Posted on 06/25/2012 2:55:04 PM PDT by Olog-hai
The planned unveiling in London of a memorial to the 55,573 Royal Air Force Bomber Command airmen killed in World War II has sparked muted criticism in Germany, where many regard the Allied air raids that destroyed entire cities and killed over 500,000 civilians as unjustified and criminal.
Helma Orosz, the mayor of Dresden, which was devastated in an Allied attack in February 1945, criticized the plans for the monument when they first became public in 2010, and spoke to London Mayor Boris Johnson about it.
"The planned memorial triggered astonishment in Dresden and was judged critically by us in diplomatic terms," she told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "I am pleased that this exchange of views led to the monument now featuring an inscription commemorating the victims of the bombing war. The objections many people in Germany had to such a memorial have been taken seriously and I welcome this very much. It's a further gesture of reconciliation between Britain and Germany." …
The bombing raids were a response to German attacks on British cities and were stepped up massively in the summer of 1944 after the D-Day landings. Their aim was to destroy Germany's military machinery and to crush public morale.
Many Germans believe that Dresden, where up to 25,000 people were killed in the Feb. 13 raid that caused a firestorm, symbolizes the ruthlessness and pointlessness of a bombing campaign that failed to break their spirit or bring their industry to its knees. …
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Let the Mayor of Dresden come to Warsaw and visit the Warsaw uprising museum.
The American military saw the results of this fanaticism in Okinawa when we lost a lot of men.
The way I see it, Truman had three choices: leave Japan surrounded or invade or drop the bomb and get them to surrender
Blockading the japanese would have resulted in more deaths by starvation than those killed and harmed over the decades by H and N
invading would have had a lot of our troops killed, yes even by civilians -- so it was an evil choice and he chose what would kill less american lives.
Utter nonsense. Have you ever read the invasion plan for Honshu? Millions would've been killed before our troops even set foot on the ground.
I'm sure it's very easy for you to condemn the use of nuclear weapons since you never had to fight the Japanese. Have you fought in any war?
It is always beeb about what the "poor" Germans had done to them. No mention of the bombing of Warsaw, Rotterdam, London, Coventry or the actions of the "Special Police" Units that systemacially wiped out entire villages. Nor the death camps, nor the deliberate starving to death of between 250,000 and a million of Russian POWs. As far as I am concerned, they would have been justified to have wiped out the entire German race. The same with Japan for the way they treated our POWs.
Neither Germany nor Japan received half of what they deserved.
well, lets not pile on doc — he is right that war is hell and the Dresden bombing and N and H were not honorable. but the fact is that they were necessary to shorten the duration of the war.
If you were in the US Infantry and were waitng for the invasion of the Japanese home islands you would have thought about N and H differently.
The War that Germany started is best described by this statement.
Poles have two dates to remember: September 1st and September 17th.
Technically untrue, since they hadn't formed yet, but point taken. In today's world of precision directed bombing within 10 feet of a target, it is hard to remember when being within the grid square was doing well.
Not only that, but very likely had we not dropped the bomb, Japan would have been divided, like Germany and Korea, into Red Japan and Free Japan, and a war break out between the Reds and the American-supported section of Japan.
If Tojo succeeded and offed Hirohito before the Emperor could make his radio address, it would have been a much different story.
They certainly weren't dishonorable, at worst they were neutral necessary actions to end a bloody conflict.
I’m not inclined to make a determination on it. I wasn’t alive then and I’ve not studied the intricacies of the Japanese activity in that theater of war. I say that in the interest of openness, because I do know the general outline of what the Japanese did during the war. I don’t know all the intimate details, so I’d rather go a bit overboard with my disclaimer rather than claim I’m an expert or some such.
During the interview portion I heard, the author listed two nationalist groups that were used in this manner by the Japanese. That’s why I referenced my prior comments as I did. Who knows what other groups may have been used the same way. You may. I’m not trying to say you have no idea here.
The author did address the fact that the U. S. decided not to be open and frank about what the Japanese had done with regard to this subject.
I was just trying to put it out there for discussion. I myself was unaware of this.
Ten million. Six million is only the Jewish victims, there were other then Jews in the camps as well.
And this leaves out the millions of handicapped Germans that they had killed in hospitals before the war.
They can cry me a river.
Remember Hitler's "Armenian quote": . Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness—for the present only in the East—with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. --> and the Germans followed it through pretty well. The length and breadth of this country you'll find little monuments saying "here xx number of Poles were killed by Germans" -- you'll even find it in out of the way forests.
The Germans don't like the Allied bombing of Dresden? tough... I have no sympathy for that...
An interesting theory as to why Hitler singled out the Poles, compared to the other Slavs, like Czechs or Slovaks....the theory is that since many Poles had a lot of Germanic blood in them as well, they were perceived as more of threat, so according to the Nazis, Poles and Germans simply could not co-exist. Note, the Nazis never employed Poles as guards at the death camps, although they did use other Slavs, such as Lithuanians and Ukrainians.......the Germans figured that the Poles would immediately fire on them if given rifles, they were probably right.
At the same time they associated themselves with southern slavs like Bulgarians and Croats
It was pure convenience -- Poland was in the way, just as Poland was in the way of Russia
The problem with Poland is that it's not Germanic enough to fit in with the West, and not "Slavonic" enough to fit in with the east.
for that matter, the entire section of countries from Finland to Croatia fall into that basket, hence the proper need for Międzymorze.
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