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U.S. owes Japan no apology at Hiroshima plane exhibit
Chicago Sun-Times ^
| December 5, 2003
| NEIL STEINBERG SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
Posted on 12/06/2003 11:58:37 AM PST by Chi-townChief
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To: AbsoluteJustice; Barnacle; BeAllYouCanBe; BillyBoy; cfrels; cherry_bomb88; chicagolady; ...
CHICAGOLAND PING
Once again, I can't believe this is coming from Steinberg. The boy sounds like he has undergone some kind of conversion.
To: Chi-townChief
Excellent read, Thanks for posting it
3
posted on
12/06/2003 12:05:40 PM PST
by
MJY1288
(The Democrats Have Reached Rock Bottom and The Digging Continues)
To: Chi-townChief
What the Japanese don't like to admit is that their fanaticism of the '40s has only recently been mirrored in contemporary times by the Jihadists. After all, the attacks on 9/11 were not new in style; they were merely an extension of the kamikaze suicide attacks that were the the staple of Japanese military policy toward the conclusion of the war.
And like it or not, we wouldn't have needed to drop not one, but TWO nuclear bombs on Japan if the Japanese had simply recognized the writing on the wall and surrendered when they had the chance.
In short, they don't like people knowing what brought the end to the Second World War? Tough. They started it. We finished it.
4
posted on
12/06/2003 12:06:30 PM PST
by
Prime Choice
(Conservative: One who doesn't believe that turning the U.S. into a third-world nation is 'progress'.)
To: Chi-townChief
The United States has NOTHING to be ashamed of or apologize for, with the exception of the Socialist/Marxist LEFTISTS of TODAY and their anti-american vitriol AND for the SOCIAL engineering programs they have heaped upon our country.
The UNITED STATES of today has NOTHING to do the annexing of the American Indian's claim to this land. It has NOTHING to do with the horrible practice of Slavery!! These were done by SOME of our ancestors, WHO have long since departed this earth.
5
posted on
12/06/2003 12:15:53 PM PST
by
PISANO
(God Bless our Troops........They will not TIRE - They will not FALTER - They will not FAIL!!!!!)
To: Prime Choice
If it makes the Japanese feel any better, they should realize that the destruction of their two cities and 240,000 people probably prevented a nuclear exchange between the US and the Soviets. Tests are one thing. Seeing real cities and real people vaporized is quite another. Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrated the real-world results of atomic weapons.
To: MJY1288
I agree that statistics on neuclear deaths, pictures of radiation burns, even displays of pictures of people suffering radiation poisoning passing blood in their bowel need prominence. With these displays must go the explanation that this is the payment for making war on America and Americans.
To: PISANO
so tell us how you really feel :-O
8
posted on
12/06/2003 12:17:36 PM PST
by
cyborg
(mutt-american)
To: Chi-townChief
When I visited Pearl harbor the Nips were all smiling in the auditorium before the tour, when the film footage was shown of the bombing of the base .
As for the Atom Bomb --" Made in America, Tested in Japan "
Next test--Tactical nukes to send more Taliban to the 72 virgins when cooked in their caves or bunkers.
9
posted on
12/06/2003 12:20:20 PM PST
by
Renegade
To: buccaneer81
My father, who was there following the war, told me that Tokyo looked worse than Hiroshima.
10
posted on
12/06/2003 12:20:21 PM PST
by
squidly
To: buccaneer81
If it makes the Japanese feel any better, they should realize that the destruction of their two cities and 240,000 people probably prevented a nuclear exchange between the US and the Soviets.They also fail to comment on the million or more Japanese people who would have been killed in a US / Soviet invasion of the main islands.
11
posted on
12/06/2003 12:38:05 PM PST
by
reg45
To: reg45
Your post triggered a thought. What if the war had dragged on long enough for Stalin to fulfill his Yalta commitment beyond a Manchurian campaign. What if we had waited the invasion of the main islands long enough for our ETO troops and Soviet troops to arrive in PTO? Would our plans have included a dozen or even one Soviet Division? If yes then would there have been a post VJ division of Japan into separate and decidedly unequal Soviet and US run sectors ala post VE Germany?
12
posted on
12/06/2003 12:44:48 PM PST
by
wtc911
To: Chi-townChief
Dropping the atom bombs on Japan was the best thing that could have happened to that country. It forced the Emperor to agree to unconditional surrender. Anything less would have left a warmongering military in control and the same thing would have happened again.
