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Japanese official: Dropping the A-bomb was inevitable

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posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 11:57 AM
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Japanese official: Dropping the A-bomb was inevitable


news.yahoo.com

TOKYO - Japan's defense minister said Saturday that the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II was an inevitable way to end the war, drawing criticism from atomic bomb survivors.

I understand that the bombing ended the war, and I think that it couldn't be helped," Kyuma said in a speech at a university in Chiba, just east of Tokyo.
(visit the link for the full news article)



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 11:57 AM
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Its not often you get a politician going out on a limb with what has to be an unpopular opinion in his home city. However, did the US need to drop the A bombs on Japan? I have to say "yes". Invading the home islands would have resulted in horrendous losses for both sides. With the propensity of the Japanes forces to defend to the last man, I can not even begin to imagine what it would have required to subjigate the islands.

Despite protest and denials to the contrary is it possible that Japan was able to get back on its feet post war because of the bombs? If we had invaded we would have had to level the country. Yes thier main cities suffered horrendous damage, but were able to rebuild ather quickly.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 12:29 PM
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he dont know what he says, USA dropped the A-bombs to use the population as guineapig, the war was finishing and the USA had not tested yet... simple that



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 03:01 PM
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As horrible as the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, an invasion of the Home Islands in 1946 would have been worse.

In the information I've seen, and some is, as I understand it, still classified. Poison gas would have been used to open the beachheads. That would have resulted in incalculable civilian losses. Even as horrible as the firebombing of cities were poison gas attacks would have decimated not only the cities but the countryside as well.

The atomic bombing served two purposes, yes... 1)It helped end a bloody conflict, and saved lives on both sides. 2)It sent a message to the Soviet Union to mind its P's and Q's.

This is not to say they weren't horrible, they were; at one stroke, the world changed beyond recall.

My opinion is that it is possible that Japan recovered so quickly because an invasion was unneccessary because of the bomb.



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 03:10 PM
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I've read John Hersey's "Hiroshima", a journalistic nonfiction book about the experiences of Hiroshima survivors. I highly recommend that book to everyone. From my memory, there were five or six survivors featured and only one of them condemned the attack. The opinion of the rest was more or less something along the lines of "it was a war, what could we expect".

I hope something like that NEVER happens again.



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 03:30 PM
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Originally posted by uberarcanist


I hope something like that NEVER happens again.


I'll go along with that sentiment. Those two bombs will, I pray, be the only ones ever used.



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 03:57 PM
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Well, certainly it was. Hell, we'd still be fighting them if it hadn't happened. I think any person that reads about what Japan was doing when the bombs were dropped realize that. It certainly wasn't preparing to surrender,I can tell you that.



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:02 PM
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So the way I see it, the US military leaders were as sick, twisted and cruel as they are nowadays, using poison gas? Firebombs? What the hell were there military leaders thinking? Japan would have been forced to surrender sooner rather than later.

There is no way that anyone can justify the A-Bomb attacks, massacring countless thousands of civilians is not a way to end a war. Just sit and imagine a schoolkid, saying goodbye to his mother, then being vaporised, all because the US wanted to end the war early.

Behind the Holocaust, this is the one act that humankind as a whole should be ashamed of. It seems that we put such a low value on life that destroying two cities is deemed okay.

So next time you talk about these attacks, just sit there and think about the people who were affected, those that were killed instantly, those that died slowly.

Women, children, the elderly. All killed because of scaring Russia? To end the war? Either one, just think next time.

[edit on 30-6-2007 by Zanzibar]



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:05 PM
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Originally posted by Zanzibar
So the way I see it, the US military leaders were as sick, twisted and cruel as they are nowadays, using poison gas? Firebombs? What the hell were there military leaders thinking? Japan would have been forced to surrender sooner rather than later.



What, after millions more people were killed? How long would you want the war to have continued? Germany had already surrendered; Japan wasn't even close to surrendering.



[edit on 30-6-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:15 PM
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Originally posted by Zanzibar
There is no way that anyone can justify the A-Bomb attacks, massacring countless thousands of civilians is not a way to end a war.


My thoughts exactly. To say it prevented more suffering is just insulting. You can not make such conclusions, because you can not tell what would have happened if they weren't dropped.. but when you come to the stark realisation that the A-Bombs were nothing more than "tests", and that Pearl Harbour was allowd to happen, it becomes very difficult to accept the "it prevented more loss of life"..

Two different A-Bomb technologies were used. They were tests. You can not build a model city, complete with civilians, to test these weapons. The only way to gauge the true impact is too test it on a REAL city.

Those two events were the darkest hour in human history, where mankind allowd its leaders to literally open up the gates of hell, unleashing untold amounts of sacred energy upon the earth.. nuclear weapons are modern day alchemy.

