60 years ago remembered

[thomas]

Not to bring everyone down but I thought it should be remembered that 60 years ago 80,000 people died at Nagasaki.

[Christopherrr]

too young to remember, but I can, rather wouldn't want to, imagine the carnage. I read an article a week ago about it and wow...the images I imagined were horriffic.



80,000 souls is too many too much for any reason...

[wolfdogs]

2 years before I was born.........

that whole war was terrible, both in the asian and the european theater....

dec. 7th wasn't so cool either...

we can only pray that something like that never happens to the world again.

[Injuneer]

Hard to have sympathy.... if there hadn't have been a "Pearl Harbor", there would have been no need for Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

I was alive, but I can't say that I remember either Pearl Harbor or the A-Bomb. I do remember "air raid drills", when we were required to "black out" all lights from house windows when the air raid sirens went off. War is ugly.

[95TransAm]

War is ugly.

100% agree.

I hope that we never will have to come down to using nuclear warfare amongst each other.

My heart goes out to the millions of souls lost throughout the years.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

too young to remember, but I can, rather wouldn't want to, imagine the carnage. I read an article a week ago about it and wow...the images I imagined were horriffic.



80,000 souls is too many too much for any reason...

It would have been worse if we would have had to invade the mainland. The estimates were over a million Americans would have died and several million Japanese would have died. So, which was worse? We dropped 1 bomb and gave them a chance to negotiate a peace treaty. They refused to quit fighting. We then dropped another bomb and gave them a chance to negotiate a peace treaty. They still refused. President Truman then put on his best poker face and told the Japanese that if they didn't surrender we would destroy every one of their cities knowing that we did not have another bomb. Japan folded and surrendered. FYI the fire bomb raids on Tokyo about a month before the bomb was dropped killed more Japanese than were killed at Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

There are similarities between Japan of 1940 and the extremist Muslims of 2000. Neither were/are willing to negotiate a peace treaty. Both are willing to die for their cause.

[Rob B (shoebox)]

My dad spent several years in a Japanese prison camp and was in the Bataan Death March. His train ride out of the country took him nearby the aftermath. War is war. That's all you can say.

[Roger in Kensington]

On the night of March 9, 1945 . . .

. . . 334 B-29 "Superfortress" bombers of Gen. Curtis LeMay's XXI Bomber Command attacked Tokyo, Japan, with napalm and 500-pound incendiary bombs, one bomb every 50 feet in a target area 3.5 miles by 5 miles.

The raid took over 3 hours to complete. When it was over, 17 square miles of Japan's capital were obliterated.

Estimates of the dead range from 80,000 to over 200,000. No one knows exactly how many. Most were reduced to ash. People who jumped into the canals to escape the flames were literally boiled, so intense was the heat. Entire families as well as the records of their births were destroyed. The survivors had more pressing concerns than to tally the dead.

Earlier, in one month of fighting during February 1945, over 6800 American lives were lost in one month of fighting to take the small island of Iwo Jima (its airfield needed for crippled and low-on-fuel B-29s returning from raids over Japan). Some 20,000 Japanese defenders died during the one month of fighting, most preferring to commit suicide than to surrender.

If I recall correctly, only 6 Japanese soldiers survived. (See James Bradley's Flags of Our Fathers for an account of the battle.)

Historian Victor Davis Hanson recalls the Battle of Okinawa (April 1 - July 2, 1945) in his spectacular book Ripples of Battle. When it was over 12,000 Americans lay dead . . . as did 120,000 Japanese defenders and 42,000 Japanese civilians.

Had the atomic bombs not been used, the war would likely have lasted another two years. Literally millions would have died.

And many of us would not be here today to discuss it.

[Roger in Kensington]

Perhaps your father knew . . .

My dad spent several years in a Japanese prison camp and was in the Bataan Death March. His train ride out of the country took him nearby the aftermath. War is war. That's all you can say.

. . . my wife's grandfather, Gen. Clyde Andrew Selleck, who was also captured in the Philippines and spent the duration of the war in a Japanese prison camp. The Japanese officer's sword (a fine example, too) he acquired at the Liberation -- as well as several artifacts from his incarceration -- are on the wall next to where I am writing this.

