Text 36208, 90 rader
Skriven 2006-08-08 18:42:29 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
  Kommentar till text 36179 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
Ärende: Re: CELEBRATION!
========================
*** Quoting Roy Witt from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

 FS>> So *celebrate* this wonderful event!!

 CS> What we, the USA folks did, was a bad thing but the only exoneration
 CS> we have to say in these later generations (I was born 15 years later)
 CS> is we didnt really know how bad it was then or how it would be that

RW> Shame on you. What we did was to save millions of lives and that means
RW> both sides. There's nothing bad about it. OTH, it wasn't anything to b
RW> celebrating about, but the date is noteworthy to many Americans. I wou

It's his 'celebration' I object to.  You do not 'celebrate' the day you nuked
another country.  You may ruefully realize it saved more lives than not using
it, but you do not celebrate it.

Celebrating VJ day is another thing, and I find no real offense at that anymore
than I do VE day.

RW> think that people should study their history a little closer if they t
RW> we Americans are the worst there is when it came to killing innocent m
RW> women and children. On the contrary, the facts of what the Japanese di

I didnt say we were the worst, but i refuse to 'celebrate' the worst we have
done.

 CS> They (general populace) didnt know it would poison the land and the
 CS> people for generations to come.  That was only learned later.

RW> Only the scientists who worked on it knew and they were sworn to secre

Which does explain the general populace feel of this at the time when it
happened but we know better now.  We can say 'it's over' and we can say 'it
cost less lives than other solutions' but to dance in the streets on the day
we bombed them with nukes, is just wrong now that we know what we have learned
about the aftermath.

 CS> instead. Gather the origional aim was to hit here but cloud cover
 CS> made it hard so they hit Nagasaki as secondary target vice the major
 CS> ship building facility I am at now.

RW> All the targets chosen were for a military reason...there were factori
RW> in Nagasaki who made Mitsubishi parts for the Japense Zeros. Ball bear
RW> I believe.

Yes, it was the secondary target and they hit there.

 CS> Indeed.  With that message of his, I part any company with Frank.  I
 CS> am embarrased that he comes from my country.

RW> You shouldn't be. You should be sad that he thought it a day of
RW> celebration and nothing more. In his day, it was a day to celebrate. S

I am sad for exactly that.

When I think of this thread, I think of 9/11 and how we were treated here by
the local people.  Devastated, and our rental apartment owner came to every
single apartment (he owns quite a few) with Americans, to tell us in person
with a translator, how he felt for us in our time of sorrow.  Very much almost
'samarai' in his politeness and dressed in his best formal kimono (ok, name is
other for the male dress but you know what I mean).  Every American here at
that time that I know of, had a visit like it.

I'm still an American, but I could not look him in the face if I were the type
to 'celebrate' the death of his sister and mother the day we took our bombs to
Nagasaki.  (No, he didnt mention it, we were told much later, perhaps 6 months
later, of his personal history and that he was 7 years old when it happened).

If you dislike that I feel this way, well, we can 'just not bring it up again'
because on this one, you'll find out i'm more stubborn than a mule and will
not change.  I may change on many things, but this isnt one of them.  I will
never 'celebrate' the day we nuked Japan.

RW> they're saying. Suffice to say that none of us are guilty for what our
RW> ancestors did during their lifetime. (unless they're Dossche' or Vlist

I'm not guilty either, but there's a sort of recognition thing of 'wrongs done
before your time' that people should not forget and should try to avoid in the
future.

My father fought in WWII.  Radio operator, Europe.  Born just as they arrived
here of first immigrant parents.  Fluent german.  I didnt get much time with
him as my parents split when I was 2 but the few visits did talk of that time
a little bit.  His comment was 'the worst I did was shoot a person who had a
gun aimed at me, never dropped any bombs I have to have nightmares about now'.
I know, he meant that set. I just know...
                                       xxcarol

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