U.S sub-critical nuclear test

NHK ^ | 22:00, Sep. 25 | NHk

[Jim Noble]

I stand corrected.

Doncha just love FR?

[Poohbah]

Please note that it also undoubtedly saved many Japanese civilians as well--they were teaching children to wear demolition charges and dive under US tanks.

There was a problem. The charges big enough to kill US tanks were too big for schoolkids to wear on their backs, so they simply scaled the charges down to what the kids would carry...

...which would have been roughly akin to hitting a speed bump for the US tank.

Basically, they were willing to have their children commit suicide to no militarily useful purpose.

[labusiness]

Not only are you ignorant of history, you are a democrat as well!! (look at his/her/its profile).

[katana]

Sir, the fire bombings of Guernica, London, Coventry, Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Tokyo, and countless other city-targets all led to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They also resulted in more civilian deaths and casualties, with little qualitative difference in the suffering, than those two cities combined.

The tactic you deplore was originated by the Emperor's good friend and ally, Herr Hitler, and it is to them you should direct your blame. The US, Britain, and Russia did not start WWII, but we did see it ended together.

As far as any doubt regarding the differences between a war ended by double A-Bomb blasts vs. an invasion of the Japanese main island (the only real alternative) we might still be occupying that country and digging second and third generation guerrilla kamikazes out of their caves if Hiroshima and Nagasaki had not been bombed in the manner they were. If you don't understand that then you don't know much about the character of the Japanese people. I don't believe there can be any doubt but that even another year of war would have resulted in millions more Japanese casualties.

Atrocities ? War itself is an atrocity. The best action in war is one which ends it the quickest.

[Petronski]

Why don't you throw the question out to guys who were in the Pacific waiting for orders, guys being transfered to the Pacific after winning in Europe, their wives, and children who would never have been born...

I'm just such a child, and I think oldhoosier is a crybaby victim of lefty propaganda. Read Rape of Nanking, for starters. Or better yet, go to a reunion of Pacific Theater WWII vets and spout that garbage, oldhoosier. Some of those old coots are still tough enough to tear you a new one without spilling their beer.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Amen. We did the right thing.

[The Old Hoosier]

Katana: I disagree. I believe that some wars are just, and that all wars should be fought justly -- by combatants, against combatants.

To the several contentions that the Japs had planned to use civilians in combat, I reply that two wrongs just don't make a right. Again, a soldier's job is to kill, and to die if necessary. Not to make civilians die in his place. That's called cowardice.
The soldiers were not cowards -- they didn't make the call to drop the bomb, and it's only natural that they were relieved they didn't have to keep fighting. But the very idea that non-combatants should die so that combatants might live or get out of the military more quickly, is really ridiculous. If you have no moral objections to this, then I don't understand why you consider Waco to be such a big deal. I mean, hey, we kill a bunch of kids, and the bad guys are forced to give up, right? Just think of all those ATF lives that were saved.

To Labusiness: Jim Robinson is also a registered Democrat, so don't piss your pants laughing at me.

[The Old Hoosier]

Atrocities committed by the Japs don't justify our atrocities. I'm well aware of the death marches, the human experimentation, etc. So would that have justified bayonetting Jap babies? Killing Jap POW's (this was done in some cases, by people I know who were really brave soldiers in battle)?

It's still not right. The case of the bomb is best summed up by the old saying: The Ends do not Justify the Means.

That's not lefty propaganda, it's good, old-fashioned morality. The leftists, who don't care for it anyway, want to use it as a tool, an excuse to emasculate America. I say, let's use it to make America stronger, more righteous and just, and more effective on our future battlefields.

FRegards,
TOH