Posted on 08/14/2018 3:58:59 AM PDT by P.O.E.
On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It was the first time a nuclear weapon had been used in warfare.
There were three strike planes that flew over Hiroshima that day: the Enola Gay, which carried the bomb, and two observation planes, the Great Artiste and the Necessary Evil.
Russell Gackenbach was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps and a navigator on the mission. Today, the 95-year-old is the only surviving crew member of those three planes.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Pity both you and I pay their salaries.
I know.
But another symptom of the diseased state of the nation.
Here’s a story about how the coup failed:
“The Last Mission”.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000XU8EAU/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Okinawa had a fair amount of that sort of thing, as well as massive civilian casualties.
Anyone decrying the use of the 2 A-bombs is merely displaying their ignorance of the history of the Pacific War. Those bombs saved millions of Japanese lives.
Yes. imagine Okinawa multiplied x1000.
Rampant civilian suicides, coupled with a J military whose military code included importing Korean sex slaves, using Okinawan civilians as human shields, and then shooting said civilians if they tried to surrender.
Marshall was so worried about how brutal the Japanese resistance would be in an invasion, that he considered using A-bombs as tactical weapons on beach defenses ahead of troop landings if the invasion of Kyushu ever went forward.
It would have been hell on earth. The atomic bomb was one of the most providential things ever invented.
The exaggerated camel toe on that bikini...even the plane artists were real men!
You can’t convince that the 200,000 Japanese dead by nuclear blast is better that 10,0000,000 Japanese and 1,000,000 Americans killed by bullets, bombs, suicide and starvation.
Wars are won by making the cost of continuing it so great that the enemy stops fighting and surrenders. Without those two nukes, Japan would have continued to fight for months if not years. But truthfully, Japan did attempt to negotiate a conditional surrender and were rebuffed.
Here’s a better question: Which was worse, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima or the firebombing of Tokyo, and why?
-—”Wars are won by making the cost of continuing it so great that the enemy stops fighting and surrenders.”-—
As General Sherman astutely observed, there’s little use trying to “reform” war. It’s terrible by definition, and the worse you make it, the sooner it’ll be over.
Bill Whittle rocks, and I’m sure it’s awesome. BFL.
That was the American Way of War from the Civil War through 1945. Then we forgot this, and ended up with a lot of mixed results in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
Great info - thanks!
Cool. Thanks for the post. I’ll have the speakers on in the garage this evening while I’m fixing the rototiller engine!
-—Here’s a better question: Which was worse, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima or the firebombing of Tokyo, and why?-—
Tokyo was worse, but nobody thinks about that.
Which is one reason that was no moral debate about using the A-bomb. They’d already conventionally bombed Tokyo, and that killed more people than the A-bomb would. Why would Truman hesitate?
Imagine if HST refused to use the A-bomb, and invaded instead and lost half a million men. Imagine if it came out later: “Well, we had this super-weapon that could have ended the war without invading, but we were worried about killing too many Japanese”
Try not to laugh. Truman would have been impeached, convicted, and maybe hanged by a mob if that ever happened.
I take no joy in hundreds of thousands of deaths by atomic bomb, or hundreds of thousands of deaths by fire bomb, or hundreds of thousands of deaths by bayonet (Rape of Nanking) but if we are going to fight to the finish as the Japanese clearly were intent on doing (all this crap about their imminent surrender not withstanding) then I would rather we reach the end standing and not our foe.
You bet, and good luck with that rototiller!
Nor should he... That mission saved millions of lives and even countless millions afterwards. There hasn’t been an atomic bomb, or anything stronger than that used since in an offensive military operation.
Mission accomplished!
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