Hiroshima

[Oldgringo]

On this date in 1945, the United States dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

That probably wouldn't have happened if the Japs hadn't bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Anybody listening over there...?

[age_ranger]

To this day the 393rd bomb wing is the only military patch permitted with the mushroom cloud on it. Now it's home of the B2 Bomber

[Bart]

My great uncle was in the pacific theater and he used to grumble that we shouldn't have stopped at two.

[Oldgringo]

My great uncle was in the pacific theater and he used to grumble that we shouldn't have stopped at two.

Your uncle may have been right?

What we definitely need is a whole lot more Harry Trumans in our government. Old Harry, bless his heart, wouldn't make it in this day and time. He was an honest man and a .

[WildBill]

The two atomic bombs dropped on Japan served their purpose by ending the war. I believe that subsequent generations of the Japanese people and their government have learned from their mistakes so that history does not repeat itself.

[Oldgringo]

The two atomic bombs dropped on Japan served their purpose by ending the war. I believe that subsequent generations of the Japanese people and their government have learned from their mistakes so that history does not repeat itself.

Yes, but are there now others of another culture who need to learn that attacking America is a grave mistake? Maybe they'll decide the promise of 79 virgins waiting in the beyond ain't all it's cracked up to be? Now that I think about it, what is the reward for the female martyrs?

Just askin'....

[The Annoyed Man]

The two atomic bombs dropped on Japan served their purpose by ending the war. I believe that subsequent generations of the Japanese people and their government have learned from their mistakes so that history does not repeat itself.

Yep. My dad was WIA against Japanese forces at Iwo Jima, but he never bore the Japanese any malice after the war. That said, one day a year or so before he died, he and I were watching the news together, and there was a story airing about Japanese civilians protesting the arrival of an American naval vessel which carried nuclear weapons of some sort on board, at either Sasebo or Yokosuka harbor. I made some comment to the effect that I could understand the sentiments driving the protest; after all, Japan was still the only nation in the world that had been nuked in anger. My pacifist dad shot me a gimlet eye and said, "if not for those two bombs, you and I would probably not be having this conversation today. They wrote a check they couldn't cash. But had the bombs not been dropped, the price of the invasion in human lives, both Allied and Japanese, and both military and civilian, would have been 10 times the lives lost to the bombs."

After he was wounded at Iwo and recovered on Guam, Dad was training on Guam for Operation Olympic, the invasion of the Japanese homeland. His division, the 3rd, was scheduled to go ashore on lower western Kyushu on D-Day. Given the casualty projections for the invasion — the April 1945 estimate of the JCOS was 1,200,000 U.S./Allied casualties, with an unknown number of Japanese casualties. These estimates often do not include estimates of naval losses. The War Department had pre-ordered the manufacture of 500,000 Purple Hearts for distribution in the aftermath of the planned invasion. Scientist William Shockley (who later became infamous for his interest in the genetics of racial superiority) produced a document for the War Department in 1945 estimating total Japanese casualties, military and civilian of 5,000,000 to 10,000,000. The Japanese had, in mainland Japan, approximately 8,797,000 able-bodied men fit for military service at the time, and Japan had induction and training facilities capable of processing a minimum of 100,000 new troops every month leading up to the date of an actual invasion (source).

Total casualties for both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs are 135,000 and 64,000 (source). Those are horrible to contemplate, but not that far out of line with WW2 casualty counts on other fronts, by conventional means; and actually lower than the casualty counts caused by the fire-bombing of Tokyo and other large Japanese cities before either of the atom bombs were dropped. But as large as those numbers are, they absolutely pale in comparison to the carnage that would have been the result of an invasion of Japan to force their surrender.

My dad was right. Had those bombs have been dropped, I would likely not be alive today to write this post. Certainly the Japanese did not deserve to be obliterated from the planet, but their ultimate fate was a just one, and the use of the atom bombs was absolutely morally justifiable, since in the particularly twisted calculus of total war, the eradication of a quarter million civilians is preferable to the eradication of five or 10 million.

It was an ugly, but absolutely necessary business. And partly because General McArther treated the Japanese magnanimously after the surrender, they have been pretty decent allies and trading partners ever since.

[Oldgringo]

Some (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internatio ... e_Far_East" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) say that the Japs killed upwards of 300,000 men, women and children in the six weeks following their capture of Nanking, China in December of 1937. They did it without an atom bomb.

The list goes on....

[suthdj]

Some (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internatio ... e_Far_East" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) say that the Japs killed upwards of 300,000 men, women and children in the six weeks following their capture of Nanking, China in December of 1937. They did it without an atom bomb.

The list goes on....

Read the book and watched the movie(Rape of NanKing), German's ain't got nuttin on the Japanese for brutality.

[i8godzilla]

This anniversary is the first that the United States has sent official representation. I see this as another attempt by the current administration to apologize to the world for America being America. Every administration--Democrat or Republican--has 'ignored' the anniversary ceremonies, until now.

[longtooth]

My Dad made Iwo & Okanawa both & still came home from those 2.
Invasion of Japan proper & I dont think I would be typing.
The bombs were good medecine.

[jimlongley]

My grandfather was a Brigadier General commanding Base K of the Quartermaster Corps and his tales of the buildup for the invasion were quite telling. The numbers of stretchers alone were an indicator of what the Army thought would happen.

If you ask me, and having learned what I did at his knee, the japs deserved it, and should still be apologizing, and paying reparations.

[kragluver]

Anyone who ever questions Truman's decision to drop the bombs needs to read the book Operation Downfall and then re-evaluate their opinions. The bombs were the cheapest way to end the war in terms of cost of human life.