When President Obama first visited Japan in November 2009, he said he hoped he would one day visit both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the United States dropped atomic bombs during the very final days of World War II.
“The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are etched in the minds of the world, and I would be honored to have the opportunity to visit those cities at some point during my presidency,” Mr Obama said at the time.
At least 140,000 people were killed, most of them civilians, when the city became synonymous with the first wartime use of a nuclear weapon on August 9 1945. Three days later, the US dropped a second atomic device on the city of Nagasaki and within a week Japan had surrendered to Allied forces. (read more)
20 comments:
Fauxbama Fauxshame World Tour continues
If the Nips had any sense, they'd rather we dropped another bomb.
Pissy will whine and moan about how mean we were, although he'll stop to relate how his uncle of somebody saved the day at Kohima, but the fact that an invasion of the home Islands would have been worse of Japan than the US will elude him.
Can't wait for this loser to be gone.
As if to emphasize my last point, CNN just called WV for Trump and the polls don't close for 8 minutes.
A GREAT president, Harry Truman, said the decision to drop those 2 bombs was not difficult. The more you read, the more you see why. The story of Louis Zamperini, a true hero, would not have been told if we did not drop those bombs. You see, the Japanese were about to kill all prisoners. The bombs stopped that from happening.
I wish the film on Zamperini had been better. It was harrowing but not engaging in the way it should have been. And his arrival at some kind of accommodation with the Japanese - I hate the word forgiveness, considering what they did to him and thousands of others - that took up about the last two minutes of the film. Just a total lack of imagination on the filmmaker's part.
Harry S saved my uncle from near-certain death. If you ever saw my cousin you would thank Truman from the bottom of you heart.
For those interested, there's a very good book, "Hell To Pay", which uses a lot of newly declassified info to show the invasion of the Home Islands would have been far worse than originally envisioned (and that was with a million casualties).
Not a big fan of HST. Some sources said Marshall had to drag him kicking and screaming into the decision.
ricpic, Great book, fair movie. That's so often the case.
I had forgotten that the director of Unbroken was Angelina Jolie. Well, she did a serviceable job.
Pretty hard to have a world without nuclear weapons when you allow terrorist states to continue their development program.
“Not only does the use of the atomic bombs seem to have been justified in the circumstances prevailing in August 1945, but I am among those convinced that the demonstrations of nuclear horror, and the global revulsion which it provoked, has contributed decisively towards preserving the world since. If the effects of nuclear attack had not been demonstrated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is overwhelmingly likely that in the Cold War era, an American or Russian leader would have convinced himself that the use of atomic weapons could be justified.”
Max Hastings, in "Retribution"
Fifty to 100 megatons not used for 15-18 kilotons used. It’s a lousy choice, but one that was made anyway, and to the benefit of us all.
FWIW CNN and Fox have called NE for Trump.
Looks like the One True Ted will have to wait for June to flirt with restarting his campaign.
Those two bombs saved millions of lives. That is indisputable. But what about all the other bombing campaigns. Our bombing of Dresden and the German civilian population centers did nothing to shorten the war in Europe. Many of our pilots perished on these counter productive missions.. We fire bombed Tokyo and caused a hundred thousand deaths. The next day when the Japanese general staff met, they did not even mention the bombing. Hitler's bombing of London and, later, his emphasis on the development of "vengeance" weapons like the V1 over the jet engine was a contributory factor in his losing the war........I might be mistaken, but the only military leader--on any side-- I have read about who expressed reservations about the bombing of civilians was Douglas MacArthur........It seems ironic that the only bombing campaign that actually accomplished a strategic goal is the one people object to the most.
I remember all the aircrews, all the Marines, all the G.I.s who lived because of those bombs. Then think of their families.
I hope Obama does not shame us all.
It's celebrating American Technology Day.
Good substantive comment, William.
So Obama is going to continue his apology tour.
William said...