It becomes even more insulting when you realise that we developed them in response to the Nazi threat.. yet the Nazis never were developing nuclear weapons..

On an odd end note, i watched the "Hiroshima" documentary on the Discovery channel earlier.. weird coincidence.



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:17 PM
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Typical, no answer.
That just proves the fallacy of your idea. You have no answers.



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:18 PM
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It was not needed. A-bomb was dropped for revenge and to show people how terrible it is, so cold was can be started. Like 9/11 today and war on freedom.

If Japanese politician said it was inevitable he is a disgrace for Japan and a worthless traitor! I am not even sure if he deserves honorable hara-kiri.



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:20 PM
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Maybe the war would have carried on, maybe it wouldn't. We don't know, personally I think it would have ended sooner rater than later, the entire world was descending upon Japan and they wouldn't have had a choice but to surrender.

Germany surrendered without being nuked, Japan would of as well. Nuking two cities was just a way of telling the world that they didn't want to mess with the US.

Maybe millions would have died if the bombs weren't dropped, maybe not. I just think that the US was too hasty in their decision.



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:21 PM
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Originally posted by sb2012
he is a disgrace for Japan and a worthless traitor! I am not even sure if he deserves honorable hara-kiri.


Well, following that "logic," then there are millions on top of millions of Americans that should be currently tried for being traitorous.

[edit on 30-6-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:31 PM
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Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
Well, following that "logic," then there are millions on top of millions of Americans that should be currently tried for being traitorous.

[edit on 30-6-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]


It has nothing to do with USA, Japan had/has different rules and expectations from people in power. It is a tradition to be responsible and uncorrupted. Saying Japan deserved nuclear attack is a great shame for any politician.

A-bomb was just to show the power. They did similar damage with aerial attacks on Tokyo and they could use same type of attacks or just talk to Japan, because war was over anyway.



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:32 PM
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Originally posted by shrunkensimon

It becomes even more insulting when you realise that we developed them in response to the Nazi threat.. yet the Nazis never were developing nuclear weapons..



That statement is not completely true. The Nazi's were doing heavy watter experiments with Uranium. The scientist doing the experiments were intent on making a nuclear weapon. How far they were away from having one I will not guess.

Now editing my original post. I don't half to guess when the Nazi's might have had a nuke weapon. Here is the statement straight from the horses mouth.

Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker, a physicist who researched atomic weapons for the Nazis and became a philosophy professor who espoused pacifism after World War II, died at 94. He claimed he worked on the atomic bomb to avoid being conscripted into the Nazi army and in postwar interviews that he was grateful the nuclear technology was never used by the Nazis. But a secret recording of German scientists captured by the Allies caught him saying, after hearing of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Japan that, "If they were able to finish it by summer 1945, then with a bit of luck, we could have been ready in winter 1944-1945."

sorce

[edit on 30-6-2007 by RedGolem]



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:51 PM
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Originally posted by katsumi
he dont know what he says, USA dropped the A-bombs to use the population as guineapig, the war was finishing and the USA had not tested yet... simple that


Not true. I draw your attention to the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945. The test validated the design of the plutonium implosion bomb aka Fat Man that was used on Nagasaki. You could make a slim case that they 'tested" the little boy which was a uranium based gun type weapon, but its pretty clear the US leadership knew what the bombs would do and used them to bring the war to a halt.



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:57 PM
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Originally posted by uberarcanist
I've read John Hersey's "Hiroshima", a journalistic nonfiction book about the experiences of Hiroshima survivors. I


Actually a recent book: First Into Nagasaki Which contains the cenosred dispatches of the legendary reporter George Weller is an excellent if chilling tome.

The other recomended (IMHO) include

The making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 04:59 PM
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They knew what they would do in theory, but not in practice.

By using them they set the stage for decades of research. The immediate effects, such as loss of life and area damage. They then had the reaction of local populace, short and long time effects and possible flaws. With that information they could create models for further attacks and bomb designs.

In other words, it was one big, sick, science experiment.



posted on Jun, 30 2007 @ 05:03 PM
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Originally posted by shrunkensimon
It becomes even more insulting when you realise that we developed them in response to the Nazi threat.. yet the Nazis never were developing nuclear weapons..


Hmmmm. I have to disagree. While we could debate if Werner Heisenberg stalled the German Bomb project or simply could not complete it, the fact remains that the nazi's were working to develop a bomb and were looking at a bomber to get it to the US.

Another good book: Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb by Thomas Powers is a pretty good chronicle of thier efforts. Lack of material, 24 hour bombing, all the scientist that fled the Nazi regime, and perhaps most importantly the destruction of thier heavy water supplies all prevented the bomb from being developed but make no mistake they were persuing it.

Edit: There are persestant rumors that a u-Boat tranfered fissile material and resarch to Japan right before the fall of the Reich.

[edit on 6/30/07 by FredT]




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