Posted on 08/06/2022 6:45:11 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Your musings fly in the face of reality. The hardliners wanted to keep going down to the last Japanese citizen. It took the second bomb for Hirohito to realize it was over.
After 4 years, and millions of lives lost, it was past time to end it.
The Americans sacrificed just about everything during WWII. I recall my mother telling me her family's gas ration was 3 gallons a week. She lived near Portland, and I tried numerous times to get her to talk about her neighbors and friends that were shipped off to Japanese internment camps. She never talked about it, I finally gave up.
One of her cousins enlisted shortly after Pearl Harbor. He called his mom from the SF shipyards, "Mom, we're shipping out today, no idea where."
She would not hear from him again for 3 years.
A "demonstration" bomb would not have served the purpose you so ardently desire.
Then I misunderstood you,
Then I misunderstood you,
The goal here at FR should be to have reasoned discussions, not drive by emotional responses. Note, that I am still recovering and have not reached perfection.
To have reasoned discussions, we much read the article carefully and read the posting carefully. Then we must post a reasoned response. That takes time and thinking. Writing a reasoned response clarifies our thoughts.
Most people here on FR don’t want to read and learn. That statement is offensive to many.
Just saying “we can do better than this.” offends many people. Offence rather than learning is the theme of the times.
Instead of surfing all the posts here, find one or two you can delve into deeply. You will find your time here much more rewarding. A message to all.
Interesting info. I am puzzled that you say the instruments commonly known as atomic bombs are not really bombs.
For a clear understanding of dropping the bombs on Japan, please open the attached. It tells you all you need to know. If this video is not enough for you, go read the book Unbroken, as US POWs were days from being executed until Hirohito surrendered, just so there was no evidence of their war crimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvthaMD5U1E
As Reagan used to say, facts are stubborn things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvthaMD5U1E
This video should answer any questions. I hope you choose to educate yourself on the subject. If it does not, feel free to read Unbroken, the story of Louis Zamperini told by himself before he passed away. The American POWs in Japan were scheduled to be exterminated days before Hirohito surrendered so they could not tell of the mistreatment and atrocities by their captors, ostensibly so that the captors/murderers could not be prosecuted for war crimes.
As Reagan said, facts are stubborn things. The U.S. has nothing to be ashamed of, only Japan does.
“...I am puzzled that you say the instruments commonly known as atomic bombs are not really bombs.” [Dilbert San Diego, post 244]
“Bomb” is more of a generic term in non-military parlance, and in informal military terminology.
During the War of 1812, “bomb” referred to a hollow sphere of cast iron, filled with gunpowder and fitted with a fuze (or “match” as then they were known), fired from a short-barreled cannon called a “mortar,” so called because of its resemblance to the mortar-and-pestle tools employed by chemists and apothecaries. Mortars delivered high-angle fire, to clear walls and hills. Naval forces of the early 19th century mounted mortars on specialized warships called “bomb ketches” and used them to attack shore fortifications and other facilities near seacoasts.
“Bombs bursting in air” is a contemporary reference to mortar fire of the Royal Navy, during the raid on Baltimore, Maryland in 1814.
Artillery pieces capable of high-angle fire were added to American coast defenses and served into the 20th century.
“Aerial bomb” came to signify a munition gravity-dropped from aircraft. “Bombing” became a verb, signifying attack by aerial bombs.
The device detonated in the Trinity test of 16 July 1945 near Socorro, New Mexico proved that at least one of the designs created by the Manhattan Project was capable of immense destruction.
The munitions dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945 were aerial bombs, but still in very early stages of development. They provided additional proof that fission devices could find use as weapons.
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