Some things should never be forgotten. U.S. Independence Day, your mom's birthday, to lock your house's or car's doors, to take out the dog, to feed the fish - but not too much, to tell your kids you love them and show it, to give your spouse true affection and so on. There are a couple of others we should never forget though they were terrible: the Holocaust is one although somehow we seem to forget all the others killed in the camps so remember them too, there were 12 to 13 million. (Over the years, from what I have seen, that number has decreased and I have heard or read that it is now supposedly as low as 11 million; although, the amount of Jewish folks killed has never decreased by much if anything, it is just the amount of non Jews somehow has fallen and that sounds like wokeness to me.)
Today is the anniversary of yet another truly horrible event, one that no one alive should be ignorant of and once made aware of it should definitely never forget. August 6 in 1945 - 78 years ago - was truly the day that Oppenheimer became Death the Destroyer of worlds. On that day, the United States of America bombed Hiroshima, Japan and caused the deaths of about 130,000 people (some immediately, some over several months who died of their wounds and others who died years later due to cancer caused by radiation). Little Boy did its job but not quite awesomely nor fast enough. A few days later on August 9, 1945, the U.S. bombed Nagasaki, another major Japanese city, killing and maiming many more. Fat Man finally brought about the surrender of the once mighty Japan - well that with the entry of the USSR into the war on Japan and the invasion of Manchuria.
Had we waited a few weeks longer, Japan would have likely as surrendered by then but other allied troops would have persihed. While many like to believe that Truman (as in the then the US President) gave the orders to drop the bombs to end the war and save allied lives; I have to wonder if at least the second bomb was more for effect, maybe even the first one too, of warning other nations we had it, we used it, we have more of them. Truman, he was a democrat and throughout my 6 decades plus of living, I have come to believe that democrats are usually the worst of the war mongers out of our political parties in the US and thus I wonder for his reasons for at least the second one. As for the dems, they also seem to be the worst at & of everything and mind you I am an independent unaffiliated with any political party. Years ago, maybe now more than a decade, I left party I was in out of disgust and that was not the Democrat party. They both suck so don't think I said that about the dems because I am of the other major party types. It is merely my opinion that they are the most terrible of the two major parties and that other one of the two is not far behind them. I digress so back to the bombings.
Little Boy and Fat Man were the only two atomic (nuclear) bombs ever used in warfare and ever used to purposefully kill massive amounts of people. Setting off those two bombs led in great part to the defeat of Japan, which surrendered to the allies only days later on August 15. They also undoubtedly saved the lives of many allied troops; yet, as I said I wonder a lot about the need for the second one and sometimes I wonder if we really needed the first one. Whatever you or I make of them, those bombings were nonetheless two of the most horrific events, over the course of only two days, to have ever befallen mankind. More about this at the sources:
My hope is no one ever forgets but the reality is that more and more nations have acquired the knowledge, technology and resources to manufacture modern nuclear weapons that are much more powerful and thus would be much more deadly should they ever be used. None of the nations that have them, including the United States seem to pay much attention to history nor do they seemingly have the foresight to realize what will happen if they unleash a nuclear war in which many nations have nukes. Obviously, Russia has a large arsenal of nuclear weapons and very recently has threatened to use them in the war in the Ukraine or to attack allies of the Ukraine if allied troops are sent there to support them. Yet, world leaders of nations that have nukes frequently talk about disarmament. Then when questioned as to why they have not disarmed their nukes they give the excuse for keeping nukes as being a deterrent against nations who are still armed with them. What a screwy fruit loopy loop of illogical balderdash is that because no one will ever take the first step at nuclear weapons disarmament thinking like that!
I remember something screwy from my history lessons (when real world history was taught and not the woke variety). In those lessons I learned a bit about World War I. The thing about World War I is that it had a couple of names other than WW I; one of which was "The Great War". Then there was the other name for it; that one as imbecilic as the deterrent excuse world leaders of today use to downplay why we have not yet totally disarmed all nuclear weapons. Yep one of the names for WW I was as lame as the deterrent excuse and it was: "The War To End All Wars". It did not live up to that name.
So yeah, I expect sooner or later that a country like Russia, China, North Korea, Pakistan or Iran will launch nukes as a first strike against the US. Then again, who knows, we have a president right now who seems to think he is this guy:
Then again he appears to me to be much more like this one:
So maybe the US will be the one to launch the first strike.
Thinking along those lines, some folks think that sooner or later, because of power hungry & demented leaders, Einstein's prediction about the aftermath of WW III will come to pass - that is unless the war mongering attitudes of so called world leaders is changed drastically and their attitudes do not seem to be going in a direction to avoid another WW. So what was Einstein's prediction:
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
Einstein was a genius but I am doubtful he got that one quite right. I tend to think that if there ever is a WW III, one in which nukes are used, there will never be a WW IV. That's because there won't be anyone left to fight WW IV except maybe the roaches and rats and even if humans survive, all the sticks will have been burned to ash and the stones melted to slag or vitrified.
If you do not think that the destruction caused by a future nuclear was could be as bad as I think, then go to this article and read it all. It is mind boggling to think that Russia has a bomb, reportedly the strongest one ever, supposedly 2,500 times stronger than the one dropped on Hiroshima. More at https://www.livescience.com/how-many-nuclear-weapons-exist (you may need to cut & paste this one into your browser).
All the best,
Glenn B
5 comments:
If Truman had NOT used the bomb the conquest of Japan would have required an invasion and the death of a million US Servicemen and MANY millions of Japanese. Even after the second bomb was dropped the Japanese military did NOT want to surrender and tried to kidnap the Emperor as he was about to give a radio address announcing the Japanese surrender. THAT is how fanatical the Japanese were. If Truman had not used the bomb he would have been impeached for the death of so many more Americans. Using it was an ABSOLUTE necessity to end the war and SAVE millions of lives.
I would like to know where you found your expected death toll figures of US Military personnel, let alone those of our allies, had the allies invaded Japan. The entire toll of US military deaths during WWII was about a few thousand more than 400,000. That is from any cause of death. Combat deaths of US Military personnel amounted to about 290,000. That includes deaths in both theaters of war. Please, if you want to have a discussion, don't make up fantastic figures that are extremely unlikely to have taken place. One million is even higher than all military losses due to the US Civil War, about 650,000, and almost equals all American losses from both that war and WW II combined.
One other thing: You claim that had Truman not ordered the atomic bombs to be used, he would have been impeached. That is at best a wild guess with virtually no evidence to support it mainly because of the secrecy involved. So, I must ask, on what basis do you make that claim. The fact that those bombs even existed was a well kept secret known to only a relative handful of military personnel and political leaders in the US. England and Canada. Even most of the thousands who worked on the Manhattan Project did not know the full scope of what was being created. Truman himself was kept in the dark and was not made aware of those bombs until he replaced FDR as president. In other words he had no clue about them while he served as vice president, that is how secret was their existence. So again, on what basis would he have been impeached had he not ordered them to be used.
My bad, not your fantastic figutres,just those of someone else but an outrageous claim nonetheless.
Sabaton addressed WWI very well in my opinion. They continue to teach unvarnished history through their songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mt4B5Z8uLA
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