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© KYODOPope to visit Hiroshima, Nagasaki on Nov 24
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© KYODO
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Norman Goodman
I hope he will deliver scathing words towards those who think the war crime of dropping nukes on a civilian city was remotely acceptable. For me, just speaking in even a neutral manner about such a clear atrocity is worthy of going to Hell or Purgatory if you believe in them. Putting massacres in an acceptable light hastens the next one.
lonelygaijin2001
It wasn't a civilian city at all. It was a city at war with:
Arms factories and the command of the Second General Army
After the fall of Okinawa, the command of the Second General Army was relocated to Hiroshima. When the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, most of the military units, logistical arms, and command staff of the Second General Army were killed. Together with the Fifth Division, Fifty-Ninth Army, and other combat divisions in the city who were also hit, an estimated 20,000 Japanese combatants were killed.
Hence, the atomic bombing ended the Second General Army as an effective military organization for Imperial Japanese Army units in western Japan.
Anonymous
No mention made of any plans to visit the site of the martyrdom of foreign and Japanese Franciscans and Jesuits in Nagasaki in 1597. They accepted their own death rather than renounce their faith.
In contrast, on August 9, 1945 thousands in Nagasaki died because the military regime had still refused to accept defeat and face responsible for where their faith in militarism and the imperial system had led the Japanese people.
Robotron
Hey yeah. 20,000 soldiers dead and around 125,000 dead civilians. Doesn't sound like a civilian city at all. Oh? You also forgot Nagasaki in your reasoning for the atomic bomb. Around 150 soldiers dead and 80,000 civilians dead. In fact ground zero for Nagasaki was a church, one of the only observable landmarks of the city from air. But you are right, sounds like military targets to me.
Hiroto Hasegawa
And the vast majority of the 125,000 civilians were women and children.
Anonymous
@Robotron
The preferred target, the shipyard I believe, wasn’t visible, so when the bombardier recognized the baseball stadium through a break in the clouds he used that as the aiming point. It’s not very far from the Urakami Cathedral.
The Original Wing
Egypt, Myanmar, and Bangladesh in 2017. The UAE and Morocco so far this year. Mozambique, Mauritius, and Madagascar later this year. Japan isn't doing anything unique. Like a visit from the Dalai Lama to a non-Buddhist country (which also happens often), a visitor with a message of peace and love has no problem being welcomed by different cultures.
WilliB
Norman Goodman:
It ended the war, and thus saved lives under the balance. Not arguing for one side or the other, just pointing out the fact.
I am also curious if the pope will pray for the victims of the firebombing of Tokyo, which killed several times as many people as Hiroshima? I never understood why some victims are more important than others.
Anonymous
@WilliB
It’s a bit early for the annual atomic bombings debate, but I’ve come to believe from my reading that the atomic bombings weren’t that important in forcing Japan’s surrender. The Soviet’s war declaration and subsequent threat especially to Hokkaido probably had more to do with it.