Living with fallout from nuclear blasts

[struggle4progress]

OVER the past few days, people across the globe have been reflecting on the horror of the bombing which is simply referred to as Hiroshima.

Saturday's memorial services held in the Japanese city were a poignant reminder of the day that 78,000 people were killed and another 90,000 wounded by the detonation of a single bomb, and the world woke up to the grim realisation that mankind had developed the means to wipe out civilisation.

Closer to home, an album of photos formerly owned by the late war veteran Clifford Ferns was made public by his son John for the first time in six decades. The images it contained have provided a harrowing insight into the aftermath of the first atomic bomb, dropped by the Enola Gay on August 6, 1945.

Today it is the turn of another Japanese city to remember. The second A-bomb, detonated over Nagasaki on August 9, ended the Second World War, as the Japanese surrendered a few days later. But the manner in which one threat ended merely gave rise to another: the race to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and the outbreak of the Cold War. <snip>
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1752312005

[RobertSeattle]

1. I've always had mixed feelings about the bombs

The carpet and fire bombing by the Allies during World War II was a form of terrorism since it was directly targeting civilians. Same goes for the the two nukes on Japan. But what would the alternate be? Millions dead in a Japan invasion? Continued Nazi occupation of Europe? My dad would have been a Army infantry officer in the Japan invasion meaning I probably wouldn't be here it it had occurred. I guess I'm glad I wasn't in Truman's shoes.

[bobbieinok]

2. and the London blitz by the Luftwaffe?????

not trying to fight.......just commenting that it could be argued Germany started the air campaigns targetting civilians

[Stuckinthebush]

3. Yes....

And the Nazis are seen as the most despicable bastards in the history of the world. They were also annihilated in the end.

That should be the fate of those who so casually end life.

[RobertSeattle]

4. Oh I agree

I think it is a little to pithy to say "War is Terrorism" but even the "good guys" (like the Allies in World War II) use terrorism at times when there is a greater good. Terrorism is a tactic to achieve a goal.