[ RadSafe ] RE: [AMRSO] On This Day( NY Times) - Observation of Moment of Silence

[John Jacobus]

Peter,
To be clear, the bombing of Nagasaki was not to test
the Pu bomb on humans.  It was the continuation of the
stategic bombing of the Japanese cities.  If nuclear
bombs were not used, stategic plans called for the
continual bombing of cities and militray sites with
conventional weapons.  

--- Peter Bossew <peter.bossew at jrc.it> wrote:

> Grant, Don,
> 
> I disagree with you in this point.
> The war of the Allies against the Nazis & Japanese
> was necessary, and in 
> that sense a good one. This must not be forgotten
> forever.
> But still, the atomic bombs and the destruction of
> Dresden (like all the 
> air raids of this kind, after it has turned out the
> the anticipated 
> effect - demoralization of the people - did not
> happen as planned; quite 
> in the opposite - British and US knew that, and
> still carried on), were 
> crimes. These were atrocious crimes within a just
> war... history is 
> complicated as this. (As another example of this
> complexity, the 
> Stalinist regime was a highly criminal one, but
> still we have to be 
> thankful that they bore the brunt of destroying the
> Nazis.)
> 
> According to most historians, as far as I know, the
> dropping of the A 
> bombs on J is today considered as the initial shot
> of the Cold War, 
> politically targeted against the SU, only physically
> Japan was chosen, 
> for various reasons:
> - it was easy to justify (this works until today
> obviously), because J 
> at that time was a criminal, genocidal regime;
> - the US & Allies in the Pac. war have suffered
> heavy losses against J, 
> so this was, to many in the West, a kind of fair
> revenge;
> - the Japanese as such were systematically
> de-humanized by US propaganda 
> during the war (as unfortunately it happens so often
> in wars), so moral 
> doubts could be anticipated to be no major factor;
> - it had to be shown to the SU that J belongs to the
> US-sphere.
> 
> In fact, J was about to capitulate at that time, it
> was merely a matter 
> of formalities and negotiations. And then, even if
> one believes that the 
> first bomb was necessary, what about the second only
> 3 days later 
> without letting them due time to react ?
> 
> The Nagasaki bomb was "necessary", because also the
> effect of  a Pu bomb 
> on human guinea pigs had to be tested. Maybe more
> importantly, the 
> capacity of the US to produce more than just one
> bomb had to be 
> demonstrated to the SU.
> 
> 

+++++++++++++++++++
““Few of their children in the country learn English... The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages ... Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.”
-- Benjamin Franklin, circa 1750, on German immigration to Pennsylvania

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com


       
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