Posted on 08/06/2005 4:37:17 PM PDT by genefromjersey
REMEMBERING HIROSHIMA : AUGUST 6, 1945
All over the world today, people are coming together to tell us how awful it was we dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
They have their memories – and I have mine.
Sixty years ago, I was with my Dad and my brothers : haying in the hot August sun. We had a portable radio with us, and we stopped work to listen to the broadcaster – who spoke of a bomb – hotter than the sun – that had been dropped on, and that had utterly destroyed the entire city of Hiroshima.
We knew – right then and there , the awful horror of World War II would soon be over.
( Funny the things you remember : Dad told us to stay put while he went into town. When he returned, he had a bag containing half-pints of Hershey’s ice cream – and spoons. We sat on the wagon ,eating ice cream , and speculating about how long it would take the Japanese to surrender.)
It took one more atomic bomb – this one on Nagasaki – and a few days of negotiations before the Emperor of Japan decided he could surrender without loss of face.
I remember that day – August 14,1945 – as a day the farmers and townspeople of our little village drove around :using scarce gasoline without a thought of tomorrow , honking their horns, setting off fireworks…or just walking into a church or temple to give thanks.
Did we regret Hiroshima and Nagasaki ? Consider the following.
Almost every family in America had an immediate family member, a relative,or a friend in military service. Our family was no exception.
One cousin served in North Africa ; another in Europe. ( He was one of the “walking wounded” , who never recovered ,and, soon after his return , he committed suicide.)
A second cousin on Dad’s side was a chaplain, who served on a hospital ship. The Japanese thought the white hospital ships,with big red crosses on the sides, made wonderful targets. The sub that sank our cousin’s ship surfaced to do so – apparently so the crew could get some practice with their deck gun – according to one of the few survivors.
We also knew about the Bataan Death March, the death camps, the prisoners who were sent to Japan to work as disposable slave labor in Japanese mines, or used as guinea pigs in germ warfare tests.
If you knew Japanese soldiers had formed American POWs into loose circles at bayonet point; had doused them with gasoline; had pushed one POW into the center and set fire to him-then laughed as the hapless victim stumbled blindly into those around him – setting them afire as well …would YOU be overly concerned with the fires of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ?
World War II began in 1937 and ended in 1945. By the time it ended , at least 65 MILLION people had been killed , and much of the world was in ruins ,with starving,often-diseased refugees streaming from nation to nation:clogging the roadways, and stripping the land bare in a frantic search for food – but, less than a decade later, revisionist “history” was being published – and taught – suggesting that WE were the “real villains” of the war ,because we ended it with two decisive hammer blows.
Let the Japanese ring their little gongs in remembrance of Hiroshima…and let them meditate – deeply – on the road they traveled to get there.
AMEN!
Yes, and I remember December 7, 1941.
Today marks the 60th Anniversary of the Hiroshima Bombing.
The sleeping Giant, awakened by the heartless attack on Pearl Harbor, brought the War back to the enemy. It is a lesson that should not be forgotten.
We must remember these lessons, so that they will never have to be repeated again.
I think other countries should remember this very well.
It is my opinion that if you intend to fight a war you had better intend to win that war. I'm afraid that the U.S. is beginning to teeter on the brink of fighting this war the way that they fought in Viet Nam. If politician want to unleash a military, do it and get the hell out of the way.
A situation which would allow so much as one American serviceman to die as a result of an enemy action because it may appear to be an "inappropriate" use of our power in preventing that action is indefensible.
Stop talking about the "religion of peace", light their asses up and end the thing.
Roger that!
Quite a bit of fighting took place between 9 August and 15 August 1945. The largest air raid of WWII occurred after the bombing of Nagasaki on 14 August 1945. Not all Japanese units complied with Hirohito's surrender.
American planes, days beforehand dropped leaflets warning Japanese citizens that the U.S. was planning the bombing, a fact that is rarely mentioned anymore. I wonder how many other countries would have done the same in similar circumstances?
when will someone have the balls to tell the Japs that the A-bombs of Hiroshima and Nagaski actually saved lives??
Had we invaded the Jap mainland as planned in November of that year countless millions of civilians would've been killed as well as tens of thousands of American GI's....
My dad, serving in the Philippines, may well have been one of them. I never knew about our intentions to go into Japan. Dad never talked about it, and our schools didn't teach us. I've been reading more and more about it and talked to some vets who were going to be a part of it. They say it was the greatest relief when they found out about the bomb being dropped and Japan's surrender. The casualities would have been massive.
It was a shame that we had to use it - but necessary.
sneakers
It just kills the peaceniks that the only use of atomic weapons in war was used to end a war of aggression by a dictator.
Casualty avoidance is often cited for dropping the atomic bombs. People extrapolate from 48,000 American and 230,000 Japanese losses at Okinawa to a half million American and millions of Japanese casualties for the mainland invasion. The estimate could have been vastly understated because Japan, at 374,000 mountainous square miles, mathematically enables over 500 defensive redoubts comparable to that general Ushijima used to inflict most Okinawa losses. The War Faction adopted the motto of “100 million Japanese deaths” in planning the final mainland battles. Besides kamikazes, redeployed Kwantung divisions, and bamboo spears for civilians, the allies faced biological warfare. Occupation searchers uncovered large stockpiles of viruses, spirochetes, and fungus spores throughout rural Japan. One delivery plan encouraged Japanese to infect themselves and then surrender.
I have not seen mentioned the critical role kokaitai played in surrender. Any prominent Japanese lived out this spiritual combination of Emperor, people, land, ancestral spirits, government, and Shinto religion. Hirohito decided in January 1944 to appoint a Peace Faction, but he and his advisors debated twenty months through continuous defeats and 1.3 million Japanese deaths before the bombs removed the “final battles” argument, allowing the War Faction to relent, Hirohito to assume his new roll, and no one to lose face. They remained within the fabric of Japanese of all eras who had sacrificed themselves for Emperor and Empire. Kokaitai is too compelling, oppressive and fulfilling for Westerners to imagine the agony of conscience these men confronted juxtaposed to meetings in a burning Tokyo.
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