The horror of Hiroshima and the bomb: 70 years on

https://independentaustralia.net/article-display/the-horror-of-hiroshima-and-the-bomb-70-years-on,8020

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The Horror of Japanese Atrocities 75 years

80,000 died in the bombing of Hiroshima 

 Therefore, Rummel’s estimate of 6-million to 10-million dead between 1937 (the Rape of Nanjing) and 1945, but it falls far short of the actual numbers killed by the Japanese war machine. If you add, say, 2-million Koreans, 2-million Manchurians, Chinese, Russians, many East European Jews (both Sephardic and Ashkenazy), and others killed by Japan between 1895 and 1937 (conservative figures), the total of Japanese victims is more like 10-million to 14-million. Of these, I would suggest that between 6-million and 8-million were ethnic Chinese, regardless of where they were resident.[39]
Wiki

Yes Pete truly horrifing!

 

But the Radiation goes on killing forever

Makes one ashamed to be HUMAN .... so much for superior intelligence.

When he exploded as planned nearly 2000 feet above Hiroshima, about two pounds of uranium underwent nuclear fission as it released nearly 16 kilotons of explosive force. Since Hiroshima was on a plain, Little Boy caused immense damage. Estimates vary but it is believed that approximately 70,000 people were Killed  and nearly 70% of the city’s buildings were destroyed. Since then, approximately 1,900 people, or about 0.5% of the post-bombing population, are believed to have died from cancers attributable to Little Boy’s radiation release.

wiki 


Today Hiroshima is a thriving city of 1,5 million .  Was it worth it , IMO yes it saved lives . If the Allies have had to invade Japan the loss of Life would have been unimaginable.  Secondly it showed the world the horror of all out war and no atomic bombs have been used since. 

Not yet Pete but the world is STILL using Nuclear power and there have been MANY accidents that are causing a GREAT deal oof trouble for the planet and will continue to do so,

 

Also they have done MANY tests since they split the Atom in the 1940s and those places are still causing horrific probems and some are still uninhabitable.

The spliting of the Atom toatlly changed the world forever

The only one I know of is Chernobyl , where Tons not pounds Where leaked into the ground . Chernobyl was a failure of process by a decrepit State .

The difference with tests in the atmosphere now banned is that it goes up and is dispered . 

Nuclear power remains the greenest way of creating electricity but not as cheap as gas ...

Pete people that make such statement --make me worry about their knowledge -- Raadiation is forever never goes away and it is a HELL of a way to boil water and is polluting the whole planet, it is the LEAST green source.

Check for yourself Pete --what about the amount of tests  --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lquok4Pdk

 

What about 3 mile Island in the USA and Fukushima --they are just a FEW

Sorry Plan B but we are going to have to disagree on this one .. We in Australia have run a nuclear plant in the middle of suburbs for years . France gets the majority of its electricity from nuclear . 

Anyway the subject was Hiroshima and I was trying to balance the discussion as to why I think the dropping of the bomb was the lesser of two evils...

Yes we have a Nuclear plant here, In 1958 Australia opened its first (and only) nuclear reactor at Lucus Heights BUT it is for nuclear medicine -- NOT for power, however it STILL produces waste, which even to this day they have NO idea how to handle it !

Many countries have nuclear power and also MANY have leaks, 

-- which is not made public --  leaks are dangerous and cause cancer and as I said radiation NEVER goes away it is there forever

 

It is all so easy looking back, full of sorrow for them,but they had no mercy for anyone,the fear of a Jap invasion here, was strong, the b'stards had no conscience, it didn't matter who or what you were, a child in arms, to the old age even the innocent natives in NG, could be used as bayonet fodder, women, never mind the age were tied down and raped, We were rapt when we heard about the bomb and just as much with the second one just hoping this would end it all.

YEs I fully agree Seth -- they were total Bastards thats for sure

 

However the Atom has sure made a frightening planet --it is really out of hand now

Seth

While I agree with your comments and the emotions at that time the bomb was as much a practical test to see its effect as a way to end the war. Fire bombing had destroyed major cities and caused an equal loss of life in Japan. The entry of Russia into the arena two days within the bomb drop is said to have caused as much if not more concern to the military. Either way surrender was the only option. Russia still has some islands to the north of Japan that were once Japanese.

That is a disgusting thing to say , that the U.S. Conducted a test on the Japanese .It was war and the U.S. Used any weapon at its disposal to win it .. Thank God they did..

Geo the japs were fanatical and as we were informed the death toll resulting from invading their mainland would be tremendous so whether a test or otherwise, it doesn't matter, it was received with gratitude and the possibility of shortening the war. If it had not been for the USA, just think of what it would be like here now.

