Subdeacon Joe Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 http://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinion/4298778-181/close-to-home-did-the?page=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 I await the hand wringing rebuttals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Presidio Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 All you'll get from me is a handshake and a hearty "Job well done, men". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim No Horse Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 No rebuttals from here Bob....my Dad was in that gathering invasion force...I was born 4 years later...God bless those who remember the bloody island fighting that would have raged for another year or more....The Japanese forces were butal beyond our imaginations...done is done....Thank God for a quick end....tragic losses yes....millions saved yes....Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 The correct decision at the correct time. The bombs did multiple things that saved lives. Ended the devastation of the fire bombings, ended the need for an invasion, and allowed our forces to save lives that would have been lost due to starvation and disease. I've also often thought that our use of the bombs may have kept the world from experiencing a larger, far more destructive atomic war, because we knew how awesome and horrific a weapon the bomb was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 I was there at the time. Well, at least on the face of the earth at the time. All I can say to the nay sayers, is that given time and place, and all the death and destruction that the Japanese war machine had brought into the world, it was the best solution, at that time. I have never had shots fired at me in anger, although a few fathers probably would have liked to, but I have seen the damage of war. Two of my Uncles returned with damage, another one left a daughter he had never seen or held, and I had the loss of my father for three years at a time when he was very important in my life. He will always be important to me. So to the nay sayers, I answer. WHERE YOU THERE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Original Lumpy Gritz Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 Well-They did start that mess. Call it KARMA.... OLG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowhouse Sam # 25171 Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 Saved losts of Japanese lives too! Had not the A-bomb been dropped the B29's would have continued the horrific fire bombing raids which killed as many or more people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 I didn't mean I expect rebuttals on this forum. Just from the readership of that paper. SDJ knows what I mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted August 6, 2015 Author Share Posted August 6, 2015 I didn't mean I expect rebuttals on this forum. Just from the readership of that paper. SDJ knows what I mean. Yep. There had been one, I think an editorial from either Washington Post or NY Times, yesterday "5 Myths about the Bomb" that basically said that we used it because we were RAAAACist against the Japanese, that casualties from an invasion would have been minimal, and that Japan was ready to surrender. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 Anyone in their right mind would have similar conclusions as the author of the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 From the horse's mouth: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/flip_books/index.php?pagenumber=1&titleid=236&tldate=1963-07-30&collectionid=ihow&PageID=-1&groupid=3707 LL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted August 6, 2015 Author Share Posted August 6, 2015 Amazing! None of the Sonoma County usuals have chimed in denouncing it yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles B. Gatewood SASS #48517 Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 My neighbor's division had taken part in some of the island landings and was tapped to be in on the invasion. He said it was a huge relief when Japan surrendered because our guys knew how bad it would be. The only thing that made him mad was when they sent the married men home and he spent several months in Japan during the occupation. He was 20 yrs old, been away for 3 years and was ready to go home like everyone else. CBG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawnee McGrutt Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 Was a fellow in town today, with a sign. He thinks we owe an apology to Japan. His sign said, honk if you think we should apologize to the Japanese people. Not many horns were being honked. My father was in the Eighth Army and went into Japan there very soon after. He didn't think we owed them anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 Was a fellow in town today, with a sign. He thinks we owe an apology to Japan. His sign said, honk if you think we should apologize to the Japanese people. Not many horns were being honked. My father was in the Eighth Army and went into Japan there very soon after. He didn't think we owed them anything. We don't owe Japan a damn thing, they started the whole mess at Pearl Harbor. We are paying them back every day ....buying their cars!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowhouse Sam # 25171 Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 A lot of the vets I knew that served in the Pacific had nothing but the greatest dislike for anything Japanese. A lot of the others just got a far away look and flat wouldn't talk about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Art Tillery Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 Well-They did start that mess. Call it KARMA.... OLG I agree with you PARD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 It was a horrible thing. I have read many books about Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Manhattan Project. I felt I should when I was assigned to a nuclear team. The stories of the survivors are heart rending. But, as horrible as it was, I think it was our only rational course of action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyatt Earp SASS#1628L Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 I agree with Truman, he did the right thing. I've been to Hiroshima and the museum there that documents the bombing, to this day, is definitely anti-American. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-BAR #18287 Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Interesting followup: Local news just showed an interview with Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets IV, the grandson of Col. Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay. General Tibbets is now commander of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, here in Missouri. http://m.ky3.com/whiteman-commander-remembers-his-grandfathers-bombing-mission-over-hiroshima/21050392_34554196 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 My neighbor's division had taken part in some of the island landings and was tapped to be in on the invasion. He said it was a huge relief when Japan surrendered because our guys knew how bad it would be. The only thing that made him mad was when they sent the married men home and he spent several months in Japan during the occupation. He was 20 yrs old, been away for 3 years and was ready to go home like everyone else. CBG Well, somebody had to start the Baby Boom! Those guys were already married. No need to wait for a wedding. You know how women can take time planning these things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles B. Gatewood SASS #48517 Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Well, somebody had to start the Baby Boom! Those guys were already married. No need to wait for a wedding. You know how women can take time planning these things. YEP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 A wonderful example of MILITARY INTELLIGENCE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 It is somewhat ironic that Paul Tibbets' grandson, now a BGen himself, commands the 509th Bombardment Wing. As stated by President Truman, the dropping of the two nukes on Japan were justified. The firebomb raid on Tokyo involving scores of B-29's, caused an estimated 100,000 deaths in one night, more than at either Hiroshima or Nagasaki, individually. I don't recall the cost in lost B-29's and their crews, but, had similar conventional raids been carried out instead of the nuke drops, the cost in B-29 crews would, undoubtedly been higher. From that standpoint alone, IMHO, the risking of six crews (including weather and recon crews accompanying the strike aircraft) was much lower.What many people who think the dropping of The Bombs unthinkable forget is that even after Nagasaki, a considerable faction in the Imperial Japanese armed forces favored continuing the war! In fact, an attempted coup was thwarted at the last minute by saner officers. In point of fact, Japanese civilians were being trained for armed resistance and armed with everything from military weapons to sharpened bamboo spears! Japan also had a considerable stockpile of chemical weapons on hand for use against our troops. Invasion of Japan would have been horribly costly on both sides! As for those who don't like "Japanese" cars (I'm a Ford man, myself), ask some of the workers employed in Tennessee whether they appreciate their jobs or not. (Also, I'll admit that about 35 percent of my Ford's parts were made in Canada and probably Japan. It's an international economy, people, whether we like it or not.) And "the 509th is still winning the wars". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uno Mas SASS #80082 Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 This should be a lesson to our enemies:Annoy us enough, and even a Democrat will nuke them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Tibbets' grandson commanding the 509th isn't ironic. If a grandson of a Hiroshima survivor were commanding it.....that would be ironic. Very much so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022 Posted August 8, 2015 Share Posted August 8, 2015 Something I was told at an early age: "throw the first punch and expect the result to leave you on your as$" In todays America I suppose apologizing and all they bowing and scraping to be, but to the dead on the Pacific Island, South East Asia land mass, I expect, the nukes, were appropriate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 NOT trying to be political, and I may be naive, but rather than negotiating with Iran, I would simply say to the imams, "You may develop whatever weapons you want... But if any country, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, The United States...any country is attacked with a nuclear weapon...your fault, our fault, nobody's fault, we will turn Iran into a Trinitite parking lot! And we will let the U.S. Navy do it with class...688I Class, Virginia Class or Ohio Class! Now, maybe they've been told that on the Q.T. (I doubt it), but that's what I would do! In the meantime, the sanctions stay in place! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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