Hiroshima Bombing Poll - 61st Anniversary Today

[Sojiita]

Hiroshima was destroyed by an atomic bomb 61 years ago today. What do you think?

[calendargurl]

I think it was horrible. I just watched this show about it on the Discovery Channel today. So many innocent people were killed, either by the initial explosion or died of radiation poisoning afterward.....it was really disturbing. I don't know if it was necessary, but it worked..obviously.

[strikeapose]

The devestation of life inflicted by WWII is something I hope no one will have to relive.

A lot of debate is stirring whether or not the old justification that the Japanese would never surrender otherwise holds water anymore. Even Eisenhower, who was general at that time opposed using the bomb.

A few historians have come out saying that when the Soviets joined forces and declared war against Japan, this act would have been enough to make Japan surrender eventually. The caveat is 'eventually'...when would they have surrendered? No one knows for certain.

For me, I have always wondered why they dropped the bomb at Nagasaki after Hiroshima. Seems like overkill to me.

Also, the thought now of anyone using a nuclear bomb is so repugnant to me that it is hard to justify any use of it at all...now and then.

[pacific breeze]

War crime, most definitely. And so was the bombing of Dresden.

[Grimmlok]

There was no need for it.. Japan was crushed by that point, and a simple naval blockade would have starved them out eventually.

The US wanted to test their new toy, plain and simple.

[moomies]

I agree with Grimms, Japan was already weak by then, there was no need to annahilate a large population there in such a horrible manner. Some ppl today still suffer from the effects of radiation in Hiroshima. Some still carry the scars of keloidal skins, some develop leukemia. And the other A-bomb dropped in Nagasaki a few days after Hiroshima was absolutely unnecessary on top of that.

[ediebrooks]

I think it was horrible and needless.

[Lobelia]

It was an evil, heartless thing to do. It makes me sick. I'm not saying that evil wasn't done on both sides, I'm no expert, but the magnitude of this evil overwhelms me.

[nycgirl]

I agree with Moomies. It was unconscionable. No one should ever forget such foolish human behavior

[ourmaninBusan]

I took the poll. The last three answers are all correct.

If you ask any American veteran why they dropped the bomb,
they will say, "to end the war." What none of them realize
is that Japan was trying to surrender for four months before
the bomb was actually dropped, but America had a new enemy
by that time, i.e., the USSR.

They kept the war going so they could drop the bomb and prove
to the Russians that they had it and were willing to use it.
It's entirely possible that Henry L. Stimson was responsible
for delaying the Japanese conditions for surrender to the U.S.,
thereby ensuring that the bomb would be dropped. (Chief
among those conditions was that they be allowed to retain
their Emperor...which the U.S. allowed anyway, provided he
renounce his divinity to the Japanese people.) Needless to say,
American history books have largely omitted this detail from his
biography.

As Napoleon said, "in order to succeed, you must be ruthless."

[Sojiita]

Originally Posted by ourmaninBusan

I took the poll. The last three answers are all correct.

If you ask any American veteran why they dropped the bomb,
they will say, "to end the war." What none of them realize
is that Japan was trying to surrender for four months before
the bomb was actually dropped, but America had a new enemy
by that time, i.e., the USSR.

They kept the war going so they could drop the bomb and prove
to the Russians that they had it and were willing to use it.
It's entirely possible that Henry L. Stimson was responsible
for delaying the Japanese conditions for surrender to the U.S.,
thereby ensuring that the bomb would be dropped. (Chief
among those conditions was that they be allowed to retain
their Emperor...which the U.S. allowed anyway, provided he
renounce his divinity to the Japanese people.) Needless to say,
American history books have largely omitted this detail from his
biography.

As Napoleon said, "in order to succeed, you must be ruthless."

I actually went back and did alot more research on this event and changed my mind given the fairly newly released documentation. Some of the things Truman is documented to have said are terrible. I really feel now they did it not to end the war with less casualties(what they said) but to end it more quickly with an unconditional surrender and to keep the Russians out and to show them they had the bomb. It was not about fewer American casualties-it was about power and spheres of influence and politics. Even worse than the first bombing was the second one so soon after. Reading those historical documents and seeing with my own eyes the documentation was just sickening. Kind of why I started this thread.

[moomies]

If anyone gets a chance to visit Japan...there's Peace Meromial Museum in Hiroshima (despite the name, it's actually pretty grotesque and gruesome in there with real photos of the A-bomb aftermath, skin specimen in jars, realistic displays (ppl looking like zombies...) and what not.

http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/top_e.html

[japangherl]

Originally Posted by moomies

If anyone gets a chance to visit Japan...there's Peace Meromial Museum in Hiroshima (despite the name, it's actually pretty grotesque and gruesome in there with real photos of the A-bomb aftermath, skin specimen in jars, realistic displays (ppl looking like zombies...) and what not.

http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/top_e.html

I know what you're talking about. I went there and it was extremely sad. Since I lived there, I also heard alot of the stories froms survivors and from books. If you're interested in one of the stories, you should look up "Sadako" the story of 1,000 paper cranes. I think the bombing is really sad.