Hiroshima

[The_Exile]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8079/index.html

This is incredible, fascinating.

[Off the bar]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8079/index.html

This is incredible, fascinating.

wow. Just read that through and will need a bit of time to really digest it. Incredible story, thanks for posting.

[NAE NOOKIE]

Amazing how even with a reason to hate some folk are able to forgive .... a very difficult thing to do for many people.

The atom bombs without doubt saved more lives than they cost, the death toll if the allies had been forced to invade Japan would probably been in the millions, mostly Japanese.

Having said that I often wonder if a less lethal demonstration of the bomb could have been carried out before a decision was made to obliterate over 100,000 people. I doubt losing the element of surprise would be a factor .... by that time there wasn't enough of the Japanese air force left to shoot down a hot air balloon, never mind a B 29.

But ..... I am in no doubt whatsoever that there were certain elements in the U.S. scientific community, military and government who were curious to see not only the immediate effects of an atom bomb, but also and more importantly the long term effects on human beings. From my point of view the people of Heroshima and Nagasaki were not only casualties of war ...... they were Guinea Pigs.

Having said all that ..... My first wife's uncle was a prisoner of the Japanese and from the very few times he spoke about their treatment of him and his fellow prisoners I am in little doubt that he wouldn't have lost much sleep over it if they had dropped atom bombs on ever city in Japan.

[Time For Heroes]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8079/index.html

This is incredible, fascinating.

Thanks for sharing, fantastic read.
Really humbling.

[Pete]

Having said all that ..... My first wife's uncle was a prisoner of the Japanese and from the very few times he spoke about their treatment of him and his fellow prisoners I am in little doubt that he wouldn't have lost much sleep over it if they had dropped atom bombs on ever city in Japan.

One of my mates when I was younger was fascinated by Asian culture, and Asian women at the same time (Asian in the American sense, Chinese etc...). Nearly every girlfriend he had was of that origin. His grandad, however, was in a similar position to your wife's uncle. Try as hard as he could, he couldn't bear to be in the same room as his grandsons girlfriend for any length of time simply because of her looks. I simply can't imagine the horrors he must have witnessed to make him think that way and react like that. I have my own ideas of what Japanese culture is and it's so far removed from the one that's talked about not that long ago and it's scary to think that there can be such a contrast.

Great read and I'd recommend reading the one on the Rwandan guy if you can find it. It seems easy to turn our back or skip over the horrors that occur in Africa for some reason but the Rwandan genocides were one of the bloodiest in our recent history. Maybe the details are too horrific to comprehend and it's not something that we want to believe is possible in this day and age.

[--------]

Amazing how even with a reason to hate some folk are able to forgive .... a very difficult thing to do for many people.

The atom bombs without doubt saved more lives than they cost, the death toll if the allies had been forced to invade Japan would probably been in the millions, mostly Japanese.

Having said that I often wonder if a less lethal demonstration of the bomb could have been carried out before a decision was made to obliterate over 100,000 people. I doubt losing the element of surprise would be a factor .... by that time there wasn't enough of the Japanese air force left to shoot down a hot air balloon, never mind a B 29.

But ..... I am in no doubt whatsoever that there were certain elements in the U.S. scientific community, military and government who were curious to see not only the immediate effects of an atom bomb, but also and more importantly the long term effects on human beings. From my point of view the people of Heroshima and Nagasaki were not only casualties of war ...... they were Guinea Pigs.

Having said all that ..... My first wife's uncle was a prisoner of the Japanese and from the very few times he spoke about their treatment of him and his fellow prisoners I am in little doubt that he wouldn't have lost much sleep over it if they had dropped atom bombs on ever city in Japan.


The dropping of the bombs was almost certainly a case of killing two birds with one stone - increasing pressure on the militarist government in Tokyo to force them to sue for peace, and warning Joe Stalin not to be too gallus about messing with the Western Allies in Europe and the Far East.

And I think you're absolutely right - the dropping of the bombs on Japan allowed the scientists to guage the effects of flash, blast, radiation sickness and fall-out on real people.

And it's likely that the Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan in September 1945 was much more decisive in bringing the Japanese government to the point of surrender than the dropping of the bombs. The Yanquis had been fire-bombing the Japanese cities deliberately and indiscriminately throughout 1945 - the Tokyo raid in the March caused at least 125,000 casualties (mostly civilians, mostly women, children and the elderly) in a massive firestorm in one night. the Japanese were almost used to huge civilan casualty-lists after these raids by the time the A-bombs were dropped.