Democracy Now! on George Weller's Censored Reports on Nagasaki

[LocalSuccessCoach]

Was the Nagasaki bomb really necessary???

Is a 3 day wait long enough. Was there any real attempt to

secure the surrender prior to dropping bomb 2.

I personally don't know the history of the negotiations but I would have

thought it could have been pushed further over a longer period.

But then I am not experiencing the horrors of war.

[heartfire451]

My grandfather was being trained as a paratrooper for the invasion of the Japanese home islands. The bombs may well have saved his life. He wound up stationed in Japan after the war and saw Hiroshima and the devastation. In the time I knew him he was always very anti-war and anti-violence. Technically Japan definitely started that war. When you realize however that Its really the bankers and Industrialists that start wars then you realize there is no righteous side even in that war.

[zio5q]

Americans are truly evil beings.

[pixelpixie1]

@zio5q Thats not called for. Their government may not be so great, but could you imagine having to live under that sort of corruption, it's not the people, it's the system. A system run by money, an inanimate object with no conscience or soul, and we entrust our governing to it. Letting the market run thing's with very little regulation. Money is the EVIL one.

[MastroCicio]

USA and especially Russia has committed as many war crimes as the Germans ... the winners write history.

[PNACATTACKdotCOM]

@MastroCicio and british...and israel (lobbying iraq war 2003- + iran war:2004 - + WMD lies sanction genoside 1991-2003 - israel [mossad] knew no wmd's in iraq 1994)..and NATO

[sagemakaiserxl]

Towards the end of the cold war a Tzar bomb was so devastating it shattered glass windows from hundreds of miles away. If such weapons were ever used it would be the end of everyone. We've proven they are no good against meteors and asteroids. So why are we keeping them?

[athlon866]

I'm sorry, but Japanese invaded lots of countries and did a mass massacre. We don't see Japanese government making apology, why should US apologize?

[BlackMambakins]

@athlon866 exactly... they want an apology from us as a nation.... The fact remains that they started it and got the shit end of the stick.

:)

[KastorOA]

@BlackMambakins ":)" how funny, a nuclear bomb dropped midday over a 2 million civilians is the shit end of the stick?

[athlon866]

@KastorOA The nuke was not powerful enough. Only a fraction of the 2 million ppl died.

[metorphoric]

@athlon866

Interesting thought.

Do you know how much $ the U.S owes Japan? Do you really think a country in which you are in a huge amount of debt to is going to apologize for any wrong doing?

Just curious...

[Ryan2142]

@athlon866 Because we're better than that.

[athlon866]

@Ryan2142 Yes, I agree with you. USA was very important ending WW 2. And no, I don't agree with you. I would suggest you do some research on how Jap military had done to the civilians of Korea, China, etc and the way they treat them. I would think the japs don't deserve an apology before then can reflect themselves first.

[Ryan2142]

@athlon866 I don't care what they've done. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

[0PsycoDad0]

@athlon866 Adding up atrocities doesn´t realy help, does it?

You can allways find an excuse not to be the first. Being the first makes you exemplary isn´t that something?

[adeleellie6]

Horrifying. And the US is trying to police the rest of the world about them having nuclear weapons? How dare they.

[LouieArrighi]

and when Rev. Wright spoke on this topic he was lambasted especially by these so called libertarians who love freedom.

[ihpb09]

it's a shame that this doesn't have more views.

[topthickproducer]

If today's wars are so corrupted, why should it be a surprise that past wars were as well?

[RavingCelt009]

I may not know much surrounding the circumstances of the atomic bombings, but wouldn't more people (both American and Japanese soldiers as well as civillians) have died if Washington hadn't decided to use the A-bombs? The Japanese Imperial Army had defended their holdings in the Pacific Islands to the last man, what was there to stop them doing the same on the Japanese main land?

[moestietabarnak]

@RavingCelt009 General Douglas MacArthur, Commander of US Army forces in the Pacific, stated on numerous occasions before his death that the atomic bomb was completely unnecessary from a military point of view: "My staff was unanimous in believing that Japan was on the point of collapse and surrender."

[moestietabarnak]

@RavingCelt009

General Curtis LeMay, who had pioneered precision bombing of Germany and Japan (and who later headed the Strategic Air Command and served as Air Force chief of staff), put it most succinctly: "The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war."

[0PsycoDad0]

@moestietabarnak WTF? "precision bombing"?? Common dude, don´t repeat his propaganda.. These days it was all about "carpet bombing".

Even with todays "smart weapons" collateral isn´t avoidable to say the least.

[moestietabarnak]

@0PsycoDad0 I'm just quoting some historian's text. The important things to remember is that this was the top military's position on hiroshima. Not backyard, socialist, pacifist, anti-nuclear leftist propaganda.

[moestietabarnak]

@RavingCelt009 google 'was hiroshima necessary"

[davinG11]

@RavingCelt009 Theres only one problem with your theory. the japanese were trying to surrender to the allies through the russians, before the two atomic bombs were dropped. But Washington ignored all communications, guess they had a new toy. They killed probably 1,000,000 in the blast and in the coming years of the aftermath with the poisoning of the surrounding area. All those people died for nothing, just so america could show off.

[RavingCelt009]

@davinG11 Thank you. As I said, I don't know much about the background of the bombings or the attempts made to make Japan surrender.

[GDYP]

@davinG11 get your numbers right dude...

and btw russia ignored them not the us.. because russia invaded manchuria (then japan) in the coming days/weeks

war is never nice.

[davinG11]

@GDYP Surprise surprise your from america what surprise you would have a point of view like that.

[GDYP]

@davinG11 suprise suprise you ARE (at least in america we have correct grammer)

from canada... YOU FOUGHT WITH THE AMERICANS and i thought you guys just lived in ingloos and humped dead polar bears for heat... this whole generalizing a whole nation and everyone in it thing... it works two ways.

[ttcontain]

@davinG11 Japan only got to the point of surrendering cause of the two bombs, not before. They had no inclination at all to surrender, it was a cardinal sin to even considering surrendering.

They new they couldn't win the war but they were gonna make the american's pay for every piece of land that they lost.

[rightsideofhistory]

@ttcontain And the two bombs that stopped the war were ONLY used because America knew that none were going to used by Japan back on America - because they didn't have any. It's a different world today. When both sides have the big sticks, they essentially nullify each other. So it's back to tanks & bullets. If one is used ever again, it will be a 2-way launch. Will America be willing to have one land in NYC in order to launch ? I don't think so.

[ttcontain]

@rightsideofhistory Nonsense, They where used cause they spend a ludicrous amount of money and man power developing a weapon (Something that has been done throughout history) and the Japanese where not gonna surrender and cause of those two bombs, millions of american's where saved by a war that was started by the Japanese .

[Boomer1949]

@RavingCelt009 From my reading about this bombing, Japan had already surrendered because their people were starving.

[0PsycoDad0]

@RavingCelt009 The most honest answer is "nobody knows" as military planning staff allways exaggerates or has no clue about.

It´s all too easy from todays perspective to say "definately unneccessary" but after having met the ferocious close combat on Saipan and Okinawa the "Leathernecks" weren´t that confident when this time they coudn´t bet on superior numbers, in my opinion.

Yea, scartches your pride.

[0PsycoDad0]

Before citing some General: when have they been right? I can dig up tons of bizarre estimates when "military intelligence" proved to be rather an oxymoron than a realistic estimate of the siituation....

[0PsycoDad0]

Responsibility is poison for national pride. And northing can realy equal US zeal in patriotism especially since it´s laden with religion.

Anybody remembering "Gott mit uns"?