Atomic bomb legacy haunts Hiroshima families

You are right about that and I see my mistake, so I am upping the ante. I'll see your 6 to 8 and go for 10 to 12.

 

In one of the threads about the necessity of dropping the bombs I ran accross a statement that one of the decisions, the powers that be had to make, was wether to drop the bombs individually as they became available or wait 10 months and drop all of them at once.

 

Yes, that would have definitely changed things a bit. Talk about shock and awe-shitzue, eh. How would that scenario be played out in conjunction with Operation August Storm?

 

Here you go kids:

 

I will comment on the suggestions of others concerning more bombing. Yes Japan was very bad in its behavior with captured troops and my folks took a long time to change their attitudes about Japan in the post war era. The thing that helped is that their emperor did abandon long term traditions to actually apply his unconditional surrender. This was an extreme acceptance of defeat and humiliation. Most of us didn't understand in those days that this was a complete change of heart that the emperor brought about with time for his people. Our troops then were able to police Japan quite peacefully without further loss of Americans. Our wise generals helped in this effort too. As a result Japan has grown to be a good friend of our country through many of that areas hot spots. We should put the past behind us and look to the future with positive attitudes toward each other. I have seen the soldiers themselves meet and make peace with each other, if they can do it surely the rest of us should be able to also.

 

I thought the term "unconditional surrender" meant that Japan didn't get to set any conditions as opposed to the allies being able to set whatever ones they chose.

 

A thousand apologies for citing off the cuff and causing inaccuracies. I shall endeavor to refrain from such ballyhoo in the future. But, if you read it, it appears there were three opinions: one at a time, tactical use and all at once. I think it was either Lemay or Arnold that postulated the "all at once approach".

I need to go through the sources for that reference. I am not liking the implication that Tibbets and crew were on their way to pick up another Bomb in Utah when the war ended. It kind of leads one to believe that they were flying and would be transporting the next bomb back themselves via B-29.

 

I clicked on the "85" and it took me to; Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Where the 85 pointed to:
TThe Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II, A Collection of Primary Sources," he Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II, A Collection of Primary Sources,"
Not sure the link copied but if you click on the document mentioned above you get a PDF of a memo dated 13 Aug 45 labeled TS with paragraph markings. Is that what you were looking for? Haven't read it all yet but it's interesting although a bit difficult to read. Especially all the initials at the top.

 

I thought it was an unconditional surrender and it wouldn't be the first time I am wrong but I still stand by my point that the emperor was important in leading his people to a position that made it possible for our policing troops to carry on safely and Japan has behaved well in their quadrant of the world where we are often lacking in friends. If the frenzy of the Japanese soldier at war had continued into post war years we would have had a very hard time....possibly facing guerrilla insurgency on their part as that would have fulfilled the traditions of Japanese warfare.

 

The final paragraph in this document : http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/72.pdf ; describes the discussion pertaining to grouping the bombs.

I will revise and say : One of the decisions was to wait a few months and drop several at once. I was pulling it from memory and I apologize for the inaccuracies.

 

we should have given the government of japan no quarter and no terms of surrender.the japanese were 10 times worse than the germans were when it comes to pure brutality.we should have executed hirihito right along with tojo!

who cares what haunts them? their are at least 400,000 american families haunted by the legacy of losing their sons in daughters in wwII,and i don't see the japs saying anything about that,hell ,they have never 1 time said they were sorry for anything from the attack on pearl harbor to the brutality they practised on pows.the japs have nobody to blame but themselves for this,not the usa.they could have surrendered before we nuked them,but they were not smart enough to know they were beaten.we should have nuked the whole damn country!