nukes aren't fun!

[muhtesem insan]

today is the aniversary of tragedy of Hiroshima. it's been 66 years since "Enola Gay" dropped "Little Boy" and still people suffer from its effects.


Link to video.

Song is based on a Turkish poem by Nazım Hikmet. It's about a girl died in hiroshima who tries to collect signatures against nuclear weapons.

Translation of lyrics:

I am the one knocking
the doors one by one.
I am unseen
dead can not be seen.

It's been about ten years
since i died in Hiroshima.
I am a seven-years-old girl;
dead children do not grow.

My hair ignited first,
then my eyes burned,
I became a handful of ash
my ash scaterred to the air.

I am knocking your door,
Uncle, aunt, please give a signature,
Don't let children get killed,
let them eat candies too.

 

[Tee Kay]

Link to video.


Link to video.


Link to video.

 

[NovaKart]

It was certainly a tragedy but I can understand why it was done.

 

[Midgard Eagle]

It was certainly a tragedy but I can understand why it was done.

This.

 

[muhtesem insan]

It was certainly a tragedy but I can understand why it was done.

me too. USA should show whole world that it can obliterate their cities in a matter of seconds.

 

[bestrfcplayer]

It was certainly a tragedy but I can understand why it was done.

I can understand as well, but could it have been avoided?

 

[NovaKart]

me too. USA should show whole world that it can obliterate their cities in a matter of seconds.

Well, I don't mean for that reason. I mean, in a war it's us against them and America didn't want to sacrifice American lives for a land invasion. The fact is, America hasn't used nuclear weapons in any wars after WWII.

Could it have been avoided? I'll let others answer that question since I'm sure a lot of people on this board know a lot more about WWII than I do.

 

[Winner]

Ironically, despite all the rhetoric, the US remain the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons against people.

 

[_random_]

Link to video.

 

[Midgard Eagle]

I can understand as well, but could it have been avoided?

Probably not, given the spirit of the time. Today we would've done the humane thing and blockaded the island or invaded conventionally, both of which would've killed millions of civilians instead, but back then they just didn't know better.

(/sarcasm)

Ironically, despite all the rhetoric, the US remain the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons against people.

If you ask me, sending 400 bombers to pelt a city with incendiary bombs (Dresden) is a far worse offense than simply dropping a single bomb that kills in a flash of heat and light.

Hiroshima wasn't the first time a city was levelled with the ground, nor the first time lots of civilians were killed in an attack, nor the first time a weapon had after-effects. Nukes are bombs like all others, they just happen to use radically different mechanics, and leave radiation that take (in the case of air bursts) a relatively short time to dissipate.

 

[Tee Kay]

It was certainly a tragedy but I can understand why it was done.

One could say the same for any atrocity.

 

[NovaKart]

But with less justification.

 

[Winner]

If you ask me, sending 400 bombers to pelt a city with incendiary bombs (Dresden) is a far worse offense than simply dropping a single bomb that kills in a flash of heat and light.

I was actually about to add another sentence that would have said something like "... but it didn't really matter, after they firebombed all the other remaining cities into oblivion."

The US conduct of war is sometimes very... questionable, especially for a country that likes to equate itself with democracy and freedom. Mass killing of civilians with incendiary/nuclear weapons is something one would expect from the likes of Nazi Germany.

Hiroshima wasn't the first time a city was levelled with the ground, nor the first time lots of civilians were killed in an attack, nor the first time a weapon had after-effects. Nukes are bombs like all others, they just happen to use radically different mechanics, and leave radiation that take (in the case of air bursts) a relatively short time to dissipate.

Eh, there is no need to lecture me on nuclear weapons, I am pretty well educated in that regard.

 

[Tee Kay]

But with less justification.

Justification can be very subjective.

 

[Cutlass]

I can understand as well, but could it have been avoided?

If the Japanese had come to their senses a little sooner.

 

[NovaKart]

Well comparing the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with say the holocaust or the rape of Nanking. There are reasons why all those atrocities happened but I would say there's less justification for the latter two. Of course I'm not a Nazi or part of the Imperial Japanese army so yeah it's subjective.

About America's conduct, well it is a war. Civilians get killed.

 

[Ahovking]

It was certainly a tragedy but I can understand why it was done.

agreed

and i LOVE watching an nuclear bomb going off its so beautiful

 

[Winner]

About America's conduct, well it is a war. Civilians get killed.

There is a huge difference between deaths that result as an unintended consequence of warfare and deaths that result from a deliberate policy of targeting high population density civilian targets in ways that ensure very high casualties.

The Brits and the Americans believed that by murdering (there is no other word for that) German and Japanese civilians en masse, they'll somehow break them and cause them to overthrow their (oppressive totalitarian) governments. That's totally unacceptable, and worse, it didn't even work.

 

[Tee Kay]

Well, it worked in the end, in a very roundabout sort of way. The Japanese government did fell very soon after the atomic bombings.

 

[NovaKart]

There is a huge difference between deaths that result as an unintended consequence of warfare and deaths that result from a deliberate policy of targeting high population density civilian targets in ways that ensure very high casualties.

The Brits and the Americans believed that by murdering (there is no other word for that) German and Japanese civilians en masse, they'll somehow break them and cause them to overthrow their (oppressive totalitarian) governments. That's totally unacceptable, and worse, it didn't even work.

This was a war for survival. If you have a son or brother fighting there you do what you have to in order to win and you're not going to be worried about a bunch of Japanese or German children dying. Perhaps they could have tried different tactics but I understand it considering what was going on at the time.