Hiroshima 70 years ago

[Brian37]

The OP states a really important fact, we hit civilians. Even today with our wars in the middle East, Over the years on-line I have conversed with Muslims and x Muslims from the Arab world from places like Iran, Syria, and parts of Asia. It wold be no different if the west went to war today with China. Humans are still humans, and do not always support the government's they live under.

There was a Japanese man, and his wife during WW2, whom forged passports to save Jews.

[Minimalist]

As Chuck said, by 1945 the Japanese were totally defenseless.  General Curtis Lemay began repeated low-level, nighttime, incendiary raids in March 1945.  The Japanese had no night fighters to oppose the B-29s and losses were light even though the B-29s were stripped of most of their guns. 

Had we wanted to burn Hiroshima and Nagasaki we could have done so with ease.  Which frankly makes it looks like they were being saved for the sacrifice.  I don't know that it was our finest moment.

[bennyboy]

As a guy with a Korean family, let me speak for Korea when I say-- fuck 'em. How many millions did the Japanese rape, how many cities did they sack? How many thousands did they do sick medical experiments on? How much humilitation did they very deliberately inflict on their Asian neighbors?

I understand many/most in those cities were innocents. But their deaths must have brought a lot of pain to the emperor and to his soldiery, and it's hard to call foul at evil being repaid with evil-- payback's a bitch, and the attacked has no responsibility to protect the initial attackers IMO. How much should a Japanese life, in any form, have been worth to the Americans in 1945? I'd say America showed a lot more restraint than Japan would have if they had won.

As for the Japanese being totally defenseless-- that's their problem. That's a good cue to surrender, before not even one city goes up in smoke. But AFTER TWO? Come on.

So in summary-- fuck 'em, hope there's a hell so they can burn in it.

[LastPoet]

I do wonder if people realise that war is not a game. Shit happens, horrible shit. Or as once said:

Bella, horrida bella

[abaris]

Keep in mind the atom bomb raid on either Hiroshima or Nagasaki were far from the most destructive or the most deadly air raids conducted against Japan or Germany.

Not the most destructive in terms of what? As far as long time effects are concerned it was the most destructive. People suffered and died decades later as a direct result of being exposed to the nuclear blast.

[abaris]

As a guy with a Korean family, let me speak for Korea when I say-- fuck 'em.  How many millions did the Japanese rape, how many cities did they sack?  How many thousands did they do sick medical experiments on?  How much humilitation did they very deliberately inflict on their Asian neighbors?

You're of Korean descent. So we should hold you and your family responsible for what the Kims did and do. They're Korean too after all. And so, fuck all Koreans - that your approach, isn't it?

In my case, a large part of my family was killed in Hitler's death camps. I still like to make a distinction between Nazi and German or Austrian. And in the case of killing civilians, I certainly do.

And what's more, as for this unit 731 conducting brutal medical experiments, you might be surprised where Shirō Ishii, it's leader, ended up. Same as quite a bunch of nazi scientists.

[ignoramus]

Not to mention all the sushi bars were only selling BBQ salmon rolls from then on!

(Sorry, when I'm disgusted, I have to make jokes, to relieve my pain!)

[Gawdzilla]

The cities were both military headquarters for their prefects. The Japanese chose to put a prime military target in those cities. One of the bombs went off almost directly over 5,000 soldiers lined up for inspection. They were military targets.

As for a demonstration, the first bomb on an actual city didn't convince Gen. Anami, the War Minister at the time, that surrender was the only viable option. He was promoting the slogan "100,000,000 dead for the defense of the Empire!" It wasn't until after Nagasaki that he came around and agreed to allow the Emperor to call for a surrender. Even then troops stormed the Imperial Palace trying to find the records of the Imperial person's voice. The palace officials hid the records in a room and pulled bookcases in front of the door to hide it.

The Emperor's announcement mentioned the "new and terrible weapons" being used by the Allies, but not the Russian declaration of war.

And for those who think they were used to keep the Russians out of Japan, Gen. MacArthur, who would be commanding the invasion, asked Gen. Marshall to do everything possible to get the Soviets to invade Hokkaido when he invaded Kyushu so as to divert troops from the southern landings.

[vorlon13]

Announcing a target or demonstration before hand would have also resulted in an all out effort by Japan to relocate POWs to the target.

It was that kind of a war for those unclear about it.

Unanticipated by the US was the disruption to communications from the Hiroshima attack.  Reports were slow to filter up the chain of command due to the destruction.  I'd estimate there was quite a bit of disinformation to sort out from what information was making it out of the area too.  The general population that survived the blast could not imagine what kind of weapon destroyed their city; a common misconception was the US had dusted Hiroshima with magnesium powder which exploded from a spark from a street car.  Their were physicians in hospitals that suspected something new and terrible had been used as all their X-ray film was fogged from the radiation, but they were busy treating casualties, and I'm not sure reports of fogged X-ray film would have made much headway up the command chain till some scientists could realize the significance.

[Anomalocaris]

Also, while Japan had no ability to stop massed raids, particularly at night, it still had the air defense capability to focus on a small number of incoming bombers during day light and shoot them down. Giving the Japanese advanced warning that a small number of bombers will come to inflict destruction vastly out of proportion with the number of bombers involved creates the opportunity for the ambarassement of having the bomber carrying the atom bomb shot down on the way to the demonstration.