Brtblutwo
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President Obama is in Japan this week and will visit Hiroshima, the city destroyed by the United States’ first wartime use of an atomic bomb. The President will offer no apologies for the attack since the U.S owes none. But he will use the site as an example of the devastation and death resulting from war. Unfortunately, it is a message that will be ignored by many Americans and tens-of-millions of other citizens of our planet.
In the 70 years since the end of WWII there has been a growing number of Americans who are of the belief that President Truman had no justification in permitting the air attacks that dropped “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” on unsuspecting civilians. They either forget, ignore, or are unaware of the hundreds-of-thousands of Japanese civilians killed in other cities in the preceding months by U.S. aircraft dropping incendiary bombs.
Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay directed a low-level firebombing campaign from March 1945 until the August surrender of Japan. It is estimated these attacks killed 220,000 and left 5 million homeless in the 66 cities destroyed.
Two days after the August 6 Hiroshima atom bomb drop, Lemay dropped incendiaries on Yawata and Fukuyama, destroying 21% of the first target and over 70% of the second. The next day Nagasaki was destroyed by another atomic bomb. Suspecting the two atomic bomb attacks would not convince Japan’s leaders, LeMay was prepared to continue dropping 115,000 tons of liquid fire beginning in September and every month that followed until Japan surrendered.
These same folks also forget or ignore or are unaware of the many atrocities committed by the Japanese military. From 1931 through 1945 Japanese occupying forces caused the deaths of between 19 million and 20 million Chinese civilians alone. “The Nanking Massacre with 300,000 dead. They said you could smell the city from many miles away from all the dead. Tens of millions more throughout China. The infamous Bataan Death March on which 7,000–10,000 died or were murdered. The Americans felt that these people were far worse than animals since animals kill for food or self-defense. This was done out of brutal savagery unknown since the Mongols swept across Asia 600 years before. They had tortured and killed many of the men that they had captured. There were POW’s scattered throughout Asia that were brutalized, tortured and killed daily.”
The Monday morning quarterbacks of the 21st century must be under the impression that Japan was nothing more than an innocent country whose name was drawn from a hat by the U.S. leaders, to be used as a target for testing a couple of atomic bombs to see the actual effects on humans. This is not true.
Those who fought in the war on both sides know it is not true. In fact, “Mitsuo Fuchida, the pilot who had led the first wave of Japanese planes in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, met Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, who had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. He told Paul, ‘You did the right thing. You know the Japanese attitude of that time, how fanatic they were. They’d die for the Emperor. Every man woman and child would resist the invasion with sticks and stones if necessary.'”
The invasion mentioned by Fuchida would have sent 3 million U.S. military personnel to attack Japan’s home islands. “The Japanese have a saying that sometimes the greatest mercy is to show no mercy. We showed no mercy and saved millions of lives! We saved the lives of our soldiers and airmen and also the lives of all the prisoners of war-American, British, Dutch, who were imprisoned throughout the Japanese Empire. We also, incidentally saved the lives of millions of Japanese, too, who would have died in an invasion.”
“‘Few people now reflect that samurai swords killed more people in WWII than atomic bombs.’ WWII veteran Paul Fussell wrote, 'The degree to which Americans register shock and extraordinary shame about the Hiroshima bomb correlates closely with the lack of information about the Pacific War'”
Perhaps, if the Monday morning quarterbacks of the 21st century took the time educate themselves or speak to some of those who fought on both sides, and learn about and understand the mindset and total fanaticism of the Japanese people of that era, they might just realize how desperate a war weary world was to end the fighting. Odds are, a large number of those demanding the U.S. apologize for using the atomic bombs would not be here today had the Enola Gay and Bockscar failed their missions, or been ordered to remain on the ground.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hiroshima-trip-underscore-very-real-conflict-risks-obama-100525203.html
https://www.quora.com/The-destructi...e-US-still-opt-to-bomb-Hiroshima-and-Nagasaki
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - World War II - HISTORY.com
.
