Text 14416, 58 rader
Skriven 2005-08-07 07:45:00 av TIM RICHARDSON (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av ALAN HESS
Ärende: atomic bomb question
============================
On 08-06-05, ALAN HESS said to ALL:


AH>With the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs in the news,
AH>I have a question.  Were there military bases, or small islands around the
AH>main islands, that could have been targetted instead of the two cities?
AH>If so, would the explosions of the bombs on such places have convinced the
AH>Japanese to surrender?  *adh*




Who gives a damn? There's nothing in the world that is more convincing than a
bomb the like of that, dropped on a major city, devastating that city such
that a major part of it disappears in a mushroom cloud.


And to overcome their initial hesitation to respond in the proper manner to
the `first' bomb, the second bomb was the clincher!


The first bomb was an attention-getter. The second bomb inspired the Japs to
show the proper respect to their betters!



Where I might feel sympathy for individual Japanese who lost civilian family
in the blast of either bomb, and might even stand respectfully before their
memorial in either city out of the friendship that has grown between our two
countries since WWII, when I see the Arizona Memorial, created on December 7th
1941 by the Jap bombers and torpedo planes, I have no regrets whatever for
August 6th, and August 8th, 1945. None.


In fact, I'm proud of the men who flew the missions, and dropped the bombs.


Who gives a damn where they dropped. As long as it was *on* Japan, it killed a
whole bunch of Japs, and got the desired result: surrender.


My step-father was aboard the USS Tangier (a Seaplane Tender), anchored 50
feet away from the USS Utah when the Japs came calling on December 7th. He and
his gun crew watched as the Utah went bottoms-up, and he and his gun crew shot
down one of only 29 or so planes the Japs lost that morning.


He and his shipmates didn't think anything amiss about the bombs being
dropped, in fact cheered the ending of the War in the Pacific. As did the
whole of America.





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