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Hiroshima (1946)

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Re: Hiroshima (1946)

#3

Post by supernova87a »

When I was young in grade school, and learned about the bomb, and its terrifying aftermath, pictures, scars, I thought that this was clearly a wrong against humanity to have been dropped on anyone. Clearly the visceral kind of "this should never happen" reaction that any average person would have. "How could we put the Enola Gay on a stamp to glorify this?"

Then, in college and especially after, learning about the equal horrors of the Japanese war machine, and maybe actually more the non-horrific but relentless robotic support for the war (or obedience towards the emperor, government, etc) among the people, I realized that it actually did bring an end to the war. Which if it had continued, could have consumed far more lives. (whether it had to be this tool, of course, is certainly worthy of debate)

Now, my 3rd phase of thinking -- beyond any opinion on tactics or reaction or bombs in the moment of a war -- is how do we get people to help themselves get out of the path to war? Each and every one of us, who whether by support or indifference, or tacit approval, or compounded misinformation, or ego, get ourselves into situations that we look back 50 years from now and say, "what happened?".

Surely, we have the tools and desire, don't we? I hope.

Re: Hiroshima (1946)

#4

Post by jacobush »

supernova87a wrote: post #3

When I was young in grade school, and learned about the bomb, and its terrifying aftermath, pictures, scars, I thought that this was clearly a wrong against humanity to have been dropped on anyone. Clearly the visceral kind of "this should never happen" reaction that any average person would have. "How could we put the Enola Gay on a stamp to glorify this?" Then, in college and especially after, learning about the eq…

There’s no consensus it ended the war. Rather the opposite. The Japanese generals had larger problems to consider, such as the fact that most targets were already rubble, and the fact that the Soviets were on their doorstep.

Re: Hiroshima (1946)

#6

Post by terrorOf »

Given what Japanese have done to other non-Japanese (disgusting experiment on people alive) as well as Pearl Habor, and also given that they do not sincerely apologize on what they have done during the war before atomic bomb, I don't think they deserve apologizing. Also as what "dang" found out duplicated article from 2016 and 2018, I feel this is kind of money-supported ad by Japanese government.

Re: Hiroshima (1946)

#7

Post by eska »

supernova87a wrote: post #3

When I was young in grade school, and learned about the bomb, and its terrifying aftermath, pictures, scars, I thought that this was clearly a wrong against humanity to have been dropped on anyone. Clearly the visceral kind of "this should never happen" reaction that any average person would have. "How could we put the Enola Gay on a stamp to glorify this?" Then, in college and especially after, learning about the eq…

My school education about this was also essentially "bombs are bad, kids". The Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_a...) is actually quite enlightening in this matter. A lot of people seem to think that the Americans didn't try anything else before. Likewise most people don't realize how much more death there would've been on both sides if the US invaded Japan by sea.

Re: Hiroshima (1946)

#9

Post by rbecker »

jacobush wrote: post #4
supernova87a wrote: post #3

When I was young in grade school, and learned about the bomb, and its terrifying aftermath, pictures, scars, I thought that this was clearly a wrong against humanity to have been dropped on anyone. Clearly the visceral kind of "this should never happen" reaction that any average person would have. "How could we put the Enola Gay on a stamp to glorify this?" Then, in college and especially after, learning about the eq…

There’s no consensus it ended the war. Rather the opposite. The Japanese generals had larger problems to consider, such as the fact that most targets were already rubble, and the fact that the Soviets were on their doorstep.

This article elaborates that the bombings probably weren't necessary: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24093814

Re: Hiroshima (1946)

#10

Post by senand »

supernova87a wrote: post #3

When I was young in grade school, and learned about the bomb, and its terrifying aftermath, pictures, scars, I thought that this was clearly a wrong against humanity to have been dropped on anyone. Clearly the visceral kind of "this should never happen" reaction that any average person would have. "How could we put the Enola Gay on a stamp to glorify this?" Then, in college and especially after, learning about the eq…

Even assuming it did bring an end to the war: was it really necessary to drop two bombs for that?
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