Sixty-seven years ago today

[Charles L. Cotton]

Sixty seven years ago this morning at 8:15 am local time, the ambient temperature in Hiroshima suddenly spiked to about 10,000 degrees F, vaporizing approximately 70,000 of the Emperor’s soldiers and subjects. It took 3 ½ years, many thousands of American lives, but the payback for Pearl Harbor finally came. Sadly, as the years go by fewer and fewer people understand what and why this happened, many believing the revisionists version of history.

Chas.

[MoJo]

The horrors of the atomic bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki pale both in the light of the horrors the two bombings prevented and the horrors perpetrated by the Japanese Empire upon the conquered peoples of Asia.

If the Americans and their allies had been forced to invade Japan there would have been millions of dead on both sides. Like the use of our concealed firearms we hope nuclear weapons are never used again but if the need arises thank God we have them.

[The Marshal]

And also averting the subsequent invasion of Japan Proper, which by US calculations was going to be somewhere around 1M estimated in casualties. The Battle of Okinawa has an -estimated- casuality list of over 200K people alone.
My Father was wrenching on B-29's on Okinawa at the close of the War.

[puma guy]

Charles, you so right that this action has been twisted by trhe revisionists. These actions brought a vicious and seemingly relentless enemy to the peace table. Even this death toll pales in comparison to the slaughter brought upon the Russian people by Stalin and the Chinese by Chairman Mao in the PRC who had already suffered significant losses in the Japanese occupation. More historical facts lost to recent generations.

[SQLGeek]

Having done quite a bit of research on the Japanese rape of Nanking, including the horrific medical and biological experiments, it is hard to conclude any other ending was possible. The Japanese weren't even quite ready to surrender after Hiroshima. That gives you a pretty good insight into the mentality of their ruling class at the time.

I shudder to think at what an invasion of the Japanese mainland would've been like. I have no doubt that countless Japanese lives were saved by forcing their surrender in this manner, not to mention the lives of the allied forces.

[Purplehood]

I always thought it was kind of silly to be bent out of shape over the means of a persons death.

I guess it would have been preferable to kill those thousands in Nagasaki and Hiroshima individually with a dose of cyanide.

It really does not matter. Dead is dead.

The only real issue is determining if the act of killing people is justified as an act of war or not. The methodology is a totally moot point.

[jimlongley]

Didn't bambam want to apologize for Hiroshima?

[MoJo]

Didn't bambam want to apologize for Hiroshima?

The Japanese have never acknowledged the fact that they started the war, that they perpetrated any atrocities or even were guilty of war crimes. They still hold some of their worst war criminals as national heroes. Unlike Germany, Japan thinks they did no wrong during WWII. They deserve no apology they owe the world an apology.

[WildBill]

Read the book "Hiroshima" by John Hersey.

[stroo]

Estimates of the number of civilians killed by the Japanese during WW II range from 5 million to 30 million. And some think we should apologize for dropping the bomb which saved a million plus additional lives.

I am convinced that our nation is completely insane.

[C-dub]

Read the book "Hiroshima" by John Hersey.

I read it when I was about 5th or 6th grade. I don't regret that we used the bomb and I'm glad we did, but I am saddened that it came to that. I had my own little moment of silence this morning and then I sent happy birthday messages to two people I know born on this day.

[The Annoyed Man]

My dad, having already survived being severely wounded at Iwo Jima and recovered, was training a marine rifle company on Guam in preparation for the invasion when the bombs were dropped.....most likely saving my dad's life.......so I get to type this today. The bombs were a terrible thing for the Japanese, who wrote a check they could not cash, and a good thing for the rest of the world.

[glbedd53]

They always like to talk about the thousands of Japanese that died and suffered because of the A bombs but how many thousands or millions were saved in the rest of Japan that would have died if they had not been used. Just think about Tokyo alone. It may have saved ten times more lives than it cost. Especially American lives.

[RSJ]

I met and got the autograph of "Dutch" Van Kirk, the last surviving member (the navigator) of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. He was at the Dallas Market Hall gun show last year.