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Censored Nagasaki Bomb Story Found
EccentricAnomaly writes "In 1945 journalist George Weller snuck past the American occupying forces and became the first American Journalist to see the devastation left by the atomic bomb that fell on Nagasaki. His story infuriated MacArthur, who had it quashed. The Japanese paper, Mainichi, has now published Weller's account. CNN has a story discussing how it was found." From the Mainichi article: "As one whittles away at embroidery and checks the stories, the impression grows that the atomic bomb is a tremendous, but not a peculiar weapon. The Japanese have heard the legend from American radio that the ground preserves deadly irradiation. But hours of walking amid the ruins where the odor of decaying flesh is still strong produces in this writer nausea, but no sign or burns or debilitation."
I find it quite intresting that the US always takes such an agressive attitude against weapons of mass destruction at the same time as they have this on their conscious: The biggest use of mass destruction weapons ever. Hundred of thousands of civilians died or suffered. Biggest terrorist act ever. Or what do you think - 180000 dead in 1945, above 200000 dead total as of 2004. 270,000 still suffering from damages due to radiation, etc. Most of them are civilians. US - the world saviour, indeed.
I guess the problem USA has regarding WMD:s, is not really the mass destruction weapons per se, and its capacity to kill lots of civilians. But rather that mass destruction weapons in other hands might kill americans which "of course" is a far worse crime than killing some japanese?
I suggest that everyone read through the piece on this on wikipedia. Its quite good.
Wikipedia article on subject
The first sentence of the link states:
American George Weller was the first foreign reporter to enter Nagasaki following the U.S. atomic attack on the city on Aug. 9, 1945.
I can't believe they call it an "atomic attack", like we weren't at war and this was a wholly unprovoked attack on a soverign nation. This was World War II for crying out loud! These bombings brought about the end of it while by every estimate saving millions of lives in the process.
Regardless of what you think of the current administration, the USA is a good country. It amazes me the lengths people go to paint us in a negative light.
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Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
Would america surrender if we were to bomb new york and washington and well lets bomb los angeles to the ground too ?
Silly person, don't you know Preston Bush started WWII so he could make a fat pile of cash and murder hundreds of thousands of Japanese people?
That's why he secretly founded the USSR, too. Thinking about all the millions that would be killed by Lenin and Stalin made him cream his pants daily.
The original gulags? Bush's fault!
Who's tortured? Hope you're not talking about Gitmo or Abu Ghraib. The prisoners in Gitmo eat better meals than our military in Iraq or schoolchildren in our schools. The localized abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was hazing at worst. Frat pledges endure worse than these prisoners have had to put up with. Doesn't make it right, but it's a far cry from torture.
And its target being the Mitsubishi naval yard which was 5 miles off. To add to that it also landed smack on top of a residential district with more then 50% of the ground 0 being a civilian target.
It was a war crime. Same as Dresden and same as Hiroshima.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
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Many Manhattan Project scientists wanted to quit the program after Germany surrendered because hitting Germany was their prime objective. Would that the project completed 6 months earlier. We could have bombed Germany instead. Not being Asian I have relatively little animosity toward the history of Japan in WW2. But I sincerely regret we didn't erase Germany from the map.
I'm about tired of all this "hand wringing" BS about oh my, we dropped the bomb on the poor innocent peace loving people of japan. Screw em! A. They started the d**n war! B. They murdered, raped hundered of thousands of people in China, Korea, Phillipines. C. Ask any soldier who was lucky enough to survive Iwo Jima, Okinawa et al what they think of the peace loving people of Japan. The purpose of a war is to KILL PEOPLE and BREAK THINGS. War is an ugly brutial business. If I was a president and had a weapon that could possibly end the suffering of a war sooner, I'd use it in a heart beat! My grandfather and uncle were with the 5th marine division on Iwo, Tariwa, Okinawa. Both came back completely changed. My grandfather lost the hearing in one ear when a Jap mortar fell close to the foxhole he and his buddies were in. He survived, one of his buddies died, the other lost a leg. My mom said that after he got back, he would wake up in the night sweating, and screaming. He was the lucky one.... he came back! Thousands did not. Had we invaded the Japanese islands (operations olympia and corrinet) we would have lost thousands upon thousands of American lives, not to mention the amount of japanese killed. In this politically correct world we live in, we are causing undo suffering because we have to be "sensitive" to the (insert your best line) of the enemy. Screw them! As Gen. Patton said "dying for your country isn't honorable....make the other poor dumb bastard die for his country!" (paraphrasing) Sadly, I think it will take another terrorist attack to finally wake this country up, and put this PC crap out to pasture where it belongs! Perhaps if a plane full of gas landed in the middle of hollywood, or on rodeo' drive, then maybe they will wake up!
"[...] I think that the military would avoid using nuclear weapons (talking about US military, as well as European militaries) at all costs."
Then you have not heard that we seriously considered using nuclear weapons in Afghanistan? Yes, they would "only" have been tactical nuclear weapons but still... real people in our real military wanted to do this. Thankfully it didn't happen; if for no other reason than it makes use of nuclear weapons look legitimate to other countries.
We are still developing our nuclear capabilities -- including more tactical nuclear weapons. Those types of weapons are not the ones we "have" to make for MAD to work. If we are making them doesn't that mean we are prepared to use them at least in some situation?
You righteous Americans! Of course you couldn't do anything wrong, ever. And even the bomb has to have some moral excuse!
(shakes his head)