Atomic Bomb - Barefoot Gen
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The above are photos which I took when I visited the Atomic Bomb Museum in Hiroshima, Japan. They are photos depicting scenes of human suffering, radiation and extreme heat. Look at the melted bottles and you can imagine how hot it was when the bomb was dropped. I can't imagine.
Pls tell us what you think about the dropping of the atomic bomb. Was it justifiable? Was it right? Do you see the need of it to end the war? Pls post your view in the comment section.
26 comments:
Thank you Angus for your contribution.
One point, could US resort to some other ways instead of using a weapon of such mass destruction? Some other ways maybe negotiation for surrender, aerial bombings on military targets, further blockade to lock the countries off supplies?
Just to make you think.
Leo
i dun tink japan woud surrender if they talked
i heard tat jap were also researching on atomic bombs too at the same time, it was just tat US produced faster and used it first..
US should had dropped earlier...
Using indestructible bombs was the only way for the Japanese to stop
Teo CHia Yin
I totally, fully agree with what fuzhi and Chia Yin. If Japan would listen, maybe they'll listen to those Singaporean POW, instead of killing them immediately.
The war must stop or we will not be here today.although harming the innocent jap is cruel.....but i guess that's war.when rulers fight,innocent citizens get harmed.that is very sad
Hi all,
Have you ever wondered why two bombs were dropped instead of one?
Was the second bomb on Nagasaki necessary?
Leo
i feel that they should drop 10...
but i duno y they dropped 2.. can say?
the americans actually wanted to drop more bombs...
Farhaan 2D
It was completely justified
I think that the use of Nuclear Weapons was completely justified.
In Europe, the Western Allies (US & UK) made a mistake ... they lost the race to Berlin, the Soviet forces got there first ... and the Iron Curtain fell across Europe ... Germany was divided between the east and west till the nineties ... and the eastern Germany was in shambles
when the Americans bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki the war in Europe had ended and the Soviet Red Army was turning its attention to Japan ...
If Americans had fought conventially the Soviet Army might have landed in mainland Japan before the war ended ... it would have divided Japan between the Communists and the Democracies ... It would have given the Soviets a very strong foothold in Asia ...
The western occupation of Japan ended in 1951 and there were free elections ... Japan was on its way to become an economic powerhouse ... just six years after the war ...
Compare this with eastern Germany ... the Soviet influence there never ended till the fall of the Soviet Union ... also the nation was in shambles even in 1990 ... by 1990 Japan was a major Asian economic powerhouse
Therefore bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is justified as it prevented Japan from being made into a Soviet puppet state ... thus it was good for Japan in the long run ...
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However, the alternative viewpoint is that :
During the battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the citizens on these two islands were evacuated by the Japs .... there was no civillian population there ... there was only a massive military garrison ... Americans could have used the Nuclear bombs here instead of H. & N. ... that way there would have been no civillian casualities and the message of American supiriority would have gotten accross
Such an approach would have also saved all the American lives that were lost fighting to take these islands conventially ....
dropping 2 was not good at all. after dropping the first bomb, the japanese were already preparing to surrender. the americans should have known that and there was no need for a second one. could it be that they were actually testing these bombs and decided to use it against the japanese?
but if they were surrendering they could inform everyone and this lost of life would be avoided
Hey Anonymous,
Why do you think that Japanese were already preparing to surrender? Even after the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombing and after the Emperor's decision to surrender, there was an attempted coup by some military leaders in Tokyo fortunately it was unsuccessful ...
Most of the military wanted a final stand ... they were ready to die ....
After the fall of France, Winston Churchill said that we will fight on the beaches, we will fight in the streets, the british will never surrender ...
If the British were so strong willed then why not the japs ...ofcourse the japs were planning to do the same too ...
US forces would have had to take Japan house by house street by street
THE JAPS WERE NOT PLANNING TO SURRENDER
take a look here
You made it seem as if that two atomic bombs were not enough. The japs are not that brave as you made them to be. They are still human. To fear is to be human, and they must be afraid of another bomb. Since they are afraid, they would surrender. But you say that the US had to take Japan house by house, street by street. Would'nt it be easier to just drop more bombs and solve it all?
