August 6, 1945

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  • dkst0426
    dkst0426 Posts: 523
    RainDog wrote:
    Years?

    Millions?

    Literally?
    Information on Operation Downfall
    More
    And of course, the inevitable Wiki
  • Ahnimus
    Ahnimus Posts: 10,560
    Saturnal wrote:
    It's like when you get really mad at someone and say "oh I could kill him!", even though you'd never actually do it.

    I've been convicted of uttering death threats for that. I said it to my sister when I was a teenager. I also gave a guy that worked for my dad a friendly push and was charged and convicted for assault.

    I don't do that shit anymore but I see it happening all the time. What kind of standard do we have? Is it right or wrong?
    I necessarily have the passion for writing this, and you have the passion for condemning me; both of us are equally fools, equally the toys of destiny. Your nature is to do harm, mine is to love truth, and to make it public in spite of you. - Voltaire
  • zircona1
    zircona1 Posts: 293
    I'd just like to chime in here and recommend John Hersey's "Hiroshima" for anyone who hasn't read it, it's the story of the Hiroshima bombing told from the survivors' perspectives.
    "As long as the music's loud enough, we won't hear the world falling apart."—Jubilee

    "I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions." - George Carlin
  • Ahnimus
    Ahnimus Posts: 10,560
    zircona1 wrote:
    I'd just like to chime in here and recommend John Hersey's "Hiroshima" for anyone who hasn't read it, it's the story of the Hiroshima bombing told from the survivors' perspectives.

    I've read survivor testimony. Also there is a video on google that provides some. Here it is Google Video: Hiroshima (BBC)
    I necessarily have the passion for writing this, and you have the passion for condemning me; both of us are equally fools, equally the toys of destiny. Your nature is to do harm, mine is to love truth, and to make it public in spite of you. - Voltaire
  • Pickr
    Pickr Posts: 161
    zircona1 wrote:
    I'd just like to chime in here and recommend John Hersey's "Hiroshima" for anyone who hasn't read it, it's the story of the Hiroshima bombing told from the survivors' perspectives.

    Has there ever been a story on the pilots who actually dropped the bombs? I would like to know how they dealt with that afterwards.
    Stix and Stones may break my bones, but More than Words will never hurt me.
  • Pickr
    Pickr Posts: 161
    dkst0426 wrote:
    Do YOU fucking know anything about this topic? Japanese pride dictated that they needed to be brought to their knees. Hirohito WANTED an empire stretching from Japan to the southern tip of the Indonesian islands, damn whomever got in their way, and they were ruthless on their march south. Both my grandfathers and most of my father's side of the family who still lived in southern China at the time were wiped out when the Japanese began massacring Chinese.

    So while you talk about weeping for Japanese and their families, I, and millions and billions of other Chinese around the world today, THANK the US for doing what it took to bring those atrocities to an end.

    I think the point still stands that the Japanese army was pretty much done for at that time.
    Stix and Stones may break my bones, but More than Words will never hurt me.
  • Ahnimus
    Ahnimus Posts: 10,560
    Pickr wrote:
    Has there ever been a story on the pilots who actually dropped the bombs? I would like to know how they dealt with that afterwards.

    That video I linked above your post has testimony from the Enola Gay crew aswell.
    I necessarily have the passion for writing this, and you have the passion for condemning me; both of us are equally fools, equally the toys of destiny. Your nature is to do harm, mine is to love truth, and to make it public in spite of you. - Voltaire
  • dkst0426
    dkst0426 Posts: 523
    Pickr wrote:
    I think the point still stands that the Japanese army was pretty much done for at that time.
    And Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the culmination of a counteroffensive against the Japanese by the Americans after the Doolittle Raid, Coral Sea battle, Guadalcanal, Battle of the Philippines, Midway, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.

    Take a look at the big picture--Hiroshima and Nagasaki alone are not why the Japanese surrendered, and as hindsight has proven, it was a necessary event of war in a series of such events.
  • sponger
    sponger Posts: 3,159
    I find it hard to believe how no one so far has mentioned the fact that the Japanese civilian population was ready to fight to the death even if it meant picking up garden tools. A perfect example is what was happening in Okinawa at that time. The women and children were committing suicide en masse because they were being told that they would suffer horrific abuses at the hands of the invading americans.

    The japanese population was very much like that of modern-day extremists in the sense that they were willing to sacrifice themselves and their children at the behest of their government. They took patriotism to a whole new level. If anything, the kamikaze pilots were the WWII equivalent of today's suicide bombers, the only difference being that they weren't also using children to carry out those suicide attacks.

    So, the fact that the japanese military was virtually non-existent does not mean that an immeasurable amount of lives could not have been lost on both sides had the US decided to invade.
    reigning champion

    http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825

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