Happy Hiroshima Day

6th of August 1945

After months of firebombing Japanese cities the Allies dropped the 'Little Boy' nuclear weapon was dropped on Hiroshima resulting in 140,000 deaths and an untold number of casualties.

Was dropping the Bomb....right?

 

Yep - it only took one more to stop the second world war and thus save many hundreds of thousands more lives.

The actions and behaviour of Japanese troops was evil, without conscience and led to the deaths of thousands of POW's, hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians as well as civilians all over Asia.

They had to be stopped and the rest of the world had to be given the message at the same time - Don't screw with us anymore or face the same.

 

Apparantly the Japanese were on the verge of surrender, I believe intelligence was picked up to indicate this. I wonder whether dropping the bomb was also to scare off the Russians.

 

Obviously. Not dropping another 48 was the mistake.

 

The Japanese, if they WERE on the verge of surrender, should have done so after the first bomb. The fact that it took a second one to convince them gives lie to that info.

 

If operation downfall went ahead and millions of japanese civilians were killed doing thier duty to the emperor the wolly minded mongs would be whining because the yanks didnt drop the bomb.

 

I'm not sure about that Biped, I am aware though that there was a clique of the military leadership that wanted to carry on the war or there would be a coup. I don't know the role the emperor had in this side of things.

 

The emperor was just a figurehead if the military wanted to get rid of him it probably wouldnt have been too hard to arrange

 

Ask anyone who fought in Burma.

Anyone who was a POW (and remember they treated our POWs better than the Aussies, Malays and Eurasians).

Or those who had fought in Italy, France and Germany, only to be told they were on their way to fight the Japanese next.

Or indeed their own people who had been told to kill themselves and their children rather than surrender.

The original 'shock and awe'. A terrifying act, to prevent thousands even more horrible.

 

Yes I've had this conversation before with my grandfather, he was a POW and even he finds the bombing distasteful and arguably wrong.

The emperor was a figurehead, but only that? The entire philosophy behind Japan's military and empirica endeavours was state sponsored Shinto of which the emperor happened to be the head of. I am aware that many Japanese today partially blame the emperor for the war.


But hey, lets face it, after the bombing Japan could start afresh and they became an economic miracle.

 

Funny that. After the MARSHALL PLAN, Japan became an economic miracle. After the MARSHALL PLAN, Germany became an economic powerhouse.

Britain became bankrupt.

 

Were the rest of the Allies consulted before the USA dropped the bombs, or was it just an American plan?

I think it was right. It is believed that many many more would have been killed in a conventional invasion of Japan.

Just to add questions to the debate, Would we have used it on Berlin if it had been completed 18 months earlier, and what would the world look like now if we had? Would the Germans have stuck their hands in the air at that point? Would Japan have seen the effects and surrendered with the threat of it being used?

 

The Japanese never received Marshall plan aid...

I think you may mean they were assisted by Macarthur in building up a contitution and being gived 'sweetheart loans'.

 

Theres some luvvie comment piece in todays graunaid, can't be arsed to go and find the link, saying it was mass murder.

I think that the outrage comes because it was a nuke, somehow their arguments always go on that somehow conventional attacks would have been better. But probably a lot more would have died as a result. The two bombs were a shock factor in that so much destruction could be wrought by a single bomb. It focussed the minds of the nips that the Americans could field thousands of planes, the fact they had no more bombs left was unknown to them.

I think it was elf n safetys fault. They failed to do a comprehensive risk assessment, otherwise they would have known that if you take on the worlds two superpowers, at that time, and don't deliver a knock out blow on day one you're fcuked. No point in whinging about it afterwards.

 

I'm pretty sure the UK was consulted....probably not the USSr though. Didn't we have observers on the aircraft? (Leonard Cheshire VC being one of them...)