60 Years Ago right now!

[BOSSHOG]

300+ members of the crew of the USS Indianapolis were spending their first day in shark infested waters in the South Pacific after their ship was sunk by a Japanese Submarine. It would be another three days before the survivors were rescued. Many were eaten by Sharks, many were burned to death as they lay uncovered on flotsam from their ship covered with oil, with no cover and the sun baking their bodies, many went insane. And, how was your day?

[Kathy in Cambridge]

1. I remember the scene in "Jaws" where Quint described the USS

Indianapolis. :scared:

Those poor men. :-(

[BOSSHOG]

3. Irony

A ficticious character survives the sinking of the Indianapolis only to be eaten by a shark 30 years later.

[Conservativesux]

2. I hope the people who disagree with the A-bombing of Japan read

this sad bit of history.

It's just so easy for the younger generations, who dont even remember Vietnam, to pass judgement on what had to be done to put an end to WW II so many years ago.

[Splatter Phoenix]

4. Um...

The A-bombing of Japan was targeted at...civs, wasn't it? Innocent civs? Just as it would be wrong for someone in Iraq to dump a bomb on us for what Bush has done? ...Or am I way off here, because, you know, I'm part of the younger generation and I get all my history from time-travel episodes of the Twilight Zone.

[Conservativesux]

8. No innocent civilians in war-time. They were ready to kill US GI's

the minute the landed on the beaches of the main islands of the Japanese Empire or parachuted into a hostile Japanese city, full of civilians ready to kill them with whatever they had available.

And, yes, we are all resposible for what that lying scumbag * is doing in Iraq right now.

There are NO "innocent civilians" in any major conflict.

[Splatter Phoenix]

11. ....

NO innocent civs? Are you serious? Little babies? You know, they always could've dropped the bomb on some unpopulated island or somewhere without people and sent a tape with "this is what we COULD do to you" taped to the side of it in Japanese...

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[manic expression]

17. That's colonialist logic

"They think differently than we do!"

They wanted to defend their homeland, wouldn't you? Russia agreed to invade Japan, there was no reason to murder those people at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; not to mention the fire bombings in countless Japanese cities.

Oh, just because a US ship is stranded in horrible waters, we have the right to slaughter their people? Please.

[newyawker99]

18. Hi Splatter Phoenix!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[oneighty]

7. Ironic isn't it

that the Indy had just delivered the Hiroshima Bomb (Little Boy) to Tinian.

Of course the sorry happenings in history are not really connected. Are they?

180

[Lautremont]

9. I think the opposite.

WWII is remembered as being morally unambiguous by most, I think, particularly by the younger generations now living through the war in Iraq.

There's no justification for dropping nuclear bombs on civillians. None. In this case it was even worse: Japan was as good as beaten, and the elderly Prime Minister, Suzuki, responded to a demand for surrender with a vague, mumbling remark about witholding comment until a later time. This was translated to the Americans as a flat refusal to surrender, and I wouldn't be surprised if the mistranslation was maybe just a little bit willful: after all, they had a wonderful new toy that Le May and the rest of the hawks really wanted to try out.

And so they did, in Hiroshima on 6 August, 1945, vaporizing thousands of women, children, elderly folk and so on; burning people alive, radiating them, dooming them to hideous deaths by radiation, dooming in utero fetuses to leukemia and microcephalia, among other defects.

And then, three days later, they fucking well did it again, in Nagasaki this time; I guess just to make sure it really worked, or out of some other inhuman impulse I can't begin to guess at.

And I have a real feeling there won't be much mention of all this by Americans in the week to come, this anniversary week of a horrendous and unnecessary act.

[Conservativesux]

10. We will have to agree to disagree then. The Japs certainly made it

very clear that they finally wanted to surrender after we blasted Nagasaki into atomic rubble.

No apologies from me. Truman made the right choice. Period.

Read up on the "Rape of Nangking" in China, during the 1930's then get back to me about Japanese compassion and human rights abuses.

[Splatter Phoenix]

13. Oh man.

You said exactly what I wanted to say, ten times more articulately and intelligently. v.v You're right, there IS no excuse for what they did. Human lives are human lives, Japanese, American, whichever...

[Conservativesux]

16. Too bad the Japanese didnt think that way about everyone, isnt it?

[oneighty]

5. Oh hear us when we cry to thee

For those in peril on the sea.

I am not a religious but I was a sailor.

Poor guys.

Captain McVey finally killed himself over it.

180

[murielm99]

12. I went to grad school with a guy who was a former TV reporter.

He went back to school because he was disillusioned with today's journalism. He was a good guy.

He did a story on the survivors. He interviewed a couple of survivors and videotaped them. He dug through all sorts of old documents. His TV station only used a small clip of his interview, and noted the story in passing. But he still has all his research. He shared it in one of our classes. I hope he writes a book about this incident someday.

He is teaching history now. I think he must be a first rate teacher.

There was a TV movie about the incident, starring Stacey Keach. I don't know how accurate it was. Has anyone seen it?

[oneighty]

14. Mission of the Shark

was the name of the movie.

180

[madrchsod]

6. ya my mom and dads generation are old and in the way

and my generation is next..god i love the new united states where those who paid the price for my freedom might as well eat shit and die...