But Do They LIKE Us?
FDR felt the American people needed reassurance that the billion dollars appropriated for the "Manhattan Project" was a good investment so he decided America would drop the Atomic bomb on somebody. Germany was eliminated as a target because he felt Germans could figure out the technology and use it against us so....Japan. Four cities were nominated as targets, Hiroshima was not in the initial four, Kyoto and Yokohama were.
Hiroshima was a major military instillation. The city was preparing for air strikes and mobilized junior high school students to dismantle the homes around the munitions area, they were afraid of fires blowing up the ammunition. So on August 6, 1945 there were thousands of 10-14 year olds at ground zero. The stories are gut wrenching and I will not force you to read them. However most of these burned, radiated children found their way home to die the next day. Everything at the memorial speaks of the unquenchable thirst the victims experienced and there is a fountain flowing "for the thirst of the victims".
While Katie and I toured around there was a funk band playing on the grounds of the memorial at ground zero. The song we heard was "Sesame Street". At first I was annoyed and felt that they disturbed the solemnity of the park. Then I realized that IS Hiroshima today. Hiroshima is a bright, vibrant alive city that speaks continuously of peace. They are very proud of their major league baseball team, the Hiroshima Carp. The specialty food there is Okonomyake. One chef I encountered in Hiroshima seemed to tolerate me because he had to.
12 comments:
Nonsense.
The bombs were dropped to teach Stalin -- and the rest of the uppity world -- the lesson that the choice was Pax Americana or Pox Americana.
Germany was not targeted because of A) its complex business and other economic relationships with the US, B) established post-war anti-communist strategies, and C) Europeans are white, and therefore less likely to be targeted than are, in the words of American hero John Wayne, those "little yellow monkeys."
Hiroshima was not a "major military instillilation [sic]," as its absence from the original the original targeting list might indicate.
Further, and as the concensus view of free-thinking historians would support, there was not the slightest military necessity for the atomic attacks on Japan.
Like LeMays' incendiary attacks, the nuclear bombings were war crimes. Atrocities.
How many Japanese civilians died as a result of American criminality?
What's the dif?
Some 15 million Chinese civilians perished as a result of Japanese criminality.
What's the dif?
But let's never forget the Six Million!!!
And oh yeah, let me understand this:
The A-bomb wasn't dropped on Germany because, if it were a dud, the Nazis would recover it and learn how it works?
They already knew how it works. The German nuclear program lacked materials and equipment, not theory.
Ask Prescott Bush's son and grandsons why Germany was spared.
Ask the Operation Paperclip boys.
(Werner von Braun titled his autobiography "I Aim for the Stars." Mort Sahl said, "He should have added, 'But Sometimes I hit London.'")
I take it that this revisionist B.S. is offered to the herds who visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Understand it for what it is: propaganda, concocted and disseminated by the war criminals to make palatable their crimes, confuse the record, and help predispose subsequent generations toward acceptance of the nonsense.
Either that, or Central Park was indeed designed in 1860 by Joe Pepitone so the Union Army could have a place to practice.
There. I feel better.
The Japanese point of view (I assume) is what I was reading at Hiroshima. They also stressed America's "message" to Russia. Unfortunately there wasn't a herd visiting, soon the last Hibakusha (survivor) will be gone and people will need to be reminded of this atrocity.
Never forget, indeed.
But the atrocitys' root causes are being buried beneath an avalanche of lies and half-truths.
If the official Japanesae line on the events is as you originally conveyed them -- the can't-pass-the-laugh-test business about Roosevelt wanting to demonstrate, if you'll permit me, bang for the buck (FDR was dead before the bombings, FYI) and the Germans reverse-engineering the wreckage of an unexploded Fat Boy or Little Man -- then they're playing along with their gaijin masters.
(For more on the latter, I urge you and your correspondents to read "Gold Warriors," by Sterling Seagrave.)
I would submit that, given the tender years of many of the visitors to this blog, and the flag-waving, believe whatever the authorities tell us mindset of many of their adult counterparts, you have a special responsibility as blogmistress to make certain that your comments on historic events are accurately contextualized.
That's all.
Public interpretation isn't my intention. I am reporting on what I saw and read. People can research further or not and form their own opinions. As I have said before, this is a blog of my "summer vacation" not a political rant. I want to share what I am seeing with family and friends.
Kathy,
Your perogative, and I respect that.
My ONLY point here is that everything counts. Everything.
My ONLY humble suggestion is that all of us who enjoy access to public forums -- and especially those of us who own/control such soapboxes -- are obliged to take extra special care with the language -- and with the truth.
Surely you agree that your sharing of what the Japanese tourist publications claimed was not offered as such; rather, it had the tone of a history lesson. Impressionable minds -- young and otherwise -- are on the receiving end of this blog, regardless of the fact that you wish only to share a "what I did on my summer vacation" travelogue.
My obligation when confronted with such grievous mistatements of fact presented matter-of-factly and with implicit endorsement is to endeavor to set the record straight.
That's all.
oh brother.........
To Kathy--
Thank you for sharing a story that we Americans have never heard from the Japanese perspective and for the pictures that speak volumes and teach us all that life does indeed go on.
To Charlie--
When you are in Japan and you visit Hiroshima I'd be willing to hear your reaction. Since you are not there, keep your politics to yourself and leave Kathy alone.
Sue,
I'm not assaulting Kathy or even coming close.
My proximity to Hiroshima has NOTHING to do with my understanding of the events in question -- an understanding based upon decades of study and analysis and thought.
We're not discussing a Japanesae "perspective." This is PROPAGANDA, and if you can't understand this beyond the "I'm OK, you're OK level," then God help you.
I struggle to grasp your point. Does one have to visit Gettysburg to understand what happened there?
Does one have to visit Viet Nam to understand what America inflicted on it?
What the hell is going on here? Have we become so terrified of truth and intellect and honest sharing of opinion that we have to watch what we say to the people we love most dearly?
God, why am I even bothering with this nonsense if that's what you all really feel?
Stop saluting and start thinking!
Love,
Charlie
"Keep your politics to yourself"?!?!?!
Are you out of your MIND?
How dare you!
Your statement is itself political.
Think about it.
If you're still able.
Love,
Charlie
Oh, dear...
Drago is an Anti American pseduo- intellectual and posts on many sites. Has made a scant living being an asshole aggravitaing others. Please, for your own sanity, blow him off as just another lefty lib. Sorry you had to deal with his rubbish...
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