Originally Posted By jonvn He did a great thing for both the people of this country and Japan, and saved millions of people from dying. <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/11/01/national/a075941D16.DTL&tsp=1" target="_blank">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/11/01/national/a075941D16.DTL&tsp=1</a>
Originally Posted By x Pirate_Princess x Holy Cow! I just read an essay on him in my History class, in the book American Realities, Vol. 2 Weird...may he finally rest in peace over what everyone at the time thought was a good decision. And let's hope he's not judged too harshly.
Originally Posted By barboy My neighbor a few years back was Captain Theodore Van Kirk---- navigator of the Enola Gay. I never met "Dutch" but he, Colonel Tibbets and the crew are my heroes. I saw the Enola Gay and it isn't as large as one might expect for carrying "little boy".
Originally Posted By Mr X **may he finally rest in peace** Articles I've read seem to show that he didn't feel particularly "badly" about the whole thing. He was a bomber pilot carrying out his orders. What was he going to do, say "no"? **everyone at the time thought was a good decision** It WAS a good decision. As Jon said, it saved many more lives than it cost, most likely saved even more Japanese civilian lives than it cost. Hirohito wasn't going to give up, they were preparing to arm women and children with knives and pitchforks to fend off "the invaders". Yeah, THAT would've ended well! **And let's hope he's not judged too harshly.** Huh? Now the almighty judges soldiers for fighting to save their country from certain enslavement? Gimmeabreak.
Originally Posted By Mr X To clarify my "certain enslavement" comment, please do go ahead and research how the Koreans and Chinese were treated by the Empire of Japan, and how those people feel about the land of the rising sun even to this day. All I can say to people who feel badly about the bomb is, Japan NEEDED it and they were certainly not victims in this bitter chapter of world history, not in any way, shape or form. Just as bad a Germany, though we learn more about the Germans in America.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "**And let's hope he's not judged too harshly.** Huh? Now the almighty judges soldiers for fighting to save their country from certain enslavement? Gimmeabreak." I believe she was talking about history judging him, not anything else.
Originally Posted By jonvn "how those people feel about the land of the rising sun even to this day." I think hate is not strong enough a word. I talk to people from all around the world, and happened to mention something to a Korean person (younger than me, like in his 30s maybe) about something really bad happening in japan, and he went "Good." I think a lot of people in Korea would be more than happy to see Japan slip under the waves taking everyone living there with it. I have a friend who is from Nanking. I asked him about this, and he said oh how they dislike the Japanese. He said it was funny, but a relative of his married a Japanese woman, and was basically disowned by the rest of the family. That's pretty serious. Probably would have been better for him to be gay.
Originally Posted By barboy The Japanese war atrocities in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malayasia, Burma and the philippines were noticeably more appalling than even what went down in Korea but yet(aside from Hong Kongers)I have not noticed any lingering deep- seated hatred of Japan from those places. The typical maltreatment of Koreans were sex to Japanese soldiers("comfort ladies") for the females and conscription into the Japanese military for males. Ironically Korean conscripts were very much involved with the unspeakable brutality committed against Allied P.O.W.'s.
Originally Posted By Mr X **I believe she was talking about history judging him, not anything else.** If so, my apolgies and I agree.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney <<The Japanese war atrocities in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malayasia, Burma and the philippines were noticeably more appalling than even what went down in Korea but yet(aside from Hong Kongers)I have not noticed any lingering deep- seated hatred of Japan from those places.>> Again you have to remember, UNLIKE those places, Korea was colonized for nearly 40 years by Japan BEFORE the war even began. They were already trying to wipe out Korean culture for decades already. Koreans were forced to learn Japanese language and culture, Japanese government basically reigned supreme and threw out anything korean practically. The other countries in Asia only got a small taste of this since they were ruled by Japan for maybe 3-5 years tops and that was doing the war and even then their influence in other countries were not as deep as it was in Korea for the simple fact they were fighting in a war. Before WW2, Korea was basically Japan's to do with what it wanted. So that's why the bitterness is so much deeper, not to mention that Korea and Japan were involved in wars as far back as the 16th century, Japan just finally 'won' in the 20th.
Originally Posted By x Pirate_Princess x I was talking about History judging, not the Lord or some other higher power. Like I said, I read a bit of his autobiography and an essay/article written about the whole incident, and according to that, those involved DID feel bad. I'm not going to debate this, just stating what I read, not my opinion, which I think it was a good idea to drop the first, but not the second. And, those bombs started the Cold War.
Originally Posted By Mr X I see. Like I said, I'm sorry I misread what you wrote! I'm sure those that did it felt bad, who wouldn't? BUT, I don't think they SHOULD because they were simply following orders and imho they DID have to do it and it saved a lot of lives all told. As for starting the cold war, I'm sure that was part of the intention. After all, Russia too was showing their aggressive side and declaring war on Japan within that very timeframe and all the other posturing that was going on. However, I doubt that ONLY "the bomb" started the cold war. It was festering before WWII was even over, and certainly other factors such as dividing up Europe and the increasing isolation of The Soviet Union and a hundred other things contributed just as much. As for not dropping the second one, the fact of the matter was Hirohito didn't surrender...even when he learned that one of his cities, an ENTIRE city, had been obliterated. Frankly, that speaks worse of him than us. We clearly said "we used it, we'll use it again, and again, and again, until you surrender". And he pretty much said "another demonstration please". Keeping that guy in power really amazed me. Well, not "in power", but not behind bars either. I suppose the logic made sense...it appeased the Japanese people. But still, he's as much to blame for the war and the attrocities (and the bomb) as Hitler and Musselini and all the rest.
