Staff Sgt. Buckley, Master Sgt. Kuharek, Sgt. Gallagher, Staff Sgt. DeHart, Sgt. Spitzer
Posted on 08/09/2007 3:18:57 AM PDT by abb
On this day in 1945, a second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan's unconditional surrender.
The devastation wrought at Hiroshima was not sufficient to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference's demand for unconditional surrender. The United States had already planned to drop their second atom bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man," on August 11 in the event of such recalcitrance, but bad weather expected for that day pushed the date up to August 9th. So at 1:56 a.m., a specially adapted B-29 bomber, called "Bock's Car," after its usual commander, Frederick Bock, took off from Tinian Island under the command of Maj. Charles W. Sweeney. Nagasaki was a shipbuilding center, the very industry intended for destruction. The bomb was dropped at 11:02 a.m., 1,650 feet above the city. The explosion unleashed the equivalent force of 22,000 tons of TNT. The hills that surrounded the city did a better job of containing the destructive force, but the number killed is estimated at anywhere between 60,000 and 80,000 (exact figures are impossible, the blast having obliterated bodies and disintegrated records).
General Leslie R. Groves, the man responsible for organizing the Manhattan Project, which solved the problem of producing and delivering the nuclear explosion, estimated that another atom bomb would be ready to use against Japan by August 17 or 18-but it was not necessary. Even though the War Council still remained divided ("It is far too early to say that the war is lost," opined the Minister of War), Emperor Hirohito, by request of two War Council members eager to end the war, met with the Council and declared that "continuing the war can only result in the annihilation of the Japanese people...." The Emperor of Japan gave his permission for unconditional surrender.
ping
To get your blood up this morning...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20070808/cm_uc_crrscx/op_173502
A Solemn Nuclear Anniversary Robert Scheer
Wed Aug 8, 3:00 AM ET
During a week of mayhem in Iraq, in which terrorists have rightly been condemned for targeting schoolchildren, it is sobering to recall that this week is also the 62nd anniversary of a U.S. attack that deliberately took the lives of thousands of children on their way to school in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
snip
In the minds of the left it would have been better if far more Japanese school children had been killed by conventional means rather than a smaller number by the atomic bombs.
How can somebody as stupid as Robert Scheer remember to breathe in and out, day in and day out?
A fabulous book written by General Sweeney.
I loan my copy to anyone willing to read it.
Good job A.A.
The Japanese have only themselves to blame for what ultimately happened.
It’s not pleasant to consider what would have happened if the Japanese had gotten the bomb first. How many American school children would have died?
They deserved every single erg of energy.
In the non minds of the modern left, anything that results in the deaths of more American soldiers, in WW2, Iraq or anywhere else is the best possible outcome. Their complete hatred of our military and nation become more evident every day.
Harry Truman: Well done!
Hiroshima and Nagasaki both leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling, when I think of ALL of the AMERICANS that survived because of these bombs... and ALL of their AMERICAN offspring that were born because their fathers did not die invading the Japanese homeland!
LLS
The Enola Gay and Bock's Car were 2 of 15 B-29's that were specially fitted for delivery of atomic bombs. We were also processing all of the uranium we had obtained from the Germans into bombs. I don't know if we actually had any more bombs ready at the time Fat Man was used.
We got “their mind right” in a big hurry too. America should never apologize... but instead should remind “mess with us and it can happen to you”!
LLS
I had always heard that we only had the two atomic bombs. Now they’re saying we had more?
Amen to that brother!
The Japanese never would have given up if we hadn’t attacked both Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Truman was right .Even my Japanese father-in-law agreed .
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