65 years ago we dropped the first atomic bomb ever used on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Then we asked them if they wanted to surrender; they said no. A few days later we dropped another on Nagasaki; we asked again and this time they said yes. Their decision to surrender saved us having to invade the Japanese islands in a campaign would have certainly cost hundreds of thousands of US lives, maybe a million plus and at least that many Japanese lives. It was the right thing to do. The toll in Japanese civilian lives lost was staggering and should always be looked at as a horrifying tragedy. But we didn't cause that tragedy, their imperial ambitions did. We were sitting WWII out until they sent their carriers to attack our soil, kill our troops and destroy much of our Navy. They fought to the last man on every God forsaken rock in the Pacific and the Battle of Japan would have been a bloodbath like no one has ever seen. So we ended it. This is not something to be proud of or to rejoice over; neither is it something to be ashamed of. Hopefully no one will ever use a nuclear weapon again, but we have no apologies to make for doing so. I hope all the war dead are at peace and that every day we learn how better to avoid making any more, but that is more in the hands of those who perpetrate evil than ours.
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/_BPwiJvcYVA/anniversary-of-hiroshima.html
Posted
Aug 06 2010, 06:33 AM
by
BLACKFIVE