Those two bombs saved millions of lives. That is indisputable. But what about all the other bombing campaigns. Our bombing of Dresden and the German civilian population centers did nothing to shorten the war in Europe. Many of our pilots perished on these counter productive missions.. We fire bombed Tokyo and caused a hundred thousand deaths. The next day when the Japanese general staff met, they did not even mention the bombing. Hitler's bombing of London and, later, his emphasis on the development of "vengeance" weapons like the V1 over the jet engine was a contributory factor in his losing the war........I might be mistaken, but the only military leader--on any side-- I have read about who expressed reservations about the bombing of civilians was Douglas MacArthur........It seems ironic that the only bombing campaign that actually accomplished a strategic goal is the one people object to the most.
While MacArthur may have had reservations about bombing civilians, he also understand the necessity to do so, especially in Japan, which was one of the reasons he ultimately decided to basically be a part of the rebuilding of Japan. Since that every single citizen at the time, in Japan, was a subjugate of Emperor Hirohito and at any time, he could and would have ordered them to fight any American invasion and they would have done so to the last child if necessary. Proof of this is when Japanese soldiers being found decades later who were abandoned on pacific islands still thinking the war was over and were willing to die for the emperor. The two bombs at Nagasaki and Hiroshima were to seal the deal. Japanese general ignored Hiroshima, they couldn't ignore Nagasaki two days later. The war ended.
The fire bombing of Dresden was totally justified and I completely disagree that it didn't shorten the war. After the bombing the war was over 2 months later. Dresden was also a final front to put a bulwark against Hitler, otherwise his campaign to cross the Atlantic would have gone unabated. As perceptively cruel as the Dresden bombing appeared to be, Hitler had been V2 bombing the UK without any compunction to civilians at all. The allies believed turn about was fair play. Not only was it to defend our Allies in the UK, but was also to boost morale for them and degrade morale for the Germans. It worked.
Obama should visit New Orleans' WWII Museum and see the exhibit for Operation Olympia [the invasion of Japan] which would have involved almost 1 million troops etc.
But I guess even that would not dissuade dopey Obama from his misguided opinions.
AJ Lynch said...
But I guess even that would not dissuade dopey Obama from his misguided opinions.
My Father-In-Law (May God Rest His Soul) was at Pearl Harbor. He was a Pearl Harbor Survivor. He saw up close and personal what the Japanese did. He was one of the 100 men that made it to the Nevada to get out of the harbor and he told me one time how utterly impossible it seemed to do that. To get 100 or so guys to start up those engines from a cold start and get it out of there while the gunners up top were trying to keep the Zero's and Kate's from taking it out. Unbelievable to even fathom to this day.
He also told me that he knows that if the US would have invaded Japan, it would have been bad. He looked at me one day while we were watching football and he said, "Me and bunch of guys made it through Pearl, we probably wouldn't have on the Japanese mainland." He knew his doom and the doom of others was to die if the order came down to invade.
Obama standing in front of the Operation Olympia exhibit would have been a wasted effort. He would have just stood there like the giant shitbag he is and declared it as a war crime. He's an evil SOB that is on a vengeance campaign for daddy. That is what has been driving him this entire time. He's said as much in his books and you can see how he has behaved since then.
I don't say that our bombing of Dresden had no effect on the war, but it's fair to say that none of Bomber Harris's strategic goals were met. Those who advocated for bombing civilian populations maintained that such tactics would cause the civilians to rise against their rulers and thus shorten the war. Demonstrably this did not happen. The bombing of the Romanian oil fields had more impact on the German war effort than all the bombing runs against civilian targets......You can argue that the bombing of civilian targets was a tactic that the Germans introduced into modern warfare, but I don't know that it was a winning tactic. The bombing of London solidified British opposition to Hitler. Perhaps the bombing of Berlin had the same effect on the Germans. After the war, one of the German strategic war planners wondered why the allies did not target the ball bearing plants on their bombing runs. He claimed that sch a tactic would have brought about a German surrender in a few months..........As noted, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki definitely shortened the war against Japan. A lot of people were killed, but it accomplished a strategic goal. Those bombs won the war. Some other bombs just killed people for no useful purpose.
Post a Comment