Newly released Hiroshima photos

Not pretty :(

They didnt release these because it would disturb 'public tranquility'

http://fogonazos.blogspot.com/2007/02/hiroshima-pictures-they-didnt-want-us_05.html

****in yanks, and they think that shit gives them the right to be the only ones with nuclear capability

its a damn shame that, it wasn't even necessary apparently by that stage of the war - all those children and innocent civilians.
that sort of shit shouldnt be allowed, the after effects are just too horrendous.

saw an interesting comment

"These two bombs stopped the war. If we had invaded Japan, casualties on both sides would have dwarfed those suffered from the bombs.
My father was on one of those troopships heading for Japan that August. His life was spared thanks to the bomb."

makes an interesting point

/banter

edit so i dont sound like i am supporting the dropping of the bomb: i think what happened is terrible, beyond what i have the capability of expressing, i just dont think that you can make judgements about it while sitting here looking at all the things that have come to light since, hindsight is a wonderfull thing but the people making these decisions didnt have the same information we had

personally i put the responsibilty on both the americans for deciding to drop the bomb and the japanese for not laying down their weapons when given the chance and both are equally responsible for the inoccent lives lost

Yeah there is a good argument both sides insidious.

I'm not against dropping the bomb by any means mate but i do feel people should actually understand the implications and consequences of such actions :)

the difference is people would've died or suffered injuries, loss of limbs etc... as opposed to people 50 years later suffering radiation related illnesses etc.

btw mepm, look up japan's jet engine, I could be misremembering things, but I think Japan was on the brink of raping america with jet powered bombers (that is, almost finishing their prototype) when enola gay took to the skys

well thats one way to end a war.

Quote:
"The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military point of view, in the defeat of Japan." Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.[66]

"The use of [the atomic bombs] at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender." Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to President Truman.[66]
.

i was watching a documentary the other day and one of the bombing raids the US did on Tokyo with low flying bombers droping incendiary bombs caused something over 100,000 dead.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/fire_raids_on_japan.htm

from what the historians say, it sounds like they were heading for massive carnage anyway

i think either option was terrible and they tried to select the least terrible

not too many winners in a war...

remember america dident want in this war.. japan made the first move.. america the last.. not saying it was a good thing or bad thing.. war is stupid!

we could go quote for quote all day

the Japanese were at the end of the rope but given multiple opportunitites to surrender including after the first atomic bomb was dropped.

Almost a week after the second blast, upon finally hearing of the events, Hirohito said, "One bomb or a thousand... the results are the same". He was unmoved...

The record shows that the Japanese were preparing even the civilians to fight the war to the last man women and child. They may have been close to their last leash but they were far from done fighting.

Americans were slaughtered in Pearl Harbour in an unprovoked attack.

Japan sided with the Nazis and got what they deserved.

Nobody deserves that.

Japan dropped bombs on the US a "neutral" country at that stage.
Us dropped 2 bombs on Japan. They just had better bombs, you think the Japs didnt use there best bombs?

America was ready to launch Operation Olympic which was to invade the Japanese homeland.

They estimated it needed at least 680,000 troops ready to invade.

The Japanese had NEVER surrendered at all to another Army or Empire in there entire history. So the Americans they would have to go all the way.

I saw Truman at the time with his chief of staffs did the sums and has been pointed out already the troop causalities would be very high.

The Japanese were mobilizing women as well as children to defend the homeland.

About 10,000 planes were estimated on the home soil and half of them were to be kamikaze planes!

Another factor why the dropped the bomb was the fact USSR at the time was ready to invade Japan and if I am correct in saying I am sure the US at the time didn't want Japan to fall into Russian hands.

All the facts and conspiricays aside lets just hope nothing of that size gets dropped anywhere again imagine how much worse potentionally the bombs r today :(.

The japanese were the same as the americans. There were both hawks and doves(is that right?) advising the emperor. One group pushing for war, the other group pushing to surrender. The hawks were louder, and the emperor ONLY concerned with holding his own personal power base. The japanese would have surrendered earlier if only they could have kept the instituition of the emperor intact as a ruling authority, but that was an unacceptable surrender term for the americans.

How would you like to be nuked because Little Johnny and his band of decision makers decided he wanted to stay PM and start and act of aggression on another country. 65% of people that died were 9? and under. I hope the decision makers are wallowing in the fiery pits of hell.

There were significantly more people killed during the carpet/firebombing that was perpetrated by all countries in the war. The nukes ended the war and saved easily well over 1-2 million lives from all sides.
Estimates I have seen for the war have anywhere from 30-60 million people dead or injured. The bombing works out to something like 1-2% of the total casualties, big deal. Are their deaths more important or horrible than everyone elses?
The yanks could have chosen a more densely populated city, they didn't.
They droppped one then pleaded with the Japs to surrender, the terms given included letting the emperor remain in power. They didn't and the second one was dropped.
The japs were the most barbaric and vicious of all peoples during the war. Aside from the holocaust, Japan was the most disgusting in its treatment of the enemy and its civillians.
Could you make the call 250-500k of the enemy or anywhere up to a million of your sons?
Certainly its horrible but thats war.

Quote from Frenzy;297747:

How would you like to be nuked because Little Johnny and his band of decision makers decided he wanted to stay PM and start and act of aggression on another country. 65% of people that died were 9? and under. I hope the decision makers are wallowing in the fiery pits of hell.

I think this is a pretty silly statement

do you really think in our democratic country that that is remotely possible?

see the hassle he gets trying to get a peacekeeping force to mobilize imagine if he tried something like that

he would get voted off the island in a flash

I think the US never agreed to let the emperor keep his powers as a condition of surrender, merely be a puppet figurehead. The emperor was such an arrogant asshole he would rather his people die(and suicide) than give up his power.

The nukes ended a war that was already over, Japan was already pushed back to their mainland. The US wanted to hastily end the war by either mass invasion or a-bomb. As you said 30-60ml casualties, a US invasion would have worked out to a few % of total casualties, big deal. Is a soldiers life more vaulable than woman and children. This type of argument only depends on whose side you're on.

The fact is the Japanese visited great pain on the world and their own people, but the US also slaughtered innocent woman, children and devestated a city, they do have blood on their hands, however people choose to justify it.

Quote from insidious;297781:
I think this is a pretty silly statement

do you really think in our democratic country that that is remotely possible?

see the hassle he gets trying to get a peacekeeping force to mobilize imagine if he tried something like that

he would get voted off the island in a flash

It is a silly statement but it made you think didn't it? The world is not made up of democratic upstanding citizens such as yourself. Some countries have a dictator that forces situations on its' citizens through no fault of their own.

The difference between what the US did to japan and what japan did to asia was that only the losers get charged with warcrimes.

It's a terrible thing, no question.
Speculation is all good. But there is no absolute knowledge if the Japanese would have surrendered without those nukes being dropped.

They were dropped, the Japs surrendered, war over.
What's done is done, as horrible as it is.

Quote from Evil @ngel;297758:
The japs were the most barbaric and vicious of all peoples during the war. Aside from the holocaust, Japan was the most disgusting in its treatment of the enemy and its civillians.

They acted in line with their beliefs. It's extremely dishonourable to surrender to the enemy.

The Nazi's also acted inline with their beliefs, doenst means it isnt barbaric and visious.

In who's eyes though Heretic? The Nazi's are a poor comparison to the Japanese. The Nazi's acted in line through the nazi party that was created by Hitler.

Bushido existed for hundreds of years.

Just because a belief is old doesnt make it any less or more than another.
In fact the older it is the less likely it is to be relevant to todays society.