68 Years Ago, plus or minus a few days, something horrible happened, and something hopeful.
Last edited Tue Aug 6, 2013, 04:36 PM - Edit history (1)
I was born to a 21 year old woman living in Arizona, while her husband, who was only 20, was in Northern Africa, flying the same B-17 he had flown on many bombing missions, now ferrying people on their way back to the USA from Italy. That was, for me and for my parents, the hopeful thing.
A few days later, the United States dropped the first nuclear weapon on Hiroshima, and then on Nagasaki. The European war was over, but the war in the Pacific was still going on. That was the horrible thing, and it remains a horrible thing.
Now, 68 years later, we're still talking about those two nuclear weapons. None have been used since to destroy cities and kill people. And that's rightfully so. The world, and we, were horrified at the destructive power of nuclear weapons and, despite an arms race that saw the creation of thousands of the infernal devices, none were ever used in war again. It's good that we're still talking about it.
Still, the question of whether we should have used those weapons at the end of the Pacific war can never really be answered. Now, 68 years later, we are no closer to a satisfactory answer than we were in 1945. The war with Japan ended quickly after those two bombs were dropped, and no such wide-scale war has occurred since.
That 20 year old man, and his wife, are still alive, and living on their farm in California. Their health is declining, and at 88 and 89 years of age, they don't have a lot of time left. They're typical of those who were involved in WWII in one way or another. One was a bomber pilot, and the other a very young woman with a newly-born infant and an absent husband. Ask them about dropping nuclear weapons on Japan, and they'll say the same things people are saying today. They don't know whether it was the right thing or the wrong thing to do, and can tell you why there is indecision in their thinking. They lived it.
I didn't live it. I was born almost simultaneously with the bombing. I grew up hiding under desks during "Atomic Bomb" drills, and helped my father build a fallout shelter under our house in 1960, during the Cuban missile crisis. I grew up being an opponent of nuclear weapons, and nuclear power generation, too, following a meltdown in the first commercial nuclear power generation facility ever built, not 10 air miles from my Southern California home.
Nuclear weapons are a horror. That is precisely why they were never used again in a war. I hope that continues to be the case, and I think it will. We don't do world wars any longer, but that doesn't mean we're not at war with one country or another or one terrorist organization or another from time to time. Humans are at war much of the time, have been through most of human history, and more's the pity.
But what happened 68 years ago presents questions that can't really be answered well. Was it the right or wrong thing to do? I don't know. My parents, who were intimately aware of it, don't know. Nobody really knows. That's what happened, and was the final end to that horrible war. It hasn't happened again. It should never happen again. I hope it does not happen again.
But that was 68 years ago. Most of the people who were alive then are dead. The ones who are not, including me, still cannot adequately answer the question, because there is no correct answer. Not ever using such weapons again is the correct answer.
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Happy birthday to you 
No Okinawa, or Iwo?
No nuclear arms race?
No cold war?
After we ran out of nukes, and the soviets invaded, we finally accepted that 1 condition.
Japan would have continued to fight on if we hadn't.
It was a wise decision, it should have happened earlier though, but politics demanded the SHOCK & AWE.
The Japanese only surrendered when their one condition was met, when we FINALLY accepted their 1 condition, and the Chrysanthemum Throne stands in testament to the wisdom of that decision, as the oldest continuing hereditary monarchy in the world to this very day... too bad we didn't accept it earlier.
I strongly disagree with your statement that "Now, 68 years later, we are no closer to a satisfactory answer than we were in 1945" we now know that they were NOT militarily necessary and I encourage all who require more than some sappy home-spun story to justify the use of those terrorist weapons on an innocent civilian population to read more of the historical record.
Here is a very good place to start...
http://www.doug-long.com/debate.htm
The days of white-washing this horrific war crime are over, and will be challenged whenever it is attempted.
I admit that I still get sick thinking about what we did their so long ago, but what makes me even sicker is hearing the BS that still get's thrown around to try and justify it.
