Posted on 08/06/2022 6:45:11 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Reiko Yamada was 11 years old on August 6, 1945, when the US dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Now 88, she is among the few survivors of the horrific attack, which killed around 140,000 people, and is determined to pass on the lessons of history. But Yamada and other survivors fear their voices are not being heard. On the 77th anniversary of the bombing, FRANCE 24 reports on the survivors of the attack.
Bells tolled in Hiroshima on Saturday as the city marked the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing.
Reiko Yamada was 11 years old on August 6, 1945. Her school was just 2.6 kilometres from the epicentre of the attack.
The young girl saw a plane and a flash, then nothing. A tree fell on her, but she survived and found her family. Today, she is determined to keep the painful memories of that fateful day alive.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
I recall a few years ago, liberal comedian Jon Stewart was discussing the atomic bomb. He opined that we should have dropped a bomb offshore, to shock and awe the Japanese about the power of the bomb. And then, according to him, we should have told the Japanese that if they don’t surrender, then the next one would be dropped on them.
As you note, it’s easy to look back with decades of hindsight and say we shouldn’t have used atomic weapons, due to showing superior morality and all that, as some here have noted.
The mood in 1945 was to get the war over as fast as possible, using any means necessary. We had exactly two bombs. Tough decision.
My dad was on a destroyer 1943-1945, on a radio ship. It was not until after he died that I learned that ‘radio’ included radar. Once we had radar, the war became one-sided.
Note that FDR, in 1944, picked Harry S Truman, an obscure Kansas City machine Senator from Missouri, ditching Vice President Henry Wallace (1941-1945).
Wallace was the Progressive Party candidate for President in 1948, causing Truman to lose a close race to Thomas Dewey. Then the Machine, late on Election Night, in Kansas City and Chicago, flipped the election to Truman.
See also 1960, 1968, 2000, 2016, and 2020.
Good grief, grow up.
They were saving planes for the US invasion of Japan. When they surrendered the Japanese actually possessed some 12,700 aircraft in the Home Islands, roughly half kamikazes.
Exactly. The Japanese leadership had no concern for Japanese civilians whatsoever. Just cogs in the machine. They could have sued for peace years before, when it was already blinding obvious the US could out-produce, and therefore out-fight, Japan.
Also a problem with the demonstration idea was a fizzle. What if bomb number 2 with its new technology somehow failed or fizzled. One component goes wrong and its nothing. The Japs laugh and get a morale boost!
There is a bear trap waiting for every bear.
Imperial Japanese were a bunch of sick freaks that spent almost 70 years invading and killing their neighbors in the most horrific ways possible.
Don't expect me to cry any tears for what finally made them stop.
Very accurate. Japan would have been spilt like Korea. Half Soviet.
It was an evil act. War is evil.
Indiscriminate bombing of cities was what every single power who had the capability at the time did.
Here’s a good thought experiment. What other major power, if it had had the bomb, would not have used it?
Would Germany have used it? Duh.
Would the Soviets have used it? Also duh.
Would Japan have used it? Yet again, duh.
Would Italy have used it? Mussolini was DYING for a seat at the big boy table. The bomb is just what he would have needed to get it and for Italy to be taken seriously as a major power. You bet your ass he would have used it.
Would France have used it? As opposed to being invaded and occupied? Hell yes they would have used it.
Would Britain have used it? They were pretty much reduced to being the Junior partner of America by that point and everybody - even they - knew it. The bomb would have catapulted them right back into the front rank alongside America and the Soviet Union. And let’s not forget the Japanese had been utter bastards to them. They didn’t hesitate to firebomb German cities. Hell yes, they would have used it.
Would any of the smaller powers invaded, crushed and occupied have used it? Every single last one of them had they asked their citizens which option to choose, would have been forced by their people to use it.
EVERYBODY would have used the bomb at that time if they had it.
Yes, that was talked about. I think first mentioned by Oppenheimer.
You may very well have gotten WWIII as a result.
Japan is only lucky we had just the two bombs at the time. Given another month or two of production and we could have started leveling the entire country with nukes.
No country ever had it coming more than Imperial Japan. It was the biggest ‘they had it coming’ in all of history.
“That’s like saying it would be OK for the U.S. military to shoot down TWA Flight 800 because there was an al-Qaeda operative on board.”
It’s NOT the SAME. We killed the ENEMY’S people, not our own people.
But, for the sake of argument... What if Hitler were on such a flight?
And yet we have Freepers right here on this thread insisting that the people of this country would have tolerated a massive invasion of Japan with hundreds of thousands of American casualties.
I think there would have been a lot of pressure to impeach Truman and throw him out of office if there hadn’t been such a concerted effort to hide so much of the war from the American public.
They had the best chance in the world to surrender. Not even unconditional surrender either.
They chose to take that as a sign the Allies were weak.
No regrets.
And assuming Mao would have won in China, imagine keeping the ChiComs out of there.
If Japan hadn’t started the war then we would not have needed to end it.
Easy lesson: attack a peaceful country and they’ll fight back...
Did you know Paul Tibbets was a fellow Gator?
Yes I do seem to recall that.
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