Posted on 03/17/2008 5:00:40 PM PDT by Coleus
It was a clear, hot summer day on Aug. 6, 1945, when 10-year-old Kenji Kitagawa kissed his mother and brother goodbye before leaving for school. The fifth-grader didn't know that would be the last time he would see them alive. Life was forever altered for Kitagawa and the rest of the world 62 years ago, as an American B-29 bomber, flying 26,000 feet above his hometown of Hiroshima, Japan, dropped an atomic bomb.
Now 73, Kitagawa travels the world as part of an effort to educate people on the destructive power of nuclear weapons. Sponsored by the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, Kitagawa has been publicly reliving his experiences from Hiroshima for the past three years. With foundation Chairman Steven Leeper serving as translator, Kitagawa shared his experience with an audience of about 60 people at Christ Church in Summit last Sunday.
"After retiring, I had this feeling that I was not going to live much longer, and I thought, 'What is the most important thing for me to do?' and my mind was brought back to this place," he said, referring to Hiroshima. Kitagawa and his classmates were awaiting an assembly program at their school when the bomb hit at 8:16 a.m. A flash of blue and white light came like lightning through the windows, charring all who were directly exposed, Kitagawa said. Confusion and panic followed, as a ferocious blast of wind came crashing into the school.
"There was an amazing roaring sound and the entire school started to collapse," said Kitagawa. "I remember falling and feeling like a hammer was hitting me over the head." When he came to, the classroom was in total darkness. He would learn later that the sun became obliterated by the mushroom cloud from the bomb.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Thanks. That really puts it in perspective.
My beloved Father was in the Pacific theatre near the end of the war. Thank God for Truman and the bomb. Years later I had the privilege of meeting the Trumans as they shopped in my parents’ gift store in Independence, Mo. I was too young to have thanked the President, but I do so now.
Exactly right. Was it unfortunate that tens of thousands died in the nuclear blasts? Yes. Do the historical revisionists ever look at what brought this about? No. Pearl Harbor,Bataan death march,Nanjing,Unit 731,Manila,Any given month in China(approx 100,000 casualties),the projected casualties for a prolonged invasion of Japan (millions for both sides). Most of these hand wringers wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for the “rough men willing to do violence on the behalf of the sheeple”
His subjects ought to hate him more for that arrogance! (added, of course to the arrogance of the whole freakin’ ATTACKING US thing!!)
Actually, there was an attempted military coup to prevent him from surrendering. Check your history...
My condolences and prayers on the passing of your father.
God bless him and all the brave men who have fought and fight today for our freedoms.
Yup!
Cause/Effect.
Japanese living with the consequences of their nation’s actions.
I’m here to learn...by whom, when and why?
I think a reasonable and decent human can understand that it was a necessary evil, but evil and saddened nonetheless.
So,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,what would you say to my uncles, one who died on the march at Bataan, the other who suffered his whole life from the tortures he received there?
I’ve always had satisfaction about Hiroshima as retribution for what my uncles, and millions of others endured.
Unseemly doesn’t even begin to express my distain towards your PC attitude about the sacrifices our soldiers made.
One of my favorite movies is “Blast From the Past.” Those people were survivors.
Why should he? That was a legitimate attack on a military target.
The peace side decided to counteract the martial effect of that news release with an announcement of their own. This was for several reasons. The government sponsored news agency was in Morse code only and not covered by military censorship; it would speed the receipt of the Japanese offer going through diplomatic channels and could possibly postpone destruction of another city; and it was hoped that rejoicing created among the allies by an end to the war would make them unable to reject Japan's counter offer. On the morning of the 11th, the army was furious, but did not resort to violence. That evening the Emperor agreed to broadcast to the nation on acceptance of the offer.
The stern Allied response, written by the Americans and approved by the Allies, was also released by radio news to let Japan know under what terms the agreement was accepted. It was received about midnight August 11-12, eighteen hours before the diplomatic note. As word spread within the government, about midnight of the 13th, a plea was made to commit twenty million lives (kamikaze) to victory. On the morning of the 14th Allied leaflets erased the secrecy of the negotiations. Noon on the 14th saw another imperial conference in which the three military leaders in the cabinet spoke for rejection. The Emperor considered the Allied response to be acceptable. The cabinet met immediately after and endorsed the Emperor's wishes, thereby making the acceptance legal. By three in the afternoon, the government Morse code station announced that an "acceptance will be forthcoming soon." The Allies stopped attacks and went on alert status.
Insurgents assassinated the commander of the Imperial Guards and issued orders under his name, but the insurrection was put down by morning. Separately, the War Minister committed suicide. Also overnight, the Emperor recorded his address to the nation which was broadcast at noon, 15 August. Wording was so carefully drafted, about saving innocent lives from a new and cruel bomb, that it was not immediately known that it meant full surrender. The cabinet resigned as a duty and an Imperial Prince was made premier.
In later years my poli sci department head, a State Department veteran fluent in eight languages would posit negotiated treaties were possible only with those who recognize a "concept of limits".
Two American atomic bombs and MacArthur's firm but just rule taught the Japanese something.
I haven't seen their apology and admission of guilt yet, though.
The drill at our grade school was Friday mornings at eleven.
The new American Translation for the cities of ‘Hiroshima’ and ‘Nagasaki’ works out to something roughly equivalent to “Here’s payback for Pearl Harbor ya little Nips!”
You know, I happen to have known a WWII veteran very well, who having gone through many years of war in the CIB knew very well what was going to happen when the final invasion of Japan came.
He knew that many of his friends, those still alive and unharmed to that date, were going to be killed. He knew that many civilians, women and children, armed with everything from sharpened sticks on up would meet them head on.
The bombs saved lives, many lives on both sides. Perhaps a million + lives were saved.
Wow, that dates you. ;)
My recollection is that twice as many people died in the nuke bombings, as did in the firebombing of Tokyo.
Not that it matters to me either way.
Be nice to us "old farts" because we were there!
Do you feel the bombing Hiroshima and Nagasacki was wrong?
Let me see. If, by chance, the Japanese had developed the atomic bomb before we did, they would not have used it on American cities. Right?
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