80 YEARS AGO TODAY

[rcs9250]

July 16, 1945 @ 5:29:45 the Trinity nuclear bomb was set of in the New Mexico desert.

https://www.atomicarchive.com/media...t=newsletter&user_id=685b184751f7d1dd1f01d239

 

[wheelgun1958]

And so it began.

 

[rcs9250]

Oppenheimer said it himself.
“As the now familiar mushroom cloud rose in to the sky, Oppenheimer quoted from Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-gita, "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." The world had entered the nuclear age.”



https://www.facebook.com/share/r/16wFpKVXN2/?mibextid=wwXIfr

 

[Armybrat]

In 1957 my dad participated in an Army nuclear exercise at Frenchman Flats, Nevada.
He said it was a defining moment in his life, while climbing out of the 8' deep trench with the other troops and looking straight up to watch the broiling mushroom cloud spreading over and behind them.
He’s under this cloud somewhere.

 

[rcs9250]

My uncle was sent onto Bikini Island after one of the nuclear bomb tests. My aunt told me that a short time later everyone that went on the island after the test lost every bit of hair on their body, head to toe. He eventually died of a cerebral hemmorage but no one is sire if the radiation was the root cause.

 

[blume357]

the irony is all we did was just invent a more efficient way to kill a lot of people fast.

 

[Mobuck]

For all the unfortunate aftermath, I still feel the use of the nuke on Japan was worthwhile. Consider the number of casualties expected in an invasion of Japan and it's remaining territory. Dad was among the soldiers preparing for transport to participate in this bloodbath. After years of brutal combat across North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, they were being sent on a literal suicide mission to invade Japan.

 

[el caminero]

For all the unfortunate aftermath, I still feel the use of the nuke on Japan was worthwhile. Consider the number of casualties expected in an invasion of Japan and it's remaining territory. Dad was among the soldiers preparing for transport to participate in this bloodbath. After years of brutal combat across North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, they were being sent on a literal suicide mission to invade Japan.

re: Having The Bomb; Better Us, Than Them
re: The Effects; Better Them, Than Us.

 

[vito]

Safe nuclear energy will be savoir of the world as carbon based fuels are exhausted. And nuclear weapons actually gave us peace during the Cold War when we faced the Soviets in theaters across the globe. Had there not been the deterrent effect of nuclear weapons we surely would have had WWIII occur before now.

Personally I don't doubt that even without the Manhattan Project, someone somewhere would have figured out how to turn splitting the atom into a weapon. I'm just glad it was our side that succeeded in this role rather than our enemies. While most people know that the Nazis were working on this type of weapon, few seem to know that the Japanese were also trying to do this. Fortunately both the Germans and the Japanese were nowhere as capable as we were in achieving this goal.

 

[bobski]

unfortunately, due to poor security........everyone has them now.

 

[Chief]

Much is made of the impending assault of the Japanese home islands mostly revolving around the large casualties. It can be argued that the United States and its allies could have subdued the Japanese without the use of the atom. We had an enormous fleet and unsurpassed air power. The Japanese islands could have been effectively blockaded and the bombing program continued until they surrendered. This would have cost a huge toll in Japanese lives but would have spared the US from the feared invasion. The Japanese we’re going to lose. It was ultimately just a matter of how much time it would take and how brutal did the US want to be.

 

[Armybrat]

Not everyone, but too many of the wrong ones do.

 

[rcs9250]

80 years ago today Hiroshima was the recipient of the first use of a nuclear weapon. 8:15 am, Paul Tibbets was the pilot.

 

[Tensaw]

Los Alamos National Lab was one of our customers years ago. I went there several times. At the time (late 80's early 90's) it was the largest computing facility in the world. I often thought, so this is were man created the ability to destroy mankind.

 

[s4s4u]

I spent my 4 year tour in Germany during the cold war. We had a looie of Japanese descent who on 12/07 the first year I was there yelled "you fly you die, GI" as an odd joke. It didn't sit all that well with me and I waited patiently for this day of the following year.....

He looked a bit puzzled when I gave him the hand drawn greeting card with a massive mushroom overcasting the the all caps:

HIROSHIMA

 

[DGW1949]

the irony is all we did was just invent a more efficient way to kill a lot of people fast.

That was the point of the exercise.

DGW

 

[Chief]

80 years ago today Hiroshima was the recipient of the first use of a nuclear weapon. 8:15 am, Paul Tibbets was the pilot.

Who was the bombardier?
Major Thomas Ferebee.

 

[ex13F]

 

[Threespears]

 

[blume357]

the sad truth is the leaders of Japan at that time pretty much asked for it and had indoctrinated their people for it.... Keep in mind the last Island we took ,Okinawa, had something like 150,000 soldiers on it and we took something like 5,000 prisoner. As I've also pointed out, which has been totally over shadowed by the two atomic bombs we dropped... just a few months before we bombing of Tokyo.... fire bombed it.... burned something like 100,000 people....destroyed 16 square miles of the city...

I saw a documentary a while back that mentioned the reason for choosing Hiroshima and Nagasaki was those were the only two cities actually left.

 

[el caminero]

the sad truth is the leaders of Japan at that time pretty much asked for it and had indoctrinated their people for it.... Keep in mind the last Island we took ,Okinawa, had something like 150,000 soldiers on it and we took something like 5,000 prisoner. As I've also pointed out, which has been totally over shadowed by the two atomic bombs we dropped... just a few months before we bombing of Tokyo.... fire bombed it.... burned something like 100,000 people....destroyed 16 square miles of the city...

I saw a documentary a while back that mentioned the reason for choosing Hiroshima and Nagasaki was those were the only two cities actually left.

Furthermore, they actually still had some military value left, the weather having prevented sufficiently accurate bombing up to that point

 

[vito]

War is nasty, and at the time Japan was our mortal enemy. There was nothing wrong with valuing the lives of our soldiers over the lives of Japanese civilians. A weaker President than FDR and later Truman could have hedged on the idea of unconditional surrender and allowed the Japanese to surrender but retain control of their country, for fortunately they persevered and between the military defeat and Gen. McArthur's occupation and remaking of the Japanese government we turned a dangerous enemy into a long lasting ally. Our nation has lost this clear understanding of war, both for ourselves and for our allies, and the demands for ceasefires, negotiated ends of a war, emotional concerns for the plight of enemy civilians, etc. we are doomed to fight the wars over and over. Those today demanding that Israel hold back on the war in Gaza because of tearful concerns over the civilians of Gaza is insane, especially as the Hamas leaders have never reneged on their demand for the elimination of the state of Israel.

 

[blume357]

Even though we killed a lot of civilians in the Tokyo raid and the two atom bomb drops I also read that a large part of the manufacturing of military supplies for Japan was being done in small stores and such in the big cities...

 

[Jeepnik]

The national hasn't lost an understanding of war. Politicians are putting their reelection bids above all else
The world learned that kowtowing to aggressive former enemies leads to future conflicts during WWII. Had Germany been held to the Treaty of Versailles, WWII might not have happened. But politicians forget, conveniently, hard lessons previously learned.
The US tried to use sanctions against Japan. It failed and led to larger conflict. The US has tried the same failed methods again, only to meet with failure.
What's that definition of insanity?

 

[rcs9250]

Who was the bombardier?
Major Thomas Ferebee.

In November 1998, my mother was at a quilt show at a local hotel. When she was leaving the show in the hallway, there was a table with some older gentleman autographing books for another seminar that was going on. It turns out that Paul Tibbetts, Thomas Ferebee and Ted Van Kirk (navigator) were there autographing the book ENOLA GAY. My mother bought four copies, one for my father, one for me and one each for my two brothers.