[Red20170]

334 B-29 "Superfortress" bombers of Gen. Curtis LeMay's XXI Bomber Command attacked Tokyo, Japan, with napalm and 500-pound incendiary bombs, one bomb every 50 feet in a target area 3.5 miles by 5 miles.

The raid took over 3 hours to complete. When it was over, 17 square miles of Japan's capital were

Dresden, Germany Suffered the same fate

[Steel2686]

If anyone ever gets the chance, you should head to your local book store and see if they have any books written from the Japanese and German perspectives of the war (translated of course). It's real interesting to read some of the point of views from that side. Many of the Japanese authors thought Japan had it coming in a sense. Very strange.

I can't remember the name of the book (I read it back in college), but one of the German authors was embarrassed about how Germany lost, and allowed a fledgling country like the U.S. come in and turn the tide of the war. Some great writings. I'll see if I can dig any names up.

[markd79ta]

It would have been worse if we would have had to invade the mainland. The estimates were over a million Americans would have died and several million Japanese would have died. So, which was worse? We dropped 1 bomb and gave them a chance to negotiate a peace treaty. They refused to quit fighting. We then dropped another bomb and gave them a chance to negotiate a peace treaty. They still refused. President Truman then put on his best poker face and told the Japanese that if they didn't surrender we would destroy every one of their cities knowing that we did not have another bomb. Japan folded and surrendered. FYI the fire bomb raids on Tokyo about a month before the bomb was dropped killed more Japanese than were killed at Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

There are similarities between Japan of 1940 and the extremist Muslims of 2000. Neither were/are willing to negotiate a peace treaty. Both are willing to die for their cause.

Exactly! The fire bombings that preceded the nuclear bombs killed far more. My father was stationed in the Philippines. He would have been part of the invasion had the bombs not been dropped. Likely, he would have been killed. I have no sympathy at all. They brought the war upon themselves, they lost, pure and simple. Additionally, the atrocities committed by Japan in China and the POW camps also brings little sympathy from me regarding how the war ended. The one thing good that came of the nuclear bombs being dropped is that no other nation, after seeing the devastation, has wanted to drop another of the far more powerful weapons of today for fear of being annihilated.

[Rob B (shoebox)]

. . . my wife's grandfather, Gen. Clyde Andrew Selleck, who was also captured in the Philippines and spent the duration of the war in a Japanese prison camp. The Japanese officer's sword (a fine example, too) he acquired at the Liberation -- as well as several artifacts from his incarceration -- are on the wall next to where I am writing this.

My dad said he does not recall the General. There were several camps. Thanks for the input. Soon all these people will be gone.

[Cerwin Vega Fan]

I always wonder why did we not drop the A Bomb on Tokyo and then it dawned on me, because of the air raids their was nothing left of Tokyo for the A-Bomb to destroy. While I do feel sorry for the number of civilians that were killed, war is war. Do you think the Japanese would have done any differently if the situation was reversed? One of the great Japanese generals of his time Yamato(sp) warned the imperial government that attacking the US would be a mistake. To bad the government dismissed his warning. After the Pearl Harbor attack Yamato(sp) was quoted as saying "I fear we have awoken a sleeping giant."

[Jeff_in_Atl]

I always wonder why did we not drop the A Bomb on Tokyo and then it dawned on me, because of the air raids their was nothing left of Tokyo for the A-Bomb to destroy. While I do feel sorry for the number of civilians that were killed, war is war. Do you think the Japanese would have done any differently if the situation was reversed? One of the great Japanese generals of his time Yamato(sp) warned the imperial government that attacking the US would be a mistake. To bad the government dismissed his warning. After the Pearl Harbor attack Yamato(sp) was quoted as saying "I fear we have awoken a sleeping giant."

FYI. (I watch the History channel too much )
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
http://www.angelfire.com/ia/totalwar/Yamamoto.html
The Yamato was a battle ship. A big one.