Atomic Bombings
08-08-2014 | 06:36 PM
#31
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Joined: Nov 2011
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From: Volleyball Player
Lets not forget that it wasn't like we had lots of uranium and plutonium readily available. We threw literally everything into those two bombs, hoping that if one didn't work, the other would. That means the targets were probably chosen to inflict the most damage, not necessarily the most military target. Again, with everything else considered at the time, I don't question the decision made back then.
08-08-2014 | 11:26 PM
#32
With The Resistance
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From: Burning the Agitprop of the Apparat
de·o·dand [dee-uh-dand]
noun English Law.
(before 1846) an animal or article that, having been the immediate cause of the death of a human being, was forfeited to the crown to be applied to pious uses.
There are no evil things, that idea is a silly holdover from superstitious and savage times.
There are evil people. Try to run a country as a master race or dream of world domination and you always get what you deserve.
It is ironic that the most powerful weapons known to man have done more to preserve peace than any hot air from lunatics.
Weapons are just a physical manifestation of ideology.
War is just an insane idea that promotes the killing of others based on ideology. It is a great part of human history. It tells us much of human nature and nothing of objects.
noun English Law.
(before 1846) an animal or article that, having been the immediate cause of the death of a human being, was forfeited to the crown to be applied to pious uses.
There are no evil things, that idea is a silly holdover from superstitious and savage times.
There are evil people. Try to run a country as a master race or dream of world domination and you always get what you deserve.
It is ironic that the most powerful weapons known to man have done more to preserve peace than any hot air from lunatics.
Weapons are just a physical manifestation of ideology.
War is just an insane idea that promotes the killing of others based on ideology. It is a great part of human history. It tells us much of human nature and nothing of objects.
08-09-2014 | 02:29 AM
#33
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Joined: Apr 2011
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From: retired 767(dl)
Hiroshima was the 2nd Army HQ, the command and communications center for southern Japan, a storage depot and assembly point for troops. Nagasaki was a large seaport, an important producer of ships, ordnance, and military equipment. Mitsubishi had a plant in Nagasaki that made aircraft motors. Nagasaki also hosted a torpedo factory and was a site for Kamikazes trained in operating explosive-laden boats designed to ram enemy landing craft.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen for their military capabilities and because their terrain maximized the effect of detonating the bombs; they were not chosen for the purpose of incinerating civilians and/or wiping out entire cities.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were good military targets.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen for their military capabilities and because their terrain maximized the effect of detonating the bombs; they were not chosen for the purpose of incinerating civilians and/or wiping out entire cities.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were good military targets.
08-09-2014 | 06:26 AM
#35
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From: 767A (Ret)
And the twice-lucky city was Kokura, unneeded alternate target for Little Boy and primary but too cloudy for Fat Man.
Kokura, Japan - Bypassed by A-Bomb - NYTimes.com
Kokura, Japan - Bypassed by A-Bomb - NYTimes.com
08-10-2014 | 06:03 AM
#36
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From: Retired 767 Captain
Bernstein`s article, as published by Winged Wheeler (above) quotes many politicans, academics and generals. None were on the pointy end of the spear. Speak to any soldier, airmen or sailor involved in the war (do it quickly, the ones left are all about 90 years old) and they will tell you how thankful they are that Truman had the ba!!s to order the bombs to be used. BTW, "Dutch" Van Kirk told me a couple of years ago, that the Japs didn`t decide to surrender until after the second bomb was dropped because they were sure that we only had enough material to make one bomb. After the second one, they realized that it was a plutonium bomb and they thought that we had many more. "Dutch" said that we had a total of three bombs. Van Kirk died a couple of weeks ago. He was the last member of the Enola Gay.
08-10-2014 | 07:19 PM
#37
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From: 767 FO
Visiting the Enola Gay | National Review Online
Since National review was quoted I thought I would add something a little more recent. God bless Theodore Van Kirk, may he rest in peace. Balls the size of watermelons and not the wimpy seedless kind you find in Yankee land.
Since National review was quoted I thought I would add something a little more recent. God bless Theodore Van Kirk, may he rest in peace. Balls the size of watermelons and not the wimpy seedless kind you find in Yankee land.
08-11-2014 | 09:10 AM
#40
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These anti A-Bombs idiots seem to forget the "Rape of Nanking", treatment of allied POWs, and the ordering of civilians to jump to their deaths in Saipan and Okinawa. All those are acceptable but not the a-bombs which saved lives on both sides? Lives were saved during the Cold War also, the bombs showed the real destructive power on a populated area and it made leaders a little more hesitant to unleash the bombs.
