pollux -> RE: Remembrance: Hiroshima and Nagasaki (8/9/2007 8:48:56 PM)
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ORIGINAL: Zanarkand quote:
ORIGINAL: EvilCrimeLord I think a demonstration to the Japanese of the nuclear testing could have ended the war without such loss of life but for some strange reason this was never considered. It wasnt considered because we only had two bombs. The president could not risk wasting a bomb on a demonstration. He knew he had to break the spirit of the Emperor. And that meant dropping them on cities. ....and suppose the bomb had fizzled? Btw, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were legitimate military targets. That clearly wasn't the only consideration, but it isn't accurate to say they were purely civilian locations. They weren't. From (of course) WikiP: quote:
At the time of its bombing, Hiroshima was a city of some industrial and military significance. A number of military camps were located nearby, including the headquarters of the Fifth Division and Field Marshal Shunroku Hata's 2nd General Army Headquarters, which commanded the defense of all of southern Japan. Hiroshima was a minor supply and logistics base for the Japanese military. The city was a communications center, a storage point, and an assembly area for troops. (That bit about Hata's command is important because it wasn't clear if Japan would surrender, and at the time, the allies were actively planning for an invasion of the southern islands -- with casualites predicted in the millions) quote:
The city of Nagasaki had been one of the largest sea ports in southern Japan and was of great wartime importance because of its wide-ranging industrial activity, including the production of ordnance, ships, military equipment, and other war materials.
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