[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

A dragonfly flitted in front of me and stopped on a fence. I stood up, took my cap in my hands, and was about to catch the dragonfly when...’

...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!"

[Tax-chick]

The invasion of Japan itself would probably have been the bloodiest episode in human combat. Expecting it, Japanese Imperial Headquarters called for ‘100 million deaths with honour’.

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.

[theFIRMbss]

>Giving thanks for Hiroshima ... More people were killed in the conventional bombing of Germany and Tokyo. More than twice as many were killed with machetes and clubs in Rwanda in 1994. Mao Tse-tung killed a hundred times more in a single episode simply by denying people food. A mediaeval torturer could easily match any individual horror of Hiroshima

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.

[BikerNYC]

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).

[HereInTheHeartland]

The truth in this is as obvious as saying that breathing air is good for your health.

[cvq3842]

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 . . .

[YepYep]

Realization is coming that I owe God and President Truman and Hiroshima for my existence on this planet. And truly, many others in America and Japan can say the same thing.

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.

[dfwgator]

Fat Man and Little Boy ultimately saved millions of American AND Japanese lives.

[Captain Rhino]

He was for making peace but needed a special reason for doing so, something so overwhelming that he could face down his generals who wanted to continue the war.

Key point.

The samurai mentality infused into the minds of Japanese soldiers and military leaders was obsessed with duty and patient endurance of suffering while waiting for the opportunity to strike a fatal blow on the enemy. The coming invasion of the Japanese homeland was the expected opportunity to do this. The Imperial General Staff had stockpiled a lot of war material and fresh units (including several well-equipped armored divisions) specifically for this effort. Even though the outcome would have been the same, the carnage would have been horrific. There are a number of elderly men in the church I attend who were stated for first wave of the Kyushu invasion. They are absolutely certain they would have died getting onto the beaches had the bombs not ended the war.

The bombs (and both of them were needed to convince the Japanese we could destroy city after city with impunity if necessary) presented an unanswerable challenge to this mentality. Resistance was pointless if the opportunity to strike back was never going to present itself due to the absolute domination of the airspace over Japan and of the seas around Japan by the Allies. It required this shock to quiet the stock message of continued resistance from the military members of the War Cabinet and produce the question to the Emperor in council that led to acceptance of the Allied peace terms (although not without some tense moments before the surrender message was broadcast).

The emperor's surrender message pointed specifically to the the bomb, its effects, and the need to stop the fighting and "endure the unendurable" in order to prevent the destruction of the entire world (a bit of understandable Japan-centric hyperbole in that last one).

[Captain Rhino]

He was for making peace but needed a special reason for doing so, something so overwhelming that he could face down his generals who wanted to continue the war.

Key point.

The samurai mentality infused into the minds of Japanese soldiers and military leaders was obsessed with duty and patient endurance of suffering while waiting for the opportunity to strike a fatal blow on the enemy. The coming invasion of the Japanese homeland was the expected opportunity to do this. The Imperial General Staff had stockpiled a lot of war material and fresh units (including several well-equipped armored divisions) specifically for this effort. Even though the outcome would have been the same, the carnage would have been horrific. There are a number of elderly men in the church I attend who were stated for first wave of the Kyushu invasion. They are absolutely certain they would have died getting onto the beaches had the bombs not ended the war.

The bombs (and both of them were needed to convince the Japanese we could destroy city after city with impunity if necessary) presented an unanswerable challenge to this mentality. Resistance was pointless if the opportunity to strike back was never going to present itself due to the absolute domination of the airspace over Japan and of the seas around Japan by the Allies. It required this shock to quiet the stock message of continued resistance from the military members of the War Cabinet and produce the question to the Emperor in council that led to acceptance of the Allied peace terms (although not without some tense moments before the surrender message was broadcast).

The emperor's surrender message pointed specifically to the the bomb, its effects, and the need to stop the fighting and "endure the unendurable" in order to prevent the destruction of the entire world (a bit of understandable Japan-centric hyperbole in that last one).

[Petronski]

I give thanks for Hiroshima/Nagasaki. My father would very likely have been killed in OLYMPIC or CORONET, had it come to that.

[Petronski]

I have taken some descriptions from Richard Rhodes’s superb book The Making of the Atomic Bomb.

I cannot recommend this book too strongly. It is truly superb and completely comprehensive. After that, read "Dark Sun," Rhodes companion volume about the Super.

[AFPhys]

My Navy dad was training as a Landing Craft driver, expecting to be going ashore during the first wave of the invasion of Japan. I understand the casualty rate for those guys was VERY high -

If it were not for Japan calling it quits before we had to invade, there is a very high probability I would not have been conceived.

I thank God for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[Dan Evans]

He was doing fine until this:

Yet Iran is vilified by the US, and President Bush has just agreed to help India’s nuclear programme. This staggering hypocrisy endangers the world.

We should keep nukes out of the hands of evil regimes. India is not led by an evil regime, Iran is. They issue fatwa's against free people who dare to criticize Islam. They wish to destroy the West.

[COEXERJ145]

"To avert a vast, indefinite butchery, by a few explosions seemed, after all our perils and toils, a miracle of deliverance." -Winston Churchill (Speaking on the use of the Atomic Bomb on Japan.)

[Zeroisanumber]

HEU is the most dangerous explosive material in existence...

And thankfully is deadly dangerous to handle. A half-hour of exposure will give you enough rads to kill you, and make you glow like a strobe-light to satellites. Without regular maintenance, bombs using HEU as an explosive break down. Without the proper protection gear and equipment, any technician trying to do the routine maintenance will die.

[TChris]

There is little connection between atomic weapons and nuclear power. Sweden, Switzerland and Japan have nuclear power but no weapons. Israel has atomic weapons but no nuclear power. The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) came into existence to allow nuclear power and to stop the spread of atomic weapons. Technically, this is very simple to do: have an outright and worldwide ban on any uranium enrichment above 10 per cent (weapons need above 80 per cent) and the same ban on weapons-grade plutonium. The problem is political. The countries that possess the atomic weapons, including the USA, would refuse this ban. Other countries are judged not by their compliance to NPT but by political prejudice. Iran does not have atomic weapons and has a good record of compliance with NPT. India does have atomic weapons and refuses to sign it. Yet Iran is vilified by the US, and President Bush has just agreed to help India’s nuclear programme. This staggering hypocrisy endangers the world.

It's only "staggering hypocrisy" to those who:

A) believe that every country signing the treaty would actually abide by it. (Hey, Saddam promised he would be good!)
B) believe evil is neutralized by taking away one of its tools.
C) see total moral equivalence in every culture and nation; presuming that the risk posed by every nation is the same.

[Porterville]

Weren't the Japanese close to making their own A-bomb and planning to drop it on our cities first?