Sad Day

[Jf1450]

I just feel sorry for the poor guy who, after the Hiroshima drop got up, shook off the dirt and said "Screw this, I'm moving to Nagisaki."

[Bill Greenwood]

I read about a lady who was from Nagasaki and was visiting in Hiroshima. She survived the first bomb, went home and survived the 2nd even.

[Tom Downey]

I read about a lady who was from Nagasaki and was visiting in Hiroshima. She survived the first bomb, went home and survived the 2nd even.

But did she glow in the dark?

[WLIU]

For what its worth, my understanding is that American POW's imprisoned at the Fukuoka 14 Prison Camp doing slave labor witnessed the Nagasaki bomb delivery. They felt the heat and experienced some of the blast wave. The bomb signaled that their daily beatings and random executions would end within days. A couple of years ago, one POW survivor published the book "Nagasaki Saved My Life: How One POW Survived Burma's Death Railway, Japanese Hell Ships, And The Atom Bomb". Look it up.

Wes
N78PS

[Bill Greenwood]

There were some American POWs in Hiroshima who were killed by the bomb, I think. I don't have the book with me right now, but I think it is in the Enola Gay book, which is a good one to read.

[rwanttaja]

It is interesting that the countries we fought to a surrender are better off today than the countries we tried to perform "nation building" in.

Keep the time difference in mind. Japan and Germany have had 67 years to recover. How much better off was Japan ten years after THAT war ended?

I do not believe either Japan or Germany had significant guerrilla activity after they were occupied, either. A better example might be the Philippines after the Spanish-American war.

Ron Wanttaja

[David Darnell]

While I'm not going to claim to be happy about Hiroshima and Nagasaki (for that matter the Tokyo firebombing), I do feel that Truman made the right decision.
If there is any doubt in your mind about it- read Flyboys by James Brady - it will give you some idea of the monsters in charge of Japan at that time.
Or look up Leonard Siffleet...
You can't judge the actions of 67 years ago on the standards of today

One thing to think over- if you look on the back of a Purple Heart- you can find the year it was made. It is my understanding that over 95% of the Purple Hearts awarded since WW2 were minted in 1945 - in preparation for the invasion of Japan.

[Bill Greenwood]

David, there is little doubt that "monsters" were in charge of Japan. But we did not drop the Bombs on these monsters, or soldiers for the most part. We dropped it on old men, women, and children in cities and if we had lost the war it might have been a war crime. We avoided Emperor Hirohitos palace, and agreed to let him live and not even be prosecuted for war crimes. We did prosecute some others for war crimes.
Given the responsibility that he had at that time, which was to our troops and our people, Truman may have made a decision that many would have made.

The whole subject is fascinating to learn about, but if we only consider the questions in a narrow way, the answer is dictated by one side's propaganda.
For instance, "Pres. Truman, we have developed a new and vicious Bomb. Shall we drop it on Japan, and or shall we invade without using the Bomb and loose 500,000 men?"

Now try this question. "Pres Truman, We cannot find the one big, decisive, military target for the Bomb, like maybe Tokyo harbor, and we have only got 2 Bombs currently. Shall we drop it on civilian cities where it may kill 200,000 people? It won't have a major impact on any military capability of Japan, but may scare the emperor into peace negotiations."

Or this one, "Pres. Truman, while we have a new Bomb, of awesome power, there is really no urgency to use it right away or to invade Japan either. Japan has lost virtually all of its surface navy, most of its air force, is down to barely trained new pilots, and really has little in the way of offensive capability to attack our forces. We have virtually complete control of the skies over Japan with our B-29s and long range fighter escort.We can destroy any city in a few weeks and its people are already starving. Ike agrees with this point as does, Gen Bradly ( I think it was).
We have also been in touch with sources within Japan about peace negotiations through contacts in Sweden.
We can also read much of Japans code messages and find that the only major sticking point to a peace treaty is that the emperor be allowed to live. Gen Mccarthur even agrees with that concession.
Shall we make a real effort to negotiate for a period time before we use the Bombs?"

There is one other big factor not often talked about, that of the Russians who seemed paused to invade Japanese held Manchuria. I suspect the use of the Bomb was also in part to impress the Russians who were our Allies and soon to become our enemy.

[Ernie]

War is sad, and there is no good that comes of it. But I hope the CiC learns to make decisions simply. Is this justified? Can we win? HOW CAN I MINIMIZE THE LOSS OF AMERICAN LIFE?

Sorry, if we had worried about "collateral damage" in Europe, we would have lost. Since we started worrying about all the politically correct edges of war we have: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq (II), Afghanistan, ... The results of none of those justify the young men and women that didn't get to come home.

[RV8505]

And what does all of this have to do with experimental aircraft and or Oshkosh? Nothing!