Hiroshima Survivor Shigeko Sasamori Dies

Saturday, December 28, 2024

Severely disfigured when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, she spent her life warning others about the dangers of nuclear war.

Posted by retort at 08:00 PM | 14 COMMENTS | permalink

Comments

If it was ok for my country to explode nuclear weapons of mass destruction over a civilian city in order to win a war, then it is ok for any country, any terrorist organization to do the same to us.
We burned alive thousands of little Japanese children in the greatest single act of terrorism ever committed by human beings.

#1 | Posted by Hughmass at 2024-12-29 06:26 AM

In the Errol Morris film The Fog of War (2003) Robert McNamara, heavily involved in planning the firebombing of Japan, said Curtis LeMay told him if the US lost the war they'd both be tried as war criminals. See youtu.be

#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2024-12-29 06:36 AM

Heck of a story. What a life she lived.

#3 | Posted by cbob at 2024-12-29 07:45 AM

I recently finished a book that contained first hand accounts from a few survivors. Brutal stuff.

#4 | Posted by TFDNihilist at 2024-12-29 12:07 PM

War is hell

#5 | Posted by homerj at 2024-12-30 12:10 PM

War is hell

#5 | POSTED BY HOMERJ

So let's all go to hell in Panama!

#6 | Posted by donnerboy at 2024-12-30 12:29 PM

You know Japan was negotiating a treaty with the US BEFORE the bombs were dropped. The terms were not much different than the post-bomb drop terms. I think Truman was hot to use his new toy and try out imperialism.

We haven't "won" a war since.

The whole B.S. line about how it saved lives is unprovable... and said only to assuage or ignore the guilt of visiting unspeakable horror on a civilian population.

#7 | Posted by RightisTrite at 2024-12-30 01:53 PM

Visited ground zero in September with the folks. Pretty f-d up, using a weapon like that. I would support the US apologizing for its use of the atomic bombs on Japan, but under one condition: Japan must fully acknowledge and apologize for the human rights atrocities of its regime under Hirohito. This would include the dismantling of shrines that praise war criminals, and teaching in Japanese schools the history of the country's brutalization of non-Japanese peoples, as well as of its own people like the Okinawans.

There are solid reasons they were considered to be as brutal, if not moreso, than the Nazis.

#8 | Posted by hamburglar at 2024-12-30 01:59 PM

"General Douglas MacArthur and other top military commanders favored continuing the conventional bombing of Japan already in effect and following up with a massive invasion, codenamed "Operation Downfall."

They advised Truman that such an invasion would result in U.S. casualties of up to 1 million.

In order to avoid such a high casualty rate, Truman decided " over the moral reservations of Secretary of War Henry Stimson, General Dwight Eisenhower and a number of the Manhattan Project scientists " to use the atomic bomb in the hopes of bringing the war to a quick end.

Proponents of the A-bomb"such as James Byrnes, Truman's secretary of state"believed that its devastating power would not only end the war, but also put the U.S. in a dominant position to determine the course of the postwar world."

www.history.com

#9 | Posted by Corky at 2024-12-30 02:40 PM

" They advised Truman that such an invasion would result in U.S. casualties of up to 1 million. "

And up to 20 million Japanese, since they would refuse to surrender, as had happened everywhere else.

Truman's ultimate reasoning was: How could he face the mother of a dead soldier and tell her he could've ended the war sooner but chose not to?

Truman was well-known to study a problem, make a decision, and not second-guess.

#10 | Posted by Danforth at 2024-12-30 03:58 PM

A friend from years ago told me that soon after the Japanese surrender he inspected the beach on which his outfit had been scheduled to land in the event of an invasion. He found the in-place defenses mind boggling. His unit, he was convinced, would have been quickly shredded. Had the American people learned Truman had the bomb, and did not use it as US troops took heavy casualties, would his presidency have survived? Such is some of the calculus in history.

#11 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2024-12-30 04:11 PM

Yeah, the history.com link talks about how Japan did SO much more damage to allied forces during the last months of the war than they had in the first few years.

Man's Inhumanity to Man
by Robert Burns

Many and sharp the numerous ills
Inwoven with our frame;
More pointed still, we make ourselves
Regret, remorse and shame;
And man, whose heaven-erected face
The smiles of love adorn,
Man's inhumanity to man,
Makes countless thousands mourn.

#12 | Posted by Corky at 2024-12-30 04:47 PM

"In his 2007 biography of Hirohito, Japanese historian Ikuhiko Hata wrote:

The author has made it a habit, when meeting with former members of the Imperial Army and Navy, to ask which had the greater impact at the time: the atomic bombs or the Soviet entry into the war? The responses run about 50-50, yet all agree that neither blow alone would have been sufficient; if they had not coincided, an end to the war in August 1945 would have been impossible."

But lets all ignore the experts after all who needs them when believing Truman was a racist monster gives you a chubby?

#13 | Posted by Tor at 2024-12-30 05:33 PM

It saved American lives. Many more would have been lost during negotiations. End of negotiations. I wouldn't have wasted the fissile material on the Trinity test.

#14 | Posted by willowby at 2024-12-30 07:45 PM

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