President Obama is in Japan this week and will visit Hiroshima, the city destroyed by the United States’ first wartime use of an atomic bomb. The President will offer no apologies for the attack since the U.S owes none. But he will use the site as an example of the devastation and death resulting from war. Unfortunately, it is a message that will be ignored by many Americans and tens-of-millions of other citizens of our planet.
In the 70 years since the end of WWII there has been a growing number of Americans who are of the belief that President Truman had no justification in permitting the air attacks that dropped “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” on unsuspecting civilians. They either forget, ignore, or are unaware of the hundreds-of-thousands of Japanese civilians killed in other cities in the preceding months by U.S. aircraft dropping incendiary bombs.
Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay directed a low-level firebombing campaign from March 1945 until the August surrender of Japan. It is estimated these attacks killed 220,000 and left 5 million homeless in the 66 cities destroyed.
Two days after the August 6 Hiroshima atom bomb drop, Lemay dropped incendiaries on Yawata and Fukuyama, destroying 21% of the first target and over 70% of the second. The next day Nagasaki was destroyed by another atomic bomb. Suspecting the two atomic bomb attacks would not convince Japan’s leaders, LeMay was prepared to continue dropping 115,000 tons of liquid fire beginning in September and every month that followed until Japan surrendered.
These same folks also forget or ignore or are unaware of the many atrocities committed by the Japanese military. From 1931 through 1945 Japanese occupying forces caused the deaths of between 19 million and 20 million Chinese civilians alone. “The Nanking Massacre with 300,000 dead. They said you could smell the city from many miles away from all the dead. Tens of millions more throughout China. The infamous Bataan Death March on which 7,000–10,000 died or were murdered. The Americans felt that these people were far worse than animals since animals kill for food or self-defense. This was done out of brutal savagery unknown since the Mongols swept across Asia 600 years before. They had tortured and killed many of the men that they had captured. There were POW’s scattered throughout Asia that were brutalized, tortured and killed daily.”
The Monday morning quarterbacks of the 21st century must be under the impression that Japan was nothing more than an innocent country whose name was drawn from a hat by the U.S. leaders, to be used as a target for testing a couple of atomic bombs to see the actual effects on humans. This is not true.
Those who fought in the war on both sides know it is not true. In fact, “Mitsuo Fuchida, the pilot who had led the first wave of Japanese planes in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, met Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, who had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. He told Paul, ‘You did the right thing. You know the Japanese attitude of that time, how fanatic they were. They’d die for the Emperor. Every man woman and child would resist the invasion with sticks and stones if necessary.'”
The invasion mentioned by Fuchida would have sent 3 million U.S. military personnel to attack Japan’s home islands. “The Japanese have a saying that sometimes the greatest mercy is to show no mercy. We showed no mercy and saved millions of lives! We saved the lives of our soldiers and airmen and also the lives of all the prisoners of war-American, British, Dutch, who were imprisoned throughout the Japanese Empire. We also, incidentally saved the lives of millions of Japanese, too, who would have died in an invasion.”
“‘Few people now reflect that samurai swords killed more people in WWII than atomic bombs.’ WWII veteran Paul Fussell wrote, 'The degree to which Americans register shock and extraordinary shame about the Hiroshima bomb correlates closely with the lack of information about the Pacific War'”
Perhaps, if the Monday morning quarterbacks of the 21st century took the time educate themselves or speak to some of those who fought on both sides, and learn about and understand the mindset and total fanaticism of the Japanese people of that era, they might just realize how desperate a war weary world was to end the fighting. Odds are, a large number of those demanding the U.S. apologize for using the atomic bombs would not be here today had the Enola Gay and Bockscar failed their missions, or been ordered to remain on the ground.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hiroshima-trip-underscore-very-real-conflict-risks-obama-100525203.html
https://www.quora.com/The-destructi...e-US-still-opt-to-bomb-Hiroshima-and-Nagasaki
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - World War II - HISTORY.com
.