There was no false conscience about right or wrong, it worked, if it hadn't we may not be having this little chat

Pete the USA did do it both to TEST and to stop the war

Thought this might interest you PlanB:

Deciding to Drop the Bomb In the lead up to the Trinity test, the top priority for President Truman was to end the war as quickly as possible with the fewest U.S. casualties. For many, this had become the overarching purpose for using the atomic bomb once it was completed. Walker notes five reasons why Truman chose to use the bomb.

Ending the war at the earliest possible moment - The primary objective for the U.S. was to win the war at the lowest possible cost. Specifically, Truman was looking for the most effective way to end the war quickly, not for a way to not use the bomb. 

To justify the cost of the Manhattan Project - The Manhattan Project was a secret program to which the U.S. had funneled an estimated $1,889,604,000 (in 1945 dollars) through December 31, 1945. 

To impress the Soviets - With the end of the war nearing, the Soviets were an important strategic consideration, especially with their military control over most of Eastern Europe. As Yale Professor Gaddis Smith has noted“It has been demonstrated that the decision to bomb Japan was centrally connected to Truman's confrontational approach to the Soviet Union.” However, this idea is thought to be more appropriately understood as an ancillary benefit of dropping the bomb and not so much its sole purpose. 

A lack of incentives not to use the bomb - Weapons were created to be used. By 1945, the bombing of civilians was already an established practice. In fact, the earlier U.S. firebombing campaign of Japan, which began in 1944, killed an estimated 315,922 Japanese, a greater number than the estimated deaths attributed to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The firebombing of Tokyo alone resulted in roughly 100,000Japanese killed. 

Responding to Pearl Harbor - When a general raised objections to the use of the bombs, Truman responded by noting the atrocities of Pearl Harbor and said that “When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast.”

http://csis.org/blog/understanding-decision-drop-bomb-hiroshima-and-nagasaki

anyone who had any doubts about what happened in ww2 needs to read two books,             SCOURGE OF THE SWASTIKA           and NIGHTS OF THE BUSHIDO,        might have different thoughts about what should have been done, 

Agree Cats how easily we foget what Seths generation went through , being born in 1942 I was the lucky generation ..

The idiots who believe that the US were testing have no idea what the world faced or that the Bomb was first tested on US soil in the desert . Or what an incredible effort it was that involved the UK Canads and Australia. Only to have it stolen by traitors that gave it to the commos. Thus creating the Cold War 

As questions regarding the ethical implications of the attacks grew, the US Air Force and Navy both published reports which claimed (respectively) that the conventional bombing and submarine war against Japan would have soon forced her to surrender. Joseph Grew, America’s last ambassador to Japan before the war started, also publicly alleged that the Truman administration knew about (and ignored) Japanese attempts to open surrender negotiations with the US using the USSR as a mediator. At this time, another interpretation - most famously espoused in 1965 by political economist Gar Alperovitz in his book Atomic Diplomacy - emerged: the atomic bombing of Japan had been motivated by a desire to demonstrate the US’s military might to the Soviet Union, about whom the Americans were increasingly nervous.

The moral aspect of the attacks upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki continues to divide historians. While some argue that the terrible long term human cost to the Japanese population can never justify the use of such weapons, others maintain that in the context of total war, it would have been immoral if atomic weapons had not been used to end the war as quickly as possible.

http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-ww2/atomic-bomb

Ellis Zacharias, How We Bungled the Japanese Surrender, Look, 6/6/50, pg. 19-21.

Brigadier General Carter Clarke – the military intelligence officer in charge of preparing summaries of intercepted Japanese cables for President Truman and his advisors – said (pg. 359):

When we didn’t need to do it, and we knew we didn’t need to do it, and they knew that we knew we didn’t need to do it, we used them as an experiment for two atomic bombs.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-real-reason-america-used-nuclear-weapons-against-japan-it-was-not-to-end-the-war-or-save-lives/5308192

If the japs hadn't bombed Pearl Harbour, it may not have happened.

...heard an interesting statement from some Professor "blonk" only recently - who was being interviewed (ABC)  - sorry forget his name?  Where he stated that the world should consider itself damned lucky that the U.S. had the Atom bomb and not the Japs. or the Germans!  Makes sense!!!

Or the Russians or Chinese . 

We ere damn lucky that the allies US UK AUst And Canada supplied the brains and the U.S. The money . The UK with Many Aus scientists gave the basic research along with Radar proximity bombs and code reading and set up a clandestine service for the U.S. In exchange for lend lease...

Sir Marcus "Mark" Laurence Elwin OliphantACKBEFRSFAA (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist and humanitarian who played an important role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and also the development of nuclear weapons.

Four Australian physicists worked on the development of the atomic bomb - Mark OliphantEric Burhop and Harrie MasseyErnest Titterton

Dealing with nuclear material didn't seem to harm Sir Mark oliphant who lived to 99 three months short of the ton . Don Dunstan made him the first Australian Govenor of SA 

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