Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Horrors of Hiroshima in Context
Townhall.com ^ | April 21, 2016 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 04/21/2016 4:41:02 AM PDT by Kaslin

The dropping of two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 remains the only wartime use of nuclear weapons in history.

No one knows exactly how many Japanese citizens were killed by the two American bombs. A macabre guess is around 140,000. The atomic attacks finally shocked Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese militarists into surrendering.

John Kerry recently visited Hiroshima. He became the first Secretary of State to do so -- purportedly as a precursor to a planned visit next month by President Obama, who is rumored to be considering an apology to Japan for America's dropping of the bombs 71 years ago.

The horrific bombings are inexplicable without examining the context in which they occurred.

In 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill insisted on the unconditional surrender of Axis aggressors. The bomb was originally envisioned as a way to force the Axis leader, Nazi Germany, to cease fighting. But the Third Reich had already collapsed by July 1945 when the bomb was ready for use, leaving Imperial Japan as the sole surviving Axis target.

Japan had just demonstrated with its nihilistic defense of Okinawa -- where more than 12,000 Americans died and more than 50,000 were wounded, along with perhaps 200,000 Japanese military and civilian casualties -- that it could make the Americans pay so high a price for victory that they might negotiate an armistice rather than demand surrender.

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Japan
KEYWORDS: apologytour; hiroshima; invasionofjapan; johnkerry; nuclearweapons; resident0bama; vdh; victordavishanson; worldwarii
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-130 next last
To: Does so

ALL anti a-bomb propaganda emanated from the Soviet Union, period. The current anti a-bomb attitudes are simply running on inertia from the Cold War period. The entire global left is running on that same inertia. The power of memes...


81 posted on 04/21/2016 8:51:08 AM PDT by Yollopoliuhqui (Smarter - Faster)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: jroehl22

My dad served with Patton’s Third Army in Europe. Upon V-E day he was sent back to the USA to train for the invasion of Japan. When they heard the A-bombs had been dropped, all the trainees gave a sigh of relief as they knew it was almost over.


82 posted on 04/21/2016 8:58:17 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: TangoLimaSierra
Tepid at best. I still see the thread as themselves s victims also. And they still have not given any recompense for the thousands of Asian women they forced into prostitution. They still see the atomic bombings as a war crime much the same as the Germans consider the bombing of Dresden as a war crime. Sorry but to me words don't matter much. Actions do.
83 posted on 04/21/2016 8:58:52 AM PDT by jmacusa ("Dats all I can stands 'cuz I can't stands no more!''-- Popeye The Sailorman.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Fury
Apologies without amends mean nothing.
84 posted on 04/21/2016 9:01:00 AM PDT by jmacusa ("Dats all I can stands 'cuz I can't stands no more!''-- Popeye The Sailorman.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: katana

I agree.


85 posted on 04/21/2016 9:01:49 AM PDT by jmacusa ("Dats all I can stands 'cuz I can't stands no more!''-- Popeye The Sailorman.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Little Ray

I’d say we did a damned good job of rebuilding the country after the war.

THAT’S OUR APOLOGY!


86 posted on 04/21/2016 9:02:17 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: zek157

The firebombing of Tokyo was a masterpiece; the US military allegedly determined what mix of high explosive bombs should be combined with those that would spread fire (the first bombs would reduce the area to matchsticks, the next would set them alight).

Brilliant, and couldn’t have happened to a better enemy. It wasn’t just revenge for Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Death March, etc., but also the atrocities on the Asian mainland.


87 posted on 04/21/2016 9:20:06 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Firebombing of Dresden (25,000 to 50,000 killed) and Tokyo (100,000 to 200,000 killed) never get the emotional coverage that Hiroshima & Nagasaki get.

Dead is Dead.

Most deaths at the two atomic bombings were due to blast & heat, NOT radiation.

Notice that all of the left's predictions of a 'glow-in-the-dark' wasteland, uninhabitable for 100,000 years, overlook the annual commemorative services held at the flower filled Peace Park and the surrounding bustling industrial city.


88 posted on 04/21/2016 10:19:49 AM PDT by BwanaNdege
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BwanaNdege
It's easier to come back from a nuclear strike than five decades of Democrat control of the government.
89 posted on 04/21/2016 11:05:21 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: Elsie

“War is the solution our enemies have chosen, I say lets give them all they want”. General William T Sherman


90 posted on 04/21/2016 11:36:00 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: PapaBear3625
Yep.

Most people have never heard of it. But considering the state the world was already in that could have been the finally blow.

Japan was not on the edge of surrender. They were on the verge of opening up a new front and a whole new kind of horror.

91 posted on 04/21/2016 11:40:20 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Proud Infidel, Gun Nut, Religious Fanatic and Freedom Fiend)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: BwanaNdege
Wasn't the firebombing of Dresden done by the British?

I was born in Germany in 1941 and I remember that we children used to eat the snow in the winter. I recall that several years after the atomic bombs had fallen over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the German radio stations warned not to eat the snow because of the radiation and our teachers used to warn us also

92 posted on 04/21/2016 11:45:43 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: Yollopoliuhqui
ALL anti a-bomb propaganda emanated from the Soviet Union, period

It's absolutely astonishing how much Soviet (and Soviet satellite) disinformation is still polluting the world.

93 posted on 04/21/2016 11:46:00 AM PDT by NorthMountain (A plague o' both your houses.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear

***They were on the verge of opening up a new front and a whole new kind of horror.***

Someone mentioned, so I bought the Chinese film MEN BEHIND THE SUN DVD.

Powerful stuff if you can stomach it.


94 posted on 04/21/2016 12:56:56 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

War is Hell!


95 posted on 04/21/2016 1:49:34 PM PDT by TNoldman (AN AMERICAN FOR A MUSLIM/BHO FREE AMERICA. (Owner of Stars and Bars Flags))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DuncanWaring
The Chinese will never forget the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

That's why they're starting their own version of it.

96 posted on 04/21/2016 1:51:17 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Tojo was trying to off Hirohito before he could go on the radio, Japanese only accepted surrender once they heard the Emperor say it was ok to surrender.

Bump off Hirohito and claim he was martyred, and all bets are off.


97 posted on 04/21/2016 1:53:13 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Dresden - British and American.


98 posted on 04/21/2016 4:34:56 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: BwanaNdege
Hiroshima still glows in the dark!


99 posted on 04/21/2016 4:36:10 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: DuncanWaring

GloBULLism and Free Trade did in Detroit.


100 posted on 04/21/2016 4:43:05 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 99 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-130 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson