A lot of U.S. Servicemen owe their lives to the decision to drop those bombs. That alone was justification enough. I suspect many more Japanese civilians would have died had those bombs not ended the war when they did.
We always make it a point to drink warm sake to celebrate this day. August 9th, too..
My Father, just returned from the ETO where he was a Company Commander in the 42nd Rainbow Div, was sitting in a mile-long troop-train at Union Station in St. Louis on VJ Day with the HQ elements of an entire Corps (3 Divisions) on his way to the West Coast and then on to China for that part of the war (people forget that Japan had ONE HALF of its Army still sitting in Manchuria and an effort equal to the invasion of Japan was going to be mounted simultaneously to dislodge them} LOTS of lives were saved by those bombs..
George Marshall had 5th and 7th Armies ready to go to China and 10th Army would make a landing in Korea.
42 divisions were sent from the ETO to Asia and the Pacific and another 21 were going to be held as a strategic reserve to go wherever needed, if necessary.
It was that big.
Virgil, my regards to your Dad. Tell him I appreciate what a lucky man he is.
Historical note: That picture was taken as an afterthought by one of the Enola Gays enlisted crewman using his personal hand-held camera as all the extensive Army-mounted cameras that were supposed to record the event for posterity mysteriously failed. The crewman's personal camera thus was the sole--the ONLY--record of the event. Talk about "accidents of history!"
There's a recent book, "Hell To Pay", which has a lot of recently declassified material about the planning and intel involved in "Downfall".
ReplyDeleteYou read it and you understand how there was absolutely no choice in the decision to drop the bombs.
There's a recent book, "Hell To Pay", which has a lot of recently declassified material about the planning and intel involved in "Downfall".
ReplyDeleteYou read it and you understand how there was absolutely no choice in the decision to drop the bombs.
We always make it a point to drink warm sake to celebrate this day. August 9th, too..
ReplyDeleteMy Father, just returned from the ETO where he was a Company Commander in the 42nd Rainbow Div, was sitting in a mile-long troop-train at Union Station in St. Louis on VJ Day with the HQ elements of an entire Corps (3 Divisions) on his way to the West Coast and then on to China for that part of the war (people forget that Japan had ONE HALF of its Army still sitting in Manchuria and an effort equal to the invasion of Japan was going to be mounted simultaneously to dislodge them} LOTS of lives were saved by those bombs..
George Marshall had 5th and 7th Armies ready to go to China and 10th Army would make a landing in Korea.
Delete42 divisions were sent from the ETO to Asia and the Pacific and another 21 were going to be held as a strategic reserve to go wherever needed, if necessary.
It was that big.
Virgil, my regards to your Dad. Tell him I appreciate what a lucky man he is.
Historical note: That picture was taken as an afterthought by one of the Enola Gays enlisted crewman using his personal hand-held camera as all the extensive Army-mounted cameras that were supposed to record the event for posterity mysteriously failed. The crewman's personal camera thus was the sole--the ONLY--record of the event. Talk about "accidents of history!"
ReplyDeleteThinking about blogging this stuff : no time, busy week
ReplyDeletehere is some stuff you can use
http://pinterest.com/goodstuffsworld/nuclear-retro/