Comments on: A World-Changing Anniversary http://pjmedia.com/blog/a_worldchanging_anniversary/ Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:45:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Johan Amedeus Metesky http://pjmedia.com/blog/a_worldchanging_anniversary/#comment-11889 Johan Amedeus Metesky Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:02:59 +0000 http://dev.pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-world-changing-anniversary/#comment-11889 The story is perhaps apocryphal, but an American businessman from Detroit was in Hiroshima for some business with Mazda, which is headquartered there. Like all VIP visitors, he was taken on the obligatory tour of ground zero and the Peace Park. At the end of the tour, his host turned to him and somberly asked him what his thoughts were. His response? "I guess you'll never attack the United States again." The story is perhaps apocryphal, but an American businessman from Detroit was in Hiroshima for some business with Mazda, which is headquartered there. Like all VIP visitors, he was taken on the obligatory tour of ground zero and the Peace Park. At the end of the tour, his host turned to him and somberly asked him what his thoughts were. His response? “I guess you’ll never attack the United States again.”

]]> By: Tedd McHenry http://pjmedia.com/blog/a_worldchanging_anniversary/#comment-11888 Tedd McHenry Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:10:15 +0000 http://dev.pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-world-changing-anniversary/#comment-11888 <blockquote> I'm not advocating that we use nukes in Iraq or Afghanistan, but I am suggesting that we fight more to win the war and less to win the hearts and minds of the other side. </blockquote> The "hearts and minds" strategy isn't soft-hearted "liberal/multicultural BS," it's a pragmatic strategy. The enemy we're fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan isn't a regime that can surrender in the name of its citizens. We need to contrast, in the hearts and minds of the people caught in the middle, the kind of world the enemy would build against the kind of world we're helping them build. And we need to come out ahead in that comparison. To avoid disaster in both countries, we have to stay until that comparison runs in our favour for an overwhelming majority of the citizens <em>and</em> until the institutions that protect those citizens are stable and self-sustaining.

I’m not advocating that we use nukes in Iraq or Afghanistan, but I am suggesting that we fight more to win the war and less to win the hearts and minds of the other side.

The “hearts and minds” strategy isn’t soft-hearted “liberal/multicultural BS,” it’s a pragmatic strategy. The enemy we’re fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan isn’t a regime that can surrender in the name of its citizens. We need to contrast, in the hearts and minds of the people caught in the middle, the kind of world the enemy would build against the kind of world we’re helping them build. And we need to come out ahead in that comparison.

To avoid disaster in both countries, we have to stay until that comparison runs in our favour for an overwhelming majority of the citizens and until the institutions that protect those citizens are stable and self-sustaining.

]]> By: scott http://pjmedia.com/blog/a_worldchanging_anniversary/#comment-11887 scott Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:50:48 +0000 http://dev.pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-world-changing-anniversary/#comment-11887 Oh,yes...the Japanese fought to the death on Iwo Jima and Okinawa,but they were ready to give up the Home Islands if the bad old Americans had just asked politely...every year we have to listen to this left wing bullsh*t Oh,yes…the Japanese fought to the death on Iwo Jima and Okinawa,but they were ready to give up the Home Islands if the bad old Americans had just asked politely…every year we have to listen to this left wing bullsh*t

]]> By: william jonas http://pjmedia.com/blog/a_worldchanging_anniversary/#comment-11886 william jonas Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:45:44 +0000 http://dev.pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-world-changing-anniversary/#comment-11886 To those of us who were alive at the time it was a great joy and the realization of a wild boastful rumor that boys whispered to each other in the 40's. "We have a bomb so powerful that 10 of them would destroy Japan." My brother and I were in the back seat of the Plymouth as my dad filled up the car. After paying for the gas he was extremely excited when he returned to the car telling mom to turn on the radio, something is happening. And we learned that day that indeed such a bomb did exist and was used in Japan. Americans were ecstatic because they knew the war would soon be over. To those of us who were alive at the time it was a great joy and the realization of a wild boastful rumor that boys whispered to each other in the 40′s. “We have a bomb so powerful that 10 of them would destroy Japan.”
My brother and I were in the back seat of the Plymouth as my dad filled up the car. After paying for the gas he was extremely excited when he returned to the car telling mom to turn on the radio, something is happening. And we learned that day that indeed such a bomb did exist and was used in Japan.
Americans were ecstatic because they knew the war would soon be over.

