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Unspeakable horror: The attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

14 Comments
By Kyoko HASEGAWA

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The bomb should have been dropped in a unpopulated area first as a warning.

Seems like a good idea. However, the scientists weren't sure whether the thing would go off. It was decided that if a demonstration were held with the Japanese govt and people watching, and the thing was a dud, then Japan's anti-surrender resolve would harden even more.

The US leadership and scientists spent many long hours debating how the thing was to be used. See "Nemisis," by Max Hastings, for a full explanation.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

It was indiscriminate mass murder of civilians. It was a war crime on a scale so huge people fail to comprehend it. One death is a tragedy. But a million is a statistic. Even the mass murder of 200,000 becomes a statistic. This whitewashed war crime is a stain on the face of the United States. I, as an American, refuse to accept any responsibility for it since I was not consulted. Therefore, its easy for me to see it and call it as it is since its nothing on me. These were war crimes and the people who carried it out deserve to be posthumously tried as the criminals they were and condemned in history forever. America has plenty left to be proud of without owning and trying to justify this garbage.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

It took Japan six days to surrender after Hiroshima. Was three days really long enough for Tokyo to realise the full devastation of the first bombing and consider surrender before the second was dropped? The West has always considered themselves as morally superior, but did the US check that Tokyo understood the full devastation of Nagasaki, threaten to drop a bigger bomb, and confirm that Japan wished to continue with the war? The fact that they were different types of bombs also makes Hiroshima seem more of a horrific test than a necessary tactic.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Those two bombs were a blessing in disguise for Japan: what do Japanese people in general remember the most about WW2? How THEY suffered at the hands of the Americans, and not how they made millions of others suffer at their hands. As terrible as the bombs were, Japan wrecked far more terror on Chinese, Korean, British, American, Australian, Singaporean... Etc. The bombs mask far more terror committed by Japan.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

It took Japan six days to surrender after Hiroshima.

Apologies, got my cities back to front in previous post.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The bomb should have been dropped in a unpopulated area first as a warning.

Only a coward willfully targets women, children and the elderly.

The firebombings of Tokyo and other cities killed and maimed more and did more damage.

Should have done that in an unpopulated area too, as a warning, right? And you really believe the Japanese military would have surrendered? They wouldn't have. It took the destruction of their capital city, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and other cities to get them to surrender. It is what it is.

Was three days really long enough for Tokyo to realise the full devastation of the first bombing and consider surrender before the second was dropped? 

Heck, they had 5 months to realize the devastation of the March 9 firebombing of Tokyo and didn't surrender.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Japan did not surrender due to the Atomic bombings of Nagasaki or Hiroshima.

The deciding factor was the Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

More people died in the rape of Nanking than died in both Atom bomb blasts. The cruelty and fanaticism of the Imperial Japanese Army justified the use of the Atom bombs, IMO.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

@Vanessa Carlisle

I, as an United Stater of America, refuse to accept any responsibility for it since I was not consulted

So you are going to revoke your nationality ? Which country and the horror its story will be full off are you planning to request nationality of ?

@Burning Bush

The bomb should have been dropped in a unpopulated area first as a warning.

Because the vegetation and animals should bear responsibility for human misbehavior ?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Dropping of the atom bombs were horrible, just as the Nanking massacre of innocent children/women/men by Japanese military.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

You weren't consulted? Should trump consult you before his next decision?

What a ridiculous thing to say.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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