.. Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 Didn't know where else to put this. I'm idling about Japan awaiting some stuff from the US for my customer. After 20 years of wanting to, I finally decided to got to Hiroshima to see it for myself. It is a lovely little city. Very friendly, very picturesque. Good local food tid-bits. But that's not want anyone wants to see, is it? Yes, the leftovers of the A-bomb. Well done by the Japanese. And the prevailing theme is that "this would not have happened if there were no war." No blame of the US nor anyone else. And everyone was very happy to see a Yank wandering around. I made more contact with local, normal Japanese (who are normally very reserved) than anywhere else. Many, many high school students wanted to talk about it. How can you resist cute young J-girls in sailor suits LOL! A highly recommended trip indeed. Some pix attached. Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sakai Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 Thanks for the nice post and pictures. I do not like sailormoon and I never made it to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on my to do list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted April 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 They're still into the whole peace thing, with the origami cranes and paying respects to the dead. It was very touching. Lovely. Very amazing that the remains of 70,000 people take up such a small space . Deffo a trip everyone needs to do if the opportunity presents. I am still torn if it was the right thing to do. I guess that looking at it now, it was wrong, cuz we now know that the Japanese were nearly defeated and would have likely collapsed before the November 1945 date we were thinking of to invade the home islands. But realistically, given the intelligence they had to work with then, it was sadly the way to go IMHO. Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 ... more died in the fire bombing of Tokyo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted April 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 No. Tokyo killed & wounded ~125k. Hiroshima, ~200k. Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 A force of 334 B-29s was unleashed - each plane stripped of ammunition for its machine guns to allow it to carry more fire-bombs. The lead attackers arrived over the city just after dark and were followed by a procession of death that lasted until dawn. The fires started by the initial raiders could be seen from 150 miles away. The results were devastating: almost 17 square miles of the city were reduced to ashes. Estimates of the number killed range between 80,000 and 200,000, a higher death toll than that produced by the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima or Nagasaki six months later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sakai Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 I believe Hiroshima was sadly necessary. Nagasaki is debatable but there is no way, without the "supernatural" effect of the atomic bombs, the "peace party" would have prevailed over the military. Furthermore, even after the peace party won the Emperor's approval, it nearly did not make it to the Japanese people as some military attempted a palace revolution to stop the Emperor's words to reach the public. Back on topic: Very nice photos, although I do not like sailormoon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaiHome Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 A much different atmosphere then the Yushukan museum in Tokyo, which is controlled by the nationalist and as far as Iâ??m concerned should be burned to the ground. TH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 << And the prevailing theme is that "this would not have happened if there were no war." >> Pretty much the same feeling in Germany : the destruction of virtually every German city, the firebombings, the millions of civilian deaths, the forced border changes and expulsion of millions of Germans from their historic homes in the former east would never have happened, if Hitler hadn't started the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted April 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 Yup, no desire to go there. Thankfully it gets marginalised more each year. I believe the latest PM has refused to go there on the Japanese equivalent of "Veterans Day." Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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