Posted on 08/03/2005 10:49:43 PM PDT by manny613
Leaflets were regularly dropped over the cities telling the people to flee.
They were ignored.
I will check further on Hiroshima itself.
I can show you many things that are either wrong or biased with the History Channel....
For example....
You never see much about millions of people Mao or Stalin had killed....but the Germans are like the worst people on the planet.....
The program on Biblical Disasters ...stated that the story of Noah came after the story of Gilgamesh...which is totally false.
Or how about their continuing support for the THEORY of evolution.
I could go on and on but all I can say is that the History Channel has revised much of what really happend or tries to cover up what really went on.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/958360/posts
"When can we have that bomb?”
The Last Great Victory (Book, p. 653 Hardcover Edition) ^ | 1991 | Stanley Weintraub
Posted on 08/05/2003 6:23:24 AM EDT by Lonesome in Massachussets
It was the afternoon of August 5, 1945. To a group of six hundred army officers assigned to the Hiroshima garrison, Professor Yoshitaka Mimura of Hiroshima Bunri University, a theoretical physicist, was explaining the scientific possibilities of new weapons which might reverse the tide of war. Japan had little Navy or Air Force left. Within months a massive invasion of the home islands seemed likely. “Could you tell us, sir”, a young lieutenant colonel asked, “what an atomic bomb is? Is there any possibility that the bomb will be deployed by the end of this war?”
Mimura chalked a rough sketch on the blackboard to illustrate the [nuclear] reactions required. Scientists at Tokyo University, he explained, have “theoretically penetrated” the secrets of nuclear fission. If they could apply their theories practically, an atomic bomb “could be smaller than a piece of caramel candy, but, if exploded five hundred meters above a populated city, it could destroy 200,000 lives.”
“When can we have that bomb?” “Well, it is difficult to say”, Mimura answered, knowing nothing of any Japanese enterprise to apply fission theory to bomb-making. “But I can tell you this much: not before the end of this war.”
Originally posted in 1999 http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a37ac16a562a4.htm
It was a tragedy of monumental proportions that the war was started and the way it was conducted from the beginning (total war on populations, not just set piece battles between armies) is a stain on humanity. But I don't think you or I should feel "guilt" about the decisions our grandfathers made or had to make. History is too replete with mass murder both before and after WWII.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are special only because of the type of weapon used. It always sounds callous to say that anything "positive" came out of it, but throwing aside fear of being seen as cruel here's a partial list: World Wars (so far) limited to two in number, several million lives and years of combat saved on both sides compared with any realistic invasion scenario, short circuiting of Soviet plans for control of Manchuria and half if not all of the Japanese archipelago, and the opportunity for the Japanese people to rise from the ashes and grow into a great and peaceful nation.
I wonder how many men we were losing per day to Japanese hostilities at the time of Hiroshima. This may have been a major factor in Truman's decision.
Incidentally, Truman wanted the bomb dropped on a purely military target, according to his diary. It appears that folks lower down thought it would be a good idea to find a military target in the middle of a large number of civilians.
Some of the higher ups thought it would have been better to demo the weapon first, because Japan was already suing for peace and probably would have surrendered if we had offered them the conditions that we, in fact, imposed.
Szilard thought that Truman did not give the whole problem sufficient consideration.
He would have had to have killed Fascistic, brainwashed, fanatical, women and children if we had to invade
I maybe wouldn't be here.
I'm glad we prosecuted the War the way we did: There is nothing like "Unconditional Surrender". I wish some of our current Leadership would adopt this policy.
.........Why feel guilty about Hiroshima?..........
No reason to.
You mean like blowing up the Palistinean terrorists to Kingdom Come - I hope so!
When yo look at botulism injections etc. the Japaneese were sickos.
What would we have done if it had been a dud? If I remember right, even after the nucs went off, their council, or whatever they were called, were still tied 3-3 in voting to end the war. If I am not mistaken, the emperor broke the tie.
Yes, but I think Islam is worse.
I'm more inclined to ask the question, why didn't the Japanese surrender after Pearl Harbor? Think of all the lives that would've been saved. Even Admiral Yamamoto had an idea of what the future held after this act, but Hirohito didn't care enough about his own people to put a stop to it.
You wake a sleeping pitbull, you just might get hurt- and hurt in ways you never could've imagined.
BOOM!
!!! That's the first time I've heard that. That was before my time, but still.
Highly debateable. Even after Nagasaki, when Japan "accepted" Potsdam it was with the condition that the military's ruling structure of the empire survive.
This was on Aug. 10th. This finally became ""We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese armed forces and all armed forces under Japanese control wherever situated." on Aug. 15th.
That's correct. Three of his ministers wanted to offer surrender with four conditions; three wanted the offer to have just one condition. The emperor was asked, he sided with the one condition. However that condition was still not acceptable and was rejected.
It sees, on FR, the participation of everyone from bleeding heart reflectionists, to revisionists, to reasoned, methodical thinkers fluent in history, to (just a few) outright racial bigots who just happen to 'hate the Japs' and can't say much more than that. No shortage of variety.
There is the usual back and forth. I think no side convinces the other of anything. I don't know if I ever read a "you know, I never quite thought of that point."
I think I'll sit this one out for 2005. Even if it is the Big 60.
They had an ample opportunity to know about it when the first "demo" was done in Nevada.
They weren't impressed with that.
Besides we only had two more and the first at Heroshema didn't do the trick.
It was only because a pilot who had been captured told them we had a whole ship load and would continue to drop them one every two weeks, that it began to get the message accross.
The best bumpersticker I've ever seen on any car or truck had a white background with the big black 3" letters that said 'Screw Guilt'. LOL!
Reading the accounts of WW2, I really do not see much of a difference. The Japanese gave the Nazi's a run for the money in cruelty and that is saying something.
But Islam is right there with them both.
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