I think two bombs would not be enuf... the japs did not even want to surrender at all... it was just to prevent more loss of their citizens did they surrender... more bombs would be dropped if they did not...
However... i think that the americans were just testing out their new weapons and used that chance to tell the world how powerful they are.... so scheming... on the surface, they looked as if they had save the world, but actually u dun noe wad they are thinking...
to sotong :
I was saying that Americans would have lost many more soldiers if the had fought all the way ... so they hastened the end of war by dropping the N-bombs ... the action was justified from the American point of view as it saved lots of American lives ... I was not trying to portray japs as heros ... I was just speculating what would have happened if Americans had not dropped the bomb ... I do agree that the bombs helped to end the war ...
Keep Commenting !!!
to Anonymous :
I agree that bombs helped to end the war ...
However, I dont think that the Americans were "testing out the new weapons" as you described it ...
They had already tested one bomb on 16th July ... just that it was not on a city with inhabitants in it ... it was in a deserted area in the US ...
check out more about it by clicking on the link below
The Trinity Test
btw, Anon could you please include your name next time you post ...
Keep Commenting !!!
actually the bombs can be justified maybe as an act of punishment for japan.
john2c
the japanese were getting ready to surrender after the 1st bomb. many lives were lost and the japanese were afraid. by dropping the second bomb, more people would be killed. is the second bomb really worth it?
johnson 2b
Lol, pwned.
They should have dropped A A bomb (lol punny) and den scared the crap out of the japs instead of dropping two a bombs!
Jap: We surrender!
Americans: LOL Pwned LOL
Jap: We give you our pokemans!
Americans: Pokemans lol!
Honestly, i think that the japanese are losers but i'm gonna be writing to practice my SEQ answering. please tell me if i'm writing along the lines.
I agree that the dropping of the 2 Atomic bombs was justifiable.
In doing so, many innocent Japanese lives were lost and it caused Japan to fall to shambles. Japanese still face the aftermath of the bombing as the radiation effects from the bombings tend to resurface causing problems in many individuals.
However, it should be kept in consideration that if the bombs had not been dropped, the war would have still waged on and in turn even more lives would be lost from all the other countries involved as well as Japan. There would have been treason and torture at even a greater scale in the countries which had been successfully invaded by the Japanese if the two bombs were not dropped on Hiroshima an Nagasaki
In conclusion, it would be seem justifiable to a certain extent that the bomb was dropped to prevent further bloodshed and treason despite the overwhelming loss of lives in Japan. It was done to silence the Japanese so that no more harm was done to any other countries which fell victim to their treachery.
to Sagar Godbole
when u said
During the battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the citizens on these two islands were evacuated by the Japs .... there was no civillian population there ... there was only a massive military garrison ... Americans could have used the Nuclear bombs here instead of H. & N. ... that way there would have been no civillian casualities and the message of American supiriority would have gotten accross
Such an approach would have also saved all the American lives that were lost fighting to take these islands conventially ....
have you considered the fact that since it was a military base it would have been highly gaurded in both air and land and would be harder to land a bomb i think i was right for america to end the war in this manner though it was cruel
With the release of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, America ended one of the worst war sin the Earth's entire history.
While it may seem cruel and unneeded to us, what we need to understand is that at that point in time, THERE WAS NO ALTERNATIVE.
TAke it this way. Would you prefer to lose only your left hand? Or both? Although it is regrettable that so many innocent Japanese had to perish.. IT WAS INEVITABLE. Even if the bombs weren't dropped, many would still suffer and die in the invasion.
to Whoever mention why they dropped 2 and not one-
They dropped 2 because they refused to surrender after the frist one but after the second one they were scared we had more and wouldn't stop till they surrendered. but we only had 3 and the first was used for testing purposes
It makes the war end faster. Or else, it could last even longer.
On the other hand, the Japanese could attack back, if so, the war will go on to a stage that is worse than before.
It's just lucky that the whole war just ended, probably scared of the Americans dropping bombs all over Japan.