]]> By: Tarawa http://pjmedia.com/blog/a_worldchanging_anniversary/#comment-11885 Tarawa Wed, 08 Aug 2007 07:49:08 +0000 http://dev.pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-world-changing-anniversary/#comment-11885 This month HBO is showing "White Light/Black Rain," a one-sided account of the WWII atomic bombings of Japan. The documentary main theme and goal is to show the horrifying infliction of death and suffering the US placed on the Japanese civilians and the atomic survivors. Like clockwork on the August anniversary, the liberal media puts America back on public trial, and finding us guilty of mass murder and suffering. They never show the hundreds-of-thousand of civilians and Allied POWs Japan killed in China, Philippines, and Southeast Asia. I researched and visited many WWII sites in the Pacific and Western Europe while stationed overseas. There is no doubt President Truman made the ONLY decision he could have made. As one historian has stated, "...Imagine the public outcry once it was known America having spent billions on the A-bomb's development, had the capability of ending the war a year early, preventing over a million US causalities as well as millions of other deaths, had we NOT used the bomb..." This month HBO is showing “White Light/Black Rain,” a one-sided account of the WWII atomic bombings of Japan. The documentary main theme and goal is to show the horrifying infliction of death and suffering the US placed on the Japanese civilians and the atomic survivors. Like clockwork on the August anniversary, the liberal media puts America back on public trial, and finding us guilty of mass murder and suffering. They never show the hundreds-of-thousand of civilians and Allied POWs Japan killed in China, Philippines, and Southeast Asia. I researched and visited many WWII sites in the Pacific and Western Europe while stationed overseas. There is no doubt President Truman made the ONLY decision he could have made. As one historian has stated, “…Imagine the public outcry once it was known America having spent billions on the A-bomb’s development, had the capability of ending the war a year early, preventing over a million US causalities as well as millions of other deaths, had we NOT used the bomb…”

]]> By: GDCritter http://pjmedia.com/blog/a_worldchanging_anniversary/#comment-11884 GDCritter Wed, 08 Aug 2007 05:37:07 +0000 http://dev.pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-world-changing-anniversary/#comment-11884 I am one of those who is probably alive because of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My father, a veteran of the Normandy invasion, got to return home and marry my mother instead of being sent to the Pacific Theater to be part of the invasion of Japan. His older brother, a survivor of the Bataan Death March, was liberated from a Prisoner of War camp in Japan instead of being killed as the invasion started. I am thankful for both their lives, and those of many others saved by the use of these bombs. The destruction of cities in war is terrible, whether it is by a single bomb (like Hiroshima or Nagasaki) or thousands (like Tokyo or Dresden). Indeed, nearly everything about war is terrible. That is one of the things we need to remember about it. But we must also remember that war is sometimes necessary. More of my thoughts on this anniversary are incorporated in posts on <a href="http://gdcritter.blogspot.com/2007/08/hiroshima.html" rel="nofollow">Hiroshima</a> and its preceding <a href="http://gdcritter.blogspot.com/2007/07/trinity_16.html" rel="nofollow">Trinity Test</a> on my own site. I am one of those who is probably alive because of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My father, a veteran of the Normandy invasion, got to return home and marry my mother instead of being sent to the Pacific Theater to be part of the invasion of Japan. His older brother, a survivor of the Bataan Death March, was liberated from a Prisoner of War camp in Japan instead of being killed as the invasion started. I am thankful for both their lives, and those of many others saved by the use of these bombs.