By overseeing the reconstruction of Japan's government, America built a nation that has been a good international citizen for over half a century.
To: buccaneer81
Actually, the numbers(before inflation by anti-nuke lefties and Japanese victim cultists) were around 70-80K for Hiroshima and 40K for Nagasaki. The numbers were arrived at using a much more scientific process involving ration cards(which were issued to everyone)
The numbers we've come to know now are fiction. It's possible more thna 120K total died, but not two times that number.
14
posted on
12/06/2003 12:58:57 PM PST
by
Skywalk
To: wtc911; reg45
Did some fast research. The Japan invasion, set for 1, November, 1945, was to be 100% US. The number of troops scheduled to be involved is staggering and included the entire Marine Corps. Do a quick google on Operation Downfall or Operation Olympic for details and casualty projections as well as Japanese strengths and resistance plans.
15
posted on
12/06/2003 1:13:36 PM PST
by
wtc911
To: Chi-townChief
The only thing they need to be told is you started we ended it! Shut Up!
Cause trouble and trouble will find you!
If they want to help they need to tell the ISLAMOFACISTS to read ending chapter of WWII in the Pacific.
16
posted on
12/06/2003 1:16:10 PM PST
by
SandRat
(Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
To: PISANO
Genocide, man.. Millions of men women and children murdered in cold blood in their sleep or while praying... /sarc
17
posted on
12/06/2003 1:22:35 PM PST
by
a_Turk
(Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice..)
To: Prime Choice
I shook hands and said "Thank you" to Mr. Tom Ferebee for his service as bombardier on the Enola Gay's mission over Hiroshima. He autographed a pic of that B-29 for me, some 4 or 5 months before he passed away, and I have it along with his obituary framed on the wall in my den.
Will we ever see another generation like that one?
18
posted on
12/06/2003 1:31:20 PM PST
by
Marauder
(If God lived on earth, liberals would sue Him.)
To: Chi-townChief
Good article. Thanks for posting.
19
posted on
12/06/2003 2:22:32 PM PST
by
gcruse
(http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
To: gcruse
One of the biggest problems with the use of the atom bomb is people turn it into a moral debate or try to revise history. People who try to rewrite the history of the atomic bomb are attempting to apply modern morals and opinions about nuclear weapons to 1945. Until the advent of the ICBM and the ability of push button global destruction, many people, both civilian and military, simply looked on atomic bombs as another weapon in the militarys arsenal. Once the atomic bomb became a political weapon, not a military one, it developed a stigma against it that causes large numbers of people to say that the United States was morally wrong for what happened in August, 1945.
Japan herself was not an innocent victim of unnecessary American aggression. She had invaded Manchuria in 1931 and then the rest of China in 1937. Her soldiers had committed countless atrocities against the Chinese people and later the Allies. She used Allied prisoners of war in biological weapons experiments at the infamous Unit 731 in Manchuria. Had the Allied invasion of the Home Islands come, the High Command had issued order for all Allied POWs to be executed. It was well known among the POWs that the Japanese were preparing to execute them. For them, the atomic bombs were a divine deliverance. Japan waged aggressive, bloody, and murderous war starting in 1931 and it took the power of the United States more than 3½ years to finally end it.
One must also not forget American attitude toward the Japanese. Japan, without a declaration of war, attacked the United States on December 7th, 1941. This created an attitude of resentment and hatred that guaranteed that the war in the Pacific would be a war to the death.
While Truman and his advisors were primarily concerned with American casualties, the atomic bombs also prevented an even larger number of casualties among the Japanese themselves. With millions of Japanese on the Home Islands, there can be no doubt that the Japanese would have suffered an almost unimaginable number of dead and wounded. Continual firebomb raids, naval bombardment, and the possible use of chemical weapons all could have pushed the number of Japanese casualties into the millions. It was for more merciful to drop two atomic bombs and kill between 150,000 and 250,000 than to kill millions. If these cities had not been atomic targets, they would have been burned to the ground by LeMays Superfortresses probably killing just as many people if not more.
"To avert a vast, indefinite butchery, by a few explosions seemed, after all our perils and toils, a miracle of deliverance." - Winston Churchill
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