66 Years After Nagasaki: Danger and Decadence in the Atomic Age

[CountSnail]

Sixty six years ago today, the Japanese city of Nagasaki experienced the repugnant power of the world's second atomic weapon strike. The United States, in an effort to bring WWII to a sudden and definitive end, had dropped the world's first nuclear weapon, "Little Boy", on the industrial city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The attack on Hiroshima was quickly followed up by the detonation of the "Fat Man" bomb over Nagasaki on August 9th. Japan surrendered to the United States on August 15th. Although the two bombings killed at least 225,000 people, they may have actually saved a lot of lives. As ironic and dark as that sounds, it is estimated that about 250,000 American soldiers, along with a whopping 1,000,000 Japanese civilians, would've been killed if the war had ended with an all out invasion of Japan. This was and still is one of the primary arguments given in order to justify the world's only two nuclear attacks thus far.


Although nukes may have "saved the day" in WWII, they have since become the world's greatest source of apocalyptic fear, overzealous intimidation, and monetary waste...

http://moyerboard.blogspot.com/2011/08/danger-and-decadence-in-atomic-age.html

[Permanut]

1. The "saved a lot of lives" meme has been around

all of my lifetime; I was born in 1945. It seems, though, that the entire story is a little more complicated. The Japanese, for example, had communicated with Soviet officials in July about the possibility for surrender. It is not clear that an invasion would have been necessary. There is a lot more to the story, but the version I learned included a sanitized version of Allied tactics and strategy.

Nevertheless, it is important to remember those events.

[CountSnail]

2. Yup

"Nevertheless, it is important to remember those events."

I agree. They've had a profound impact on the world we live in today. Mainly for the worst, though.

[Karenina]

3. We've been lied to for a l-o-n-g time.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/9/atomic_cover_up_the_hidden_story