Hiroshima survivor's drawings of the bombing's aftermath, from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
On this day 64 years ago, an American B-29 named the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima.
The fact that the quick end to the war allowed the U.S. to avoid a land invasion of the Japanese mainland, thus saving many more lives, is quickly tossed aside by some critics. They say there is no basis for the estimates of large numbers of casualties. But then there is the appalling number of Asians who were dying at the hands of the Japanese. Upwards of a quarter-of-a-million were dying each month. The fact that this orgy of death—17 million died in all—came to an abrupt halt when the Imperial Army was finally forced to go home is rarely mentioned. -- WSJ
"The only language [the Japanese] seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them. When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true." -- US President Harry S. Truman, 11 August 1945, in a letter justifying his decision to drop the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Reenactment
May we never 'have to deal with a beast' again.
1 comments:
I've studied WW2 extensively for 50 years. There's no doubt Truman saved millions of lives by nuking two cities. While born > '45, I also knew & spoke at length w/ 5 guys who were Jap PoWs. After those conversations, my sole regret was we'd not bombed the home islands into sterility.
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