August 6, 1945

[blackhawknj]

The B-29 Enola Gay-named after the pilot's mother-commanded by Paul Tibbetts of the 509th Composite Group-drops the Little Boy on Hiroshima.

 

[hittman]

... who grew up in little Quincy IL ...

 

[Fox Mike]

I am presently reading a book about the development of the bomb and those associated with it's development. The book is "Man of the Hour". The story of James B. Conant

 

[Thumbcocker]

For those who think it was unnecessary to drop the bomb read "Downfall". the author spent years reading original documents in Japan and doing other research.

 

[sfhogman]

Having already served in Europe, my father was on a troop ship headed across the Pacific to Japan. The troops felt the ship begin to turn, and so my father and a few others went up to the main deck. They saw that the ship was making a 180 degree turn...shortly after, a voice came over the squawkbox announcing that the War was over.
The next bit of land that my father saw was the Golden Gate bridge...

Jeff

 

[blume357]

I got in trouble a few years back for pointing out that after the war we discovered that Japan was planning to surrender.... the hold up was the Army wanted to wait until we were out on the coast getting ready to invade or such.... when I said that and now after doing some more research ... I still say we had no choice. If you look at what Japan 'sacrafieced' in men to demonstrate that they would never surrender... there is no way to argue the point. If I recall correctly the last Island we took... Okinawa had 150,ooo Japanise soldiers on it... when the island finally fell we had taken 7,000 prisoners.....

One irony is that in history we key on the dropping of the two bombs... and all the people that were killed .... a few months before Japan had experienced a drought and the winds had whipped up pretty good.. seems the Army Air Corps took that opportunity to fire bomb Tokyo... best estimate is close to 100,000 civilians killed... and they still did not surrender....

 

[blackhawknj]

Based on our experiences on Iwo Jima and Okinawa we were looking at 500,000 US casualties of whom 100,000 would be KIA. If the bombs worked as well as promised they would probably have been used in a tactical role and some argued that a properly conducted strategic bombing campaign would have eliminated the need for a ground invasion.
In the "Jewel Voice" broadcast in which Hirohito told his people the government would accept the Potsdam Declaration, he said "the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb,the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable".

 

[blume357]

And I would turn what he said around and say that the reason we used the bomb was because a government has used propaganda and misguided 'patriotism' for is greed to demonstrate jut how little it thinks of human life and its people.

 

[vito]

Some here do not seem to understand that waging war is a serious business, and sentimental concern for the well being of the enemy is a sure prescription for defeat. The decision to develop and use the atomic bombs against Japan was the right decision, with no hesitation justified. The atomic bombings not only assured us of victory, they saved both American and Japanese lives. If we ever face an threat to our very existence as a nation from a foreign enemy I hope that we have the intelligence and courage to use the full power of our military arsenal against that enemy, and not hesitate over soft hearted concern for enemy casualties. American lives matter, enemy lives do not.

 

[powder smoke]

That vito is common sense which seems to be lacking these days! Sad but true! ps

 

[sfhogman]

Vito has it just exactly right.

Jeff

 

[blackhawknj]

Revisionists try to use the race card, asking why wasn't the Bomb dropped on Germany?
The answer of course is that it wasn't ready, Germany surrendered on May 7/8 ,1945, the Day of Trinity was July 16, 1945.
The Japanese had proven themselves to be a particularly brutal and vicious enemy-the Rape of Nanking, e.g., and a dishonorable one-Pearl Harbor.
Even after the Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki hotheads in the Japanese military wanted to fight on, they tried to prevent the broadcast of Hirohito's speech, they even invaded the Imperial Palace. The recordings of the speech had already been smuggled out.

 

[blume357]

I agree with Vito... in fact and I don't want this to turn political, but we (George Bush and crew) screwed up royally on Sept 12th .... They knew where BenLauden was within a few miles ... I would have turned a good portion of the mountains of Afghanistan into glass if I had been in charge. That would have sent a message to 'our enemies' they they would understand.

