80 years ago, on August 6 & 9, 1945, the world changed.

Been There said:
Warning——-Video contains some very gruesome scenes. If you are sensitive to such traumatic scenes, or have PTSD, please consider not viewing this YouTube video.

Click to expand...
I'll bet a lot of us have seen much worse images of those bombings. My 3rd-grade class was shown images of victims who survived horrible injuries, and we were what?...8 and 9 years old? And I saw them again in high school.
 
I think I was 14 years old when I read the book 'Hiroshima' . It was a very short book but I was so moved, so disgusted by the horror of it all.

I went to the kitchen where my mother was and told her how bad I thought this bomb was and how unfair it was to the civilians and children of Japan. My mother sat down with me and explained that we dropped many 10s of thousands of leaflets all over Japan especially that area, that explained something terrible is coming from the Americans if they don't surrender. If they surrendered they would be saved but these leaflets warned that an unbelievably horrifying thing was going to happen, if no surrender.

I felt a little better. Not a lot. my mother being the bride of an American soldier who enlisted and served in the war in Europe was wounded, understood the situation more deeply than I could at the time,
 
Rakaia said:
I believe that I might not have been born if the bombs had not forced Hirohito into capitulation.
Hopefully we and other generations will never see nuclear warfare again.
Click to expand...
Same here. My dad served on an LST in the Pacific and they were sent to Japan after the surrender. He was there for a few weeks until he was sent back to the U.S. Had the war raged on, there was a chance his ship could have been sunk. I was born in 1947.
 
rgp said:
Well, IMO the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor was indeed lower.
Click to expand...
Both were tragic, people died.

War is horrible and the Japanese did a terrible thing. But the one difference is they attacked a military target. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were mostly civilian casualties. The warning leaflets dropped prior doesn't change that. Let's not forget about the fire bombing of Tokyo, way too many civilian casualties again.

It was war and America did what it thought it had to do. The Japanese were in no way innocent.
War is awful any way you look at it. But more effort to keep civilian casualties to a minimum would help. Yes, sadly in the history of war this seldom happens...
 
jujube said:
Same here. My dad served on an LST in the Pacific and they were sent to Japan after the surrender. He was there for a few weeks until he was sent back to the U.S. Had the war raged on, there was a chance his ship could have been sunk. I was born in 1947.
Click to expand...
Same here. My Dad was at Pearl when it was bombed. After the new year he was on a supply ship for the Missouri. I was born a year after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and he me after the Enola Gay.
 
How would you like to have been President Truman and have to make the decision to drop the first Atomic Bomb in history during war? He said he did so to end the war and save American lives. That goal was achieved.

This being the first time an Atomic Bomb was used, it’s doubtful If President Truman understood the full consequences of the effect the bomb would have with the amount of destruction on the cities and the people, plus the post war continued effect caused by the radiation.
 
outlander said:
Both were tragic, people died.

War is horrible and the Japanese did a terrible thing. But the one difference is they attacked a military target. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were mostly civilian casualties. The warning leaflets dropped prior doesn't change that. Let's not forget about the fire bombing of Tokyo, way too many civilian casualties again.

It was war and America did what it thought it had to do. The Japanese were in no way innocent.
War is awful any way you look at it. But more effort to keep civilian casualties to a minimum would help. Yes, sadly in the history of war this seldom happens...
Click to expand...
Like others, my dad was in the European conflict, and was told he and most still alive would be sent to Japan when it ended. It was estimated that likely a million or more of our guys would have been killed in a ground attack against Japan.

I was born in "49" so I'm glad he didn't go to Japan. He might have been one of those that were killed. And I might not have ever known this world.

As for civilians killed during the bombings .... I don't care if a million of them died. So long as not even one American lives were lost.
 
While many cite the atomic bombings as ending the war,
the reason the Japanese surrendered was because they didn't want the imminent Russian invasion.

They were at the border, ready to invade.
 
911 said:
How would you like to have been President Truman and have to make the decision to drop the first Atomic Bomb in history during war? He said he did so to end the war and save American lives. That goal was achieved.

This being the first time an Atomic Bomb was used, it’s doubtful If President Truman understood the full consequences of the effect the bomb would have with the amount of destruction on the cities and the people, plus the post war continued effect caused by the radiation.
Click to expand...
My Dad was a decorated combat infantryman in WW2. He always said that Harry Truman was his very favorite president because he had the courage to drop the bombs to end the war with Japan. His reason was that his infantry division was already scheduled to be first on the beach for the invasion of the Japanese mainland. Chances of him surviving that would have been very slim. Estimates of U.S. wounded or dead was estimated at 500,000 to 1,000,000 men. The estimates for Japanese losses were at least double that.

Citizens of USA were almost all totally happy with that decision at the time. It is a low blow to criticize that decision now, we didn't live it so we should accept it as the right decision as many American and Japanese lives were actually saved as a result of it.
 
outlander said:
My bad. A million civilian lives could never be worth as much as one American life;)

Done responding, post what you wish and have a nice life:)
Click to expand...
I always post what I wish [your approval is not needed] and I am having a nice life due [in part] to the decision made by president Truman @ the time.
 
Google's definition of the modern use of the term "trolling":

In slang, trolling refers to the act of deliberately posting inflammatory, provocative, or offensive messages online to upset or annoy others, often for the troll's amusement or to disrupt online communities. Essentially, it's an attempt to bait or provoke a reaction from others.

rgp, you seem to enjoy trolling, no matter what subject you are fighting your way into. You certainly are successful in getting the desired reaction.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top