Text 10552, 71 rader
Skriven 2013-10-02 19:53:46 av Lee Lofaso (2:203/2)
  Kommentar till text 10551 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: Putin Blinks
====================
Hello Ward,

 ak>> As for an incentive for Japan, I can say that if the Americans had
 ak>> dropped their bombs in the vicinity of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the
 ak>> civilian damage would have been small, but the Japanese would have seen
 ak>> clearly the bombs power. And then America could threaten Japan that next
 ak>> time such bombs would be dropped, for instance, on Tokio where the
 ak>> government and Emperor were.

WD>Your lack of historical knowledge is striking.

A common oversight, easily forgiven.

 WD> Are you not aware of the fire-bombing of Tokyo by the Americans. An
 WD> estimated
 WD> 100.000 people died in the firestorm of the March 9-10 1945 firebombing of
 WD> Tokyo, the idea to use incendiary bombs (against civilians!) was to burn
the
 WD> houses which contained a lot of wood and paper.

Japanese military forces could not withstand a prolonged defense
of the Japanese islands during WWII.  As such, it was only a matter
of time before Allied bombing of Japanese cities would commence.

 WD> To compare, "Little Boy" on Hiroshima killed appr.80.00 direct, "Fatman"
 WD> killed about 70.000 in Nagasaki.

Far easier to kill many with one bomb with no loss of casualties
among the air crew than to attempt a far more dangerous invasion by
grunts on land.  The only problem with that defense is that Japan
was already a defeated power, with no real means of defense.

 WD> For your information, there were several such firebombing raids on Tokyo,
I
 WD> mentioned just this one. The casualty list for everything is around
400.000
 WD> "civilians" killed in Tokyo.

Terrorize the population to the point where the Japanese military
would have no support among the Japanese people.

 WD> To come back to your remark ... Tokyo was already destroyed, there was not
 WD> more damage an atomic bomb could do. And remarkably, all the firebombings,
 WD> and the other bombings, were executed in such a way that the imperial
palace
 WD> was not touched ... Coincidence?

Imagine what would happen if a country invaded the Vatican, murdered
the Pope, and blew up St. Peter's Basilica.  Every Catholic around the
world would view the country that did that as being pure evil.

Americans wanted the Japanese people to at least not be hostile.
Offing the Emperor and destroying the Imperial Palace would have
made enemies everywhere in Japan forever.

As I said in a previous message, the Emperor could have chosen the
honorable path - suicide by sword.  However, the Emperor and the
Japanese palace were spared because it was hoped that he would be
willing to use his influence to convince Japanese military leaders
to surrender.

What the Allies forgot in their agreement with the Emperor was this -
the Emperor renounced his claim to be a living god, but his son was
not forced to make that same renouncement.  As a result, the present
Emperor is viewed by the Japanese people as being a living god - the
same as Emperor Hirohito was in his heyday.

--Lee

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