 

[radicalrod]

Well my thoughts are I would rather KILL for my country than DIE for it.....
Though sometimes things don't go as planned....
My favorite T shirt had a mushroom cloud with the saying....

BUILT in AMERICA.......TESTED in JAPAN.....

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

My grandfather served in the Navy in WWII, so he was old enough to keep his civilian job (one we'd call in our pandemic days "essential") thru WWII The bomb over Hiroshima fell on his 57th birthday, and I remember him explaining its necessity when I was probably 10 or 11...

I have an interesting Japanese family among my clients: Mom and Dad are from Hiroshima, kids were born here. Dad once commented he learned far more about WWII--both sides--from his kids' history books in HS than he knew coming to this country with a college degree.

Rick C

 

[Jeepnik]

The problem with history is that once those who lived it are dead (and that's almost here), those that come after don't have the "eyes" to understand the actions of the time. Oh for a couple of generations there's enough folks who were close to those that live it but after that the reality of history is history.

 

[blackhawknj]

Because of Fat Man and Little Boy a lot of young American men didn't participate in the invasion that never took place, they came home to families, wives, sweethearts, jobs, college. And a lot of young Japanese were spared combat, bombing, occupation, they got to participate in the rebuilding of their country. They got a pretty good deal too.

 

[Jeepnik]

A couple things people moaning about the use of atomic weapons fail to remember. First we didn't start the war with Japan by killing almost 2500 people in a surprise attack on a Sunday Morning. Second Japan had numerous attempts to surrender "before" the bomb was dropped, and had three days to surrender before the second bomb was detonated.

 

[Ray Newman]

Back in 1964-68 when I was in the USMC, I served with a few of the remaining WW II veterans. I asked them about their reaction to the atomic bombings. They said after hearing the news, they felt that they might live through the invasion of Japan and live to see the end of the war. Some said they though the war would last until at least 1946.

I have heard it said that there was no reason to drop the bombs as Japan was supposedly ready to surrender. Well I do not know about that: US dropped the first bomb was dropped on 8/6, no reaction from Japan about ending the war. Second bomb dropped on 8/9 and finally on 8/15, Japan surrenders. If they really were on the ropes, why did it take another bomb and 9 days to decide?

 

[DeletedMember275]

My father was sitting on Okinawa, waiting to invade Japan when the bombs were dropped. Until the day he died, he became very, very angry whenever anyone mentioned the revisionist claim that the Japanese were prepared to surrender before we dropped the bombs. His response went something like 'You sure couldn't have proved it by me.'

IMHO, President Truman made the right decision.

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

Some here do not seem to understand that waging war is a serious business, and sentimental concern for the well being of the enemy is a sure prescription for defeat. The decision to develop and use the atomic bombs against Japan was the right decision, with no hesitation justified. The atomic bombings not only assured us of victory, they saved both American and Japanese lives. If we ever face an threat to our very existence as a nation from a foreign enemy I hope that we have the intelligence and courage to use the full power of our military arsenal against that enemy, and not hesitate over soft hearted concern for enemy casualties. American lives matter, enemy lives do not.

+1 Well said!!!

 

[jgt]

The people in Japan at the time were cult like in their support for their Emperor and leaders. They were training the civil population to fight hand to hand with anything from sticks to grenades. The men in the armed forces were brainwashed into thinking they were superior to all other races. Had they defeated the allies they would have fought the Nazis for world domination. They were brutal sadistic killers. They did not care if their troops raped, murdered, and mutilated anyone outside their cult. The Germans were helping them with atomic technology and raw materials so they could build atomic weapons of their own. We were lucky enough to prevent both of them from succeeding before our weapons could be developed. The Japs and Germans had every intention to use nuclear weapons on us had they been able to build them first.

 

[ptypegreen]

I believe Patton said, though he may have been quoting someone else, that the goal is not to die for your country, the goal is to make the other SOB die for his country.
I read where the Pentagon ordered so many Purple Hearts for Operation Downfall that to this day we still have inventory.