Re: Victims

["Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Sandy Perle <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>

An: William V Lipton <liptonw@DTEENERGY.COM>

Cc: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Datum: Dienstag, 06. August 2002 19:53

Betreff: Re: Victims





On 6 Aug 2002 at 12:43, William V Lipton wrote:



> What is the purpose of this argument over the "body count"?  If the bomb

> killed "only" 140,000 rather than 226,870 persons, does that make it

> acceptable?



The answer of course is, that it does not make it acceptable.



I surmise that the debate is over the number of deaths attributable

to the dose received. It is important to provide for correct numbers,

attributable to the exposure. Suppose the number quoted, for all

deaths attributable to direct exposure as well as long-term effects

of the exposure, was said to be 750,000. Should someone not speak out

to question those numbers, and provide a more accurate assessment?

It's not a question of whether or not the bomb should have been

dropped. The question is on accuracy in reporting, and not using an

individual's tragic events to facilitate another's agenda.

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As far as I understood from the news posted on RADSAFE, this is the number

of by the Hiroshima authorities officially acknowledged victims . Couldn't

we leave it at this point and this definition and not argue about whether

somebody really was killed by radiation or heart stroke? I would go so far,

that people have suffered from the bombing both physically and without any

doubt also psychically - or are there any hardliners who regard the bombing

as "fun" for the ones who survived????? Is a victim only one, who has a limb

missing or has cancer developed which is acknowledged by American scientists

as having originated from the radiation of the bomb? I have a collegue in

her early sixties, who still has nightmares about the bombing - with

conventional bombs! - of Vienna, though she was a very small girl then. I

myself remember the ruins of Nuremberg on a visit to an aunt, when I was 10

years old in 1954. Has anyone of the "body counters" posting to RADSAFE ever

been in Hiroshima and the atomic bomb museum? Or to Nagasaki? Has anybody of

those ever recognized, how much has been destroyed - not only property but

cultural heritage, especially in Nagasaki? Probably not. I have been in

Hiroshima twice and in Nagasaki once.



Shame to those who discuss whether somebody was a "victim" of the bomb or

not. 140 000 deaths is a number I cannot imagine, 226 870 I cannot imagine

either - so for me personally the difference is against all my scientific

knowledge simply not existent!



One more thing is, that one posting mentioned as negative of the bombing

that also US prisoners of war were killed. I know of course that an American

life is much more worth than a life from any other country - and before

anybody starts to flame me on that comment, please look, how much a

manSievert is worth for citizens of different countries! There were both in

Hiroshima and Nagasaki POW's from Australia, Netherlands and there were

especially a large number of "slaves" from Korea, who had to work in the war

industry. In Nagasaki they were working in the warfs and thousands, if not

tens of thousands were killed. These are facts. Whether the deaths of 2001

can be attributed to radiation - this is only speculation.



I think that the bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki was such a tragedy,

that the question raised is of no importance at all.



Franz









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