got what they deserved, plus as everyone has mentioned, it actually saved a million or more Allied and Japanese lives.

 

[pardus]

"The US was negotiating in good faith" "the very day of pearl harbor"?

Really?
I'm a little rusty but I recall the US cutting the jap oil supply sometime before pearl harbor, something the Japanese correctly seen as a major threat (some would say attack) to japan. Many japs seen this as an unprovoked attack and the true start to the US/ jap conflict. :2c:

As for the possible numbers of dead if the Japanese mainland were invaded wouldn't been more like (IIRC) 1 million US dead & 3 (ish) million jap civis.

So based on those numbers & nothing else, use of the bombs made total sense.

:2c:

 

[pardus]

"The US was negotiating in good faith" "the very day of pearl harbor"?

Really?
I'm a little rusty but I recall the US cutting the jap oil supply sometime before pearl harbor, something the Japanese correctly seen as a major threat (some would say attack) to japan. Many japs seen this as an unprovoked attack and the true start to the US/ jap conflict. :2c:

As for the possible numbers of dead if the Japanese mainland were invaded wouldn't been more like (IIRC) 1 million US dead & 3 (ish) million jap civis.

So based on those numbers & nothing else, use of the bombs made total sense.

:2c:

 

[HOLLiS]

I agree with Freefalling to the reasons and necessity of bombing Hiroshima began when Japan embarked in Imperialism.

 

[AssadUSMC]

I only wish our nation's leaders today had the same amount of backbone Harry Truman showed. Al-Qa'ida would be a glowing dust pile along the AfPak border. Fuck Pakistani "sovereignty".

 

[Trip_Wire]

The bombing of those two cities in Japan saved many lives both Allied and Japanese. Both cities today, are VERY modern and completely build better then before! I see no reason to apologize or shed any tears over the bombing! As Sherman said a long time ago "War is Hell.'

http://www.military-quotes.com/william-sherman.htm

 

[pardus]

What does Asian fried rice taste like?

 

[car]

What does Asian fried rice taste like?

Depends on the half life.....

 

[Lefty]

Been trying to respond with Pardus' quote but keep getting locked out - haven't mastered this yet.

Yes, really. The US was negotiating right up to the very day with Amb. Nomura, who was intentionally kept out of the loop by Adm. Yamamoto so he would be truly sincere in discussions with Cordell Hull and Pres. Roosevelt. Nomura received instructions to call on SecySt Cordell Hull at 1pm WashDC time (8am Oahu time) that Sunday to announce the cessation of negotiations. War Dept. intercepted the message, decided to tell Adm. Kimmel via Western Union. Western Union rec'd. the telegram Saturday but pigeonholed it for routine delivery sometime Sunday. The telegram told Kimmel to expect unspecified hostile action at that hour on Sunday. Western Union delivered the telegram to CINCPAC office several hours AFTER the attack. Reportedly Kimmel had an apoplectic rage at getting the telegram after seeing his fleet blasted into oblivion.
Nomura kept his 1pm appointment with Hull, not knowing what had happened. Hull already knew of the attack when Nomura entered Hull's office. The hapless Nomura received all the scorn and derision Hull could muster after this historic unprecedented diplomatic double cross.
National reaction, besides rage, included the feeling the US had been played for a sucker. Our diplomatic relations were changed forever.

Screw 'em. They deserved to be nuked, in spades.

 

[pardus]

My point was, how much good faith could be attributed to negotiations after the US crippled the Japanese economy?

 

[DA SWO]

My point was, how much good faith could be attributed to negotiations after the US crippled the Japanese economy?

Weren't some of the sanctions in response to the attacks in China.

I am a day late, but have a Knocking Nagasaki day too.

 

[pardus]

That is my understanding SOWT.
The japs deserved everything they got and then some.

 

[AWP]

That bomb stopped japanese militarist barbary.I personally know,in Senegal,an old man whose uncle,a senegalese recruit in french forces,was detained at that time in a nazi extermination camp and who was due to be executed with other prisoners that day.When the nazis heard the new of the bombing,they fled and forgot the prisoners,who were then free and safe,and among them the uncle of the old man

Um, a Nazi camp still operating in AUGUST 1945?

 

[QC]

The janood can come up with some pearlers.