Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki
73 years ago at 11:02 am, Nagasaki became the second city to be hit by a nuke. "Fat Boy" exploded 469 meters (~1500ft) above ground. The resulting explosion generated heat of 3,900C (~7,000F).
The north of the city vanished instantly.
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An estimated 70,000 were killed and 75,000 injured. Only 150 of the dead were soldiers. Only 150!
Worth noting again that MacArther and much of the US military leadership favored targeted bombing, not the least because it meant fewer noncombatants being inadvertently killed. LeMay, however, favored killing everyone. In his mind, if civilians died—good!—maybe it would lower motivation and make the people turn against the government.
After the war he famously admitted that had the US lost he would have been tried as a war criminal. He was a war criminal.
As of 2014, 162,083 have died since as the results of radiation from the Nagasaki blast. This was unnecessary, wrong, and should never be repeated.
I have unfortunately never visited Nagasaki. It's on my list. Maybe when my kids get older and I can travel more freely. So I have no photos from the peace park there. Because of this, I republish this one from Hiroshima.
安らかに眠って下さい 過ちは 繰返しませぬから。
Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.
If you haven't read it yet, go read my piece on The Bombing of Hiroshima
Copyright © David LaSpina 2018, but almost free to use due to the generous Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. Spiffy! More details here.
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 | David LaSpina is an American photographer lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time. More? |
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This is one of the most terrible tragedies in the history, but in my opinion this is the right decision. If the USA doesn't bomb Nagasaki and Hiroshima, maybe Japan will launch an All-Out method. There are always pros and cons, for now let's hope there will be no more large-scale wars like this. May God bless them all
Hiroshima might be debatable, I will grant you that, but Nagasaki is not. Japan was defeated. Everyone knew it, including them. The unconditional surrender may have come, but the US gave no time, and instead went forward with the Nagasaki bomb which killed mostly completely innocent people. MacArthur disagreed with the unconditional surrender demand and when given total control of Japan he protected the emperor, making the demand completely pointless—and Japan would have surrender long before if not for that. At any rate, Nagasaki was pure and absolute murder. There was no military justification to it.
But the time for this debate is done, as I said in my other post about Hiroshima. I agree with you, let us hope for no more large-scale wars like this. Let's hope for no more wars, period full stop.
I've been to Hiroshima but sadly I had forgotten about Nagasaki. Thanks for the post. God rest all souls.