The destruction of cities in war is terrible, whether it is by a single bomb (like Hiroshima or Nagasaki) or thousands (like Tokyo or Dresden). Indeed, nearly everything about war is terrible. That is one of the things we need to remember about it. But we must also remember that war is sometimes necessary.

More of my thoughts on this anniversary are incorporated in posts on Hiroshima and its preceding Trinity Test on my own site.

]]> By: anon http://pjmedia.com/blog/a_worldchanging_anniversary/#comment-11883 anon Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:53:25 +0000 http://dev.pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-world-changing-anniversary/#comment-11883 prosecuted for their war crimes. prosecuted for their war crimes.

]]> By: anon http://pjmedia.com/blog/a_worldchanging_anniversary/#comment-11882 anon Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:52:19 +0000 http://dev.pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-world-changing-anniversary/#comment-11882 The Kempeitai were every bit as brutal as the Gestapo, if not more. But few if any were persecuted for their war crimes. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were payback for the horrors the Japanese inflicted all over Asia, especially in Manchuria with Unit 731 and their germ warfare experiments and other atrocities that would make Mengele blush. In fact, another three bombs wouldn't have gone amiss if vengeance for the nigh-forgotten Asian victims of Japanese imperialism were a consideration for dropping them. Until the Japanese as a people face up squarely to their history as the Germans did - and by that I mean no wishy-washy statements of 'regret' while perpetuating a victim myth amongst their own people - they'll get no sympathy from me. The Kempeitai were every bit as brutal as the Gestapo, if not more. But few if any were persecuted for their war crimes. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were payback for the horrors the Japanese inflicted all over Asia, especially in Manchuria with Unit 731 and their germ warfare experiments and other atrocities that would make Mengele blush. In fact, another three bombs wouldn’t have gone amiss if vengeance for the nigh-forgotten Asian victims of Japanese imperialism were a consideration for dropping them.

Until the Japanese as a people face up squarely to their history as the Germans did – and by that I mean no wishy-washy statements of ‘regret’ while perpetuating a victim myth amongst their own people – they’ll get no sympathy from me.

]]> By: Big Brother http://pjmedia.com/blog/a_worldchanging_anniversary/#comment-11881 Big Brother Tue, 07 Aug 2007 22:53:16 +0000 http://dev.pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-world-changing-anniversary/#comment-11881 I had the occasion to work with an architect that was on board a US Navy destroyer as an Ensign that was near the vicinity during the summer of 1945. They were there in preparation for the possible invasion of Japan later that summer. I asked him once who he thought the best president of the United States ever was and he lifted his right hand and extending his index finger he said, "one, Harry S. Truman - he dropped the bomb and saved my life." He went on to say how it was his understanding that they were expecting 1,000,000 casualties on the allied end. I also knew a former B-29 Superfortress pilot (now deceased) that expressed similar feelings of gratitude towards President Truman. I had the occasion to work with an architect that was on board a US Navy destroyer as an Ensign that was near the vicinity during the summer of 1945. They were there in preparation for the possible invasion of Japan later that summer. I asked him once who he thought the best president of the United States ever was and he lifted his right hand and extending his index finger he said, “one, Harry S. Truman – he dropped the bomb and saved my life.” He went on to say how it was his understanding that they were expecting 1,000,000 casualties on the allied end. I also knew a former B-29 Superfortress pilot (now deceased) that expressed similar feelings of gratitude towards President Truman.

]]> By: Teplost http://pjmedia.com/blog/a_worldchanging_anniversary/#comment-11880 Teplost Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:27:13 +0000 http://dev.pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-world-changing-anniversary/#comment-11880 I agree with Walt C completely. You can't win hearts and minds by going to war, it's absurd. Either you fight to win or you don't fight at all. I agree with Walt C completely. You can’t win hearts and minds by going to war, it’s absurd. Either you fight to win or you don’t fight at all.

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