...when there were a series of attacks in the blue sky above Pearl Harbor, HI. This was on the morning of 7 December 1941.
Moral of the story: "Don't start nuthin, won't be nuthin!"
Posted on 07/28/2005 7:02:24 AM PDT by Pokey78
...when there were a series of attacks in the blue sky above Pearl Harbor, HI. This was on the morning of 7 December 1941.
Moral of the story: "Don't start nuthin, won't be nuthin!"
My great-uncle was supposed to be in the second wave. His unit was built up to 120% strength, and they were told to expect 95% casualties. He's still alive today, thanks to President Truman.
I read somewhere that the 3rd atomic bomb was a bluff, and the Pentagon heaved a sigh of relief when Japan surrendered. Had Japan fought on....
But, but, but Pearl Harbor was a military base, and the rape of China and the rest of the Pacific was justified (those Chinese had it coming). America is evil, don't you get it?
Sincerely,
N. Pelosi
H. Dean
Indeed. BUT we don't
"give thanks" for those other things,
so let's not "give thanks"
for Hiroshima.
We see what it compares to.
War's hell. Let's move on.
I, too, think that the bombs were necessary to prevent further American deaths, but it was the final act of that war that made it acceptable to intentionally target civilians during armed conflict (whether that was ultimately for good or for bad has yet, I think, to be determined).
Population centers were targets all throughout the second World War for both the Allied and the Axis forces. Attacking population centers during previous wars was usually considered a no no. But it started when a German pilot dropped his payload over a British civilian area (without orders) and it escalated from there.
Aside from that, the bombs weren't meant to (as a reason for the bombs) destroy the population of two cities. Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were important manufacturing centers for the Japanese war effort. If the US wanted to simply annihilate Japanese people, they could have selected better targets.
APf
The situations in the comparisons did not have the result of avoiding millions more deaths. (This point was, I think, rather poorly handled by the author.)
My dad flew in the China-Burma-India Campaign, was involved in a crash landing and had mostly recovered from his burns but was tapped to go back to Asia in the summer of '45. Fortunately for me (I came along in 48) he didn't have to go.
Glad you're here :-).
The truth in this is as obvious as saying that breathing air is good for your health.
The atomic bombings were awful events, but unfortunately necessary.
Seems like a whole generation has grown up with a notion that the US just decided to drop some nukes one day. Or something like that.
It was total war. They used just about everything they could on us, and we had to respond.
I'm no military expert, but I guess it's amazing that poison gas was not used on the battlefield as it had been in WWI. Apparently whatever international agreement held.
Except for the Germans, of course, who used it on so many civilians . . .
My father was in a Pennsylvania radio training school with the Marines when Hiroshima happened. He had been in training for a territorial assault on Japan. But then the war was over, he was sent home, found Mom, and they married and started a family (starting with me!).
The recent finding of old Japanese fighters who still think we are at war illustrates that this would have been a very devestating assault, had it happened. Probably my Dad and many other soldiers would not have survived.
They go from doing sneak attacks and massacreing lots of conquered Chinese, to making excellent, reliable cars, and generally being supportive of US foreign policy. Dropping the bombs was an important part of this positive transformation.
More importantly, it saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of our fathers, as well as many more Japanese men, women and children who planned to fight to the death. Pretty good outcome.
For example...?
APf
Fat Man and Little Boy ultimately saved millions of American AND Japanese lives.
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