Comments on: Hiroshima & Nagasaki Never Again event 8/8/09

By: typondis

typondis — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:25:38 +0000

There wasn’t any one reason they used atomic weapons at the end of World War II. But many were satisfied. Some of those reasons were clandestine, and some of those still not known, I’m sure.

Regardless, ALL this stuff is gesticulation. Transcend (human) culture; transcend gender. Then there will be reason to speak.

(Curiously, the second part of my ‘word challenge’ is ‘diffidence’. Hmmm.)

By: Carolyn Classen

Carolyn Classen — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 07:39:06 +0000

August 9 today: 64th anniversary of the dropping of the Bomb on Nagasaki. I appreciate those who can exhibit compassion for human suffering and who believe in world peace. Let us work together toward that goal in this 21st century.

By: Margaret Pecoraro

Margaret Pecoraro — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:57:45 +0000

We’ve had such terrible times in the 20th C. …. and cannot afford
to have such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the 21st ….. If we do
we will NOT have the world as we know it to live in AND will have destroyed our very own home . . . , . . . our ONLY home!
      I hope for all that have participated in this blog that they have
either read or seen NEVIL SHUTE’s “ON THE BEACH”, starring
Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, and Fred Astaire , the mid ’50s movie
made from his book .. .. and, then, too, there’s always

                                          “DR. STRANGELOVE …” ..

It is IMPERATIVE that we on our planet live in peace …

By: stephanie

stephanie — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 13:41:51 +0000

Carolyn, I always look forward to your editorials because community is what gives meaning to my life.

By: radmax

radmax — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:04:29 +0000

“Truman wanted to test the bomb in order to scare Russia” ? Didn’t have the desires effect then, did it. The warlords of WWII era Japan never would have surrendered. The entire island hopping campaign of the Pacific theater was evidence of this. Ask a marine vet-they’ll give you the skinny.

By: Jeanmarie Simpson

Jeanmarie Simpson — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:13:15 +0000

Okay, trolls. Seriously.
This is a subject that requires sensitivity, intelligence and insight.
Try to relax, breathe, take a moment and consider before posting mean-spirited spewings just for the sake of posting.
Thank you for your post, Carolyn.
Never again.

By: Jenise Porter

Jenise Porter — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:55:34 +0000

I’ve just been reading American Prometheus, the biography of Robert Oppenheimer. There is quite a bit of evidence there that the Japanese were attempting through third parties to surrender before we dropped the bomb. There was a strong opinion in the scientific community that Truman wanted to test the bomb in order to scare Russia and dropping it on Hiroshima was an opportunity. In any event, the idea that incinerating civilians and leaving the population with radiation sicknesses that would affect generations to come, is difficult to fathom from a “civilized” society.

By: Red Star

Red Star — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:22:27 +0000

Yes, seems the Editor Mark Evans seeks a bumpersticker…

By: aclassen

aclassen — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:30:37 +0000

Wow, how can anyone be so insensitive and just count dead bodies? And ignore the historical dimension of the atomic bomb, which was a paradigm shift in world politics. Sure, particularly in light of the cold war this one time event was monumental, but the enormous suffering, the horror, and the decades long fall-out was even worse. The atom bomb symbolizes the worst development of war technology, taking us to the brink of global annhihilation. Even if only a percentage of those people had actually died, this would not have changed the meaning of the atom bomb at all. Your comment would be analogous to saying that the Holocaust was less significant than the suffering of the Russian people because of numbers. History is not a matter of figures. It is a matter of human life. Let’s not weigh one side against the other, instead lets use past experiences to work toward world peace.

By: Mark B. Evans

Mark B. Evans — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:38:22 +0000

I think so much is made of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan because of what happened in the decades after the war – the Cold War and the prospect of nuclear Armageddon.
About three times as many Japanese were killed between March and July 1945 in B-29 firebombing raids than all the casaulties of the two atomic bombs together, including those who died of radiation sickness after.
In Tokyo, where more than 8,000 tons of firebombs were dropped, more than 50 square miles were obliterated. Another 50 to 100 square miles were severely damaged. In one raid, March 9/10, more than 100,000 people were killed, 100,000 injured and about 250,000 displaced. That’s more casualties than Nagasaki and almost as many as Hiroshima.
Of Tokyo’s 7 million inhabitants at the start of 1945, nearly half were displaced by bomb damage by war’s end. That’s the equivalent of the entire Phoenix metropolitan area moving to Tucson because the city had been wiped out.
Altogether in World War II, about 70 million people lost their lives, with the Soviet Union accounting for about a third, or 23 million. Nearly 3 million Japanese died in World War II. The United States had about 500,000 deaths.
In terms of the deaths of that war, Aug. 6 and Aug. 9 were no worse than March 10, 1945. Or Dec. 7, 1945, or July 7, 1937.
Incinerated is incinerated. It matters not to the incinerated the method of incineration. Dead is dead. Why does it matter to the living?
Perhaps the better day to commemorate for world peace is Aug. 15, the day Japan surrendered and brought that horrible war to an end.