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Mother Nature : 1
Humanity : 0
Hopefully no country ever uses or has to use atomic weapons again. (or biological or chemical)
Don’t mess with Texas.
how over populated would the world be if things like this would not happen? it is very bad though.
I feel a little bit ashamed of Truman.
Let’s remember that more civilians died in the fire bombing of Tokyo. There isn’t a Damn thing nice about war, especially if you’re a poor bastard stuck in the middle of it.
Why do we put up with leaders sending the masses off to do their bidding. Why dont we get the worlds leaders in a ring to fight it out between themselves saving the lives of the rest of us.
This is a horrible thing. War is always horrible beyond belief.
We also forget how desperate we were to defeat Imperial Japan.
This is powerful video. I would love to see it in the context of the actions on both sides that led up to it.
Other titles…
“It isn’t who shoots first, it’s who shoots last.”
“Coming soon to a city in Iran.”
It illustrates how in one case the “SINS” of a country leader(s) are visited on it’s citizenry.
#6 is absolutely right, more people died in the Tokyo and Dresden fire bombing. Those events don’t have the same entertainment value as Hiroshima and Nagasaki and thereby forgotten.
As horrible as WAR is, WW2 was a necessity, IRAQ is not!
But before we point the finger at “them” I think we need to take a good long look at what our leader(s) are visiting on us and the world and hope we get blowback. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blowback_CJohnson/Blowback_BCJ.html
Japan itself admitted that if it weren’t for those 2 bombs, they would have fought to the last man/woman/child to defend their island.
#11 – Exactly.
#5 – I’m proud Truman had a pair. In the overall analysis, a LOT of lives were saved by those two bombs.
Apart from what’s been said here, I add one more thing:
This is just one more way of dying/killing. Those who did the killing may forget, for a while, that they too will die. Perhaps in a worse manner. There’s worse than instant death or cancer. Doesn’t that make the whole exercise of killing a bit pointless?
Here in Portugal we have a rough equivalent of ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’ that is a bit more philosophical and longer-ranged, that goes something like this – ‘You do them here, you pay them here’.
12. Japan had already lost the war. They were ready to surrender, they wanted only to keep their Emporer in place, and not to surrender conditionally. This was unnecessary. My source is J Robert Oppenheimers biography “American Prometheus”. I suspect the bomb was used not to end the war, so much as to use this weapon because we could.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also great testing grounds for the new weapons. Yup, the war was already won, but just this last test had to be done, otherwise not much would be known about actual consequences of nuclear weapons. Who knows when the next chance would come around?
15. The weapon had already been tested in White Sands, New Mexico, we knew what the bomb could do. Most of our military commanders were against this.
http://www.doug-long.com/guide1.htm
The decision was made by politicians.
It’s also true that the US Army studied the two sites extensively.
What were in those bombs – fertilizer?
#15, The weapon had already been tested in White Sands, New Mexico, we knew what the bomb could do. Most of our military commanders were against this.
Not true. Most military commanders were not aware of the Manhattan Project. Most quotes of commanders of the period are selective and insinuate they knew more then they did or took a different position.
The decision was made by politicians.
And Truman took responsibility for his action. The advice of his senior military advisors was to use the bombs and he did.
In a respective reflection, we must weigh how Truman thought with the information he had in the climate of the times. In February and March there were 7,000 Americans killed on Iwo Jima. An island thought to fall without much of a fight. Then in April to June over 66,000 Americans casualties on Okinawa from Japanese fighting to the death. An invasion of the Japanese Islands was believed to be even more deadly.
While it might have been nice for Hiroshima to never have happened, it did. That is history and can’t be changed. A brutal regime needed to be conquered by any means possible. They were.
War is war!
#14 – You’re an idiot, don’t breed.
To allow an ally of Hitler to remain in power would not be an acceptable solution… to say it would have been shows a total lack of understanding on the issue.
Tojo would have been wise not to strike us first.
19. We controlled the skies over Japan. Its Navy was in shreds, Japan being short on natural resources, was seeking a way out through diplomatic channels. Most everyone knew it was all but over. Eisenhower stated:
” I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives”
Military command was loathe to use this weapon against innocent civilians, opting instead for Naval blockade and attrition to take effect.
21. Tojo was the military commander, not their Emperor. The condition they wanted was to keep that institution, which I beleive, we allowed anyway. I will rise above you James and not call you an idiot.
I went to Japan in june and went to hiroshima. It was really fascinating how we, americans, were treated there. Just as nicely as anywhere else. There were a lot of school kids doing a survey of sorts for school and as soon as I said I was american they were excited that they’re talking to an american in english (this were kids in elementary school). I even took my time and wrote out whatever the answer was and they were in awe at me writing in english. Even though just over 60 years ago our country litterally flattened the area I was standing.
It’s a definite must visit for anyone who goes to Japan. It’s one of those places where I’m glad I went, but don’t have any intention to go there again.
And the scary thing is the weapons we have now are so much more powerful that it would make the atomic bomb seem like nothing.
I don’t see Japan or Germany for that manner itching to get involved in any wars anytime soon. As ugly and devastating as the A Bomb was, it DID save lives, and left arguably a permanent impression on the population as to how bad war is. With precision bombs and surgical strikes, it could be argued that todays wars don’t do that, and in the long run will lead to more death and destruction, not less, as the population does not fully appreciate just how bad war really is.
Has anyone here read the history of japan? They were not exactly a peace loving people.
The video is cool but technically incorrect. LEDs were not in used at this point of the century.
Could someone please email this to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Israel has a nuke for Iran if they don’t stop their nuclear program.
Good? Bad? Ugly? Depends which side you’re on and who you’re trying to impress at the time. Was it a bad idea to drop The Bomb(s) – perhaps… sure it killed a lot of civilians, but it basically ended the war right then and there – the ancient warrior code of Bushido couldnt stand up against modern science.
The losses to allied troops up to that point was nothing compared to what they would have lost if they would have had to have mounted a ground assault. Japan would have been soaked in even more blood (something I think the samurai could have appreciated) as the invading troops fought for every single inch – the populace here and in lots of other Allied countries were very very tired of the war, and from the decision makers standpoint (the ones who go up for re-election anyway), an quck and effective end was badly needed.
Not only that, think of the revolutions and relevations that science has undergone in the last 60-odd years since then – most, if not all stem from the discoveries and processes learned and honed during the Manhattan Projectm and associated sciences formed becasue of that initial research.
So it come back to that initial question – Good/Bad? Its not for you or I or any of us to decide, but future (and hopefully wiser) generations – we dont have the context to make that decision now, or quite possibly, ever.
Thats my opinion anyway.
Some of you people disgust me. Yes, war is war, but war never justified genocide. We have a court for war offenders like that.
Yes, many soldiers died on both sides, but this was a ruthless bombing on a civillian city that killed tens of thousands of civillians instantly and doomed generations to come by radiation. How can you approve of this?
One must certainly be inhuman to even consider this a “fair” end to a war. Chances are extremely good that the civillians in Hiroshima didn’t even care for the war (that was over anyway), but instead they got to pay the biggest price a person can pay. How is that ok? How is that a good way to end a war?
If you approve of this then you might as well approve of any terrorist action made against civillians ever, such as 9/11, etc.
I mean, if you’re fighting so hard to prevent Israel from nuking, isn’t that hypocrisy? Is it only allowed to commit genocide upon civillians if you are a deranged Nazi leader, or the president of the united states?