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Wednesday, August 06, 2025

A silent prayer was held in Japan on Wednesday morning as it marked 80 years since the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.

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With the number of survivors rapidly declining and their average age now exceeding 86, this year's anniversary is considered the last milestone event for many of them.

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-- NPR (@npr.org) Aug 6, 2025 at 1:05 PM

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The first and, hopefully, the last use of an atomic weapon on this planet.

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-08-05 11:52 PM | Reply

This excellent book is a must for those who haven't read it: m.media-amazon.com

Hiroshima was adjudged the finest work of American journalism of the 20th century by a 36-member panel associated with New York University's journalism department.

#2 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-08-06 12:27 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

The first and, hopefully, the last...

Well, not quite.

#3 | Posted by REDIAL at 2025-08-06 12:31 AM | Reply

From NHK ...

Hiroshima victims remembered 80 years on
www3.nhk.or.jp

... People across Japan are remembering one of the darkest days in the country's history. Wednesday marks 80 years since an atomic bomb devastated Hiroshima.

Hiroshima fell silent at 8:15 a.m. -- the same moment the bomb dropped in 1945. The heat and radiation from the blast destroyed the city, killing an estimated 140,000 people by the end of the year. ...


#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-08-06 02:35 AM | Reply

@#3

Agreed.

thx for the correction.

#5 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-08-06 02:47 AM | Reply

War Crime.

No need to nuke Japan.

Truman is getting buggered by demons in hell.....

So It Goes.

#6 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2025-08-06 09:47 AM | Reply

#6 | POSTED BY EFFETEPOSER

Not a "war crime". But a human tragedy that was the result of a war and the end result of attacking America.

There was no need to attack America and definitely not a great idea.

Truman belongs to the Ages and is currently in the Nothing. (And the Nothing Matters. A lot!)

Have we learned anything? Only time will tell.

So it goes.

#7 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-08-06 11:00 AM | Reply

The second drop was because Japan wasn't about to surrender. In fact a right-wing coup almost succedded to keep Japan fighting. Japan was kicking our asses in island combat. Japan wasn't about to quit.

#8 | Posted by YAV at 2025-08-06 11:07 AM | Reply

It's easy to second guess a Commanders decision in the heat of battle.. now. In the comfort of our homes in an America that still speaks English as its primary language.

If you haven't seen or read The Man in the High Castle by the visionary Philip K Dick check it out. It's a good projection of what America would have been like if we had lost.

But because of those decisions we did not lose. So now it's easy to second guess how we could have done better and maybe we will learn from those lessons of history. In English.

If, that is, we choose to learn from history and not forget it and bury it and then repeat it.

#9 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-08-06 11:20 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

I once had the opportunity to meet Leon Smith. He was one of the ops guys who made the drops possible. The pilots who flew the missions got the credit, but in reality, they were little more than monkeys. It was the engineers who made it happen.

Decades later, while in Japan, he was asked whether he regretted his involvement in the Manhattan project. His answer was no. Had the nukes not been dropped, many more non-Japanese service members would have died, and Japanese society would have been close to exterminated.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but Japan is the powerhouse it is today because of the nukes. Just like Germany would have never becomes what it is today without the German Reich being completely defeated.

#10 | Posted by madbomber at 2025-08-06 05:01 PM | Reply

This excellent book...
Hiroshima...
#2 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS

Agreed, found it in a Little Free Library a few months ago.

#11 | Posted by TFDNihilist at 2025-08-06 05:01 PM | Reply

Can't wait to see what America becomes after the MAGA Reich is defeated.

#12 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-08-06 05:06 PM | Reply

#12

In the story, it doesn't go well. America joins the Dark Side.

Then it Ends Ends well after that with what amounts to a 'new creation', as Yashua called it; a combining of the dimensions of heaven and earth.

But it's just a story, eh? Speaking of which, I just finished one of the best first effort fantasy novels yet, Daughter of Chaos. Think Greek Mythology Meets Epic Fantasy.

You know how I like fantasies, right? &^)

#13 | Posted by Corky at 2025-08-06 05:22 PM | Reply


War Crime.
No need to nuke Japan.

Its interesting how Americans forget all the Chinese that were killed by the Japanese. OF 6,000,000 the Japanese military murdered during World War II, near 4,000,000 were Chinese.

The Rape of Nanking, 200,000

Really have no remorse for the victims.

Americans today would give up each other to be politically correct.

#14 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-08-06 07:58 PM | Reply

Americans forget all the Chinese

No one cares about the Chinese. Including the Chinese.

#15 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-08-06 08:17 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Americans saved the Chinese's arses, many of them under the radar Volunteers.

#16 | Posted by Corky at 2025-08-06 08:24 PM | Reply

Americans love to pat themselves on the back over that "victory".

Paint it in your minds however you wish. The sudden wholesale slaughter of civilians is what it was/is... quick easy... clean.

Yay war.
That one in particular bought us a few decades.

I think the honeymoon is over.

Take away the big boom boom... we get our @$$e$ handed to us on the ground...

Once the baby boomers... those of us raised by WW2 parents, are gone... our nation's direct relationship to that piece of history will go with it and the importance it seemed to hold for a while.

The boomers forward... their wars had no victory marches... just a lot of justifications.... excuses... blame... bottled up frustration...

Soooooo now the clown brigade wants to turn the military against its own citizens...

#17 | Posted by RightisTrite at 2025-08-07 07:05 AM | Reply

Saved millions of lives mostly from starvation.

#18 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2025-08-07 10:16 AM | Reply

My FIL was with the Flying Tigers and Chennault's 14th Army Air Corp. 50 missions over Indochina (Vietnam), Burma, Hong Kong, etc.

After the Japanese surrender he was sent to Japan to do intelligence, debriefing Japanese officers and preventing plots against the American occupiers in the postwar period.

I've never been to Hiroshima, but I went to Peace Park in Nagasaki. It's eerie to see shadows of people burned into concrete ...

#19 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2025-08-07 02:34 PM | Reply

#19: Hi AU: My best friend's father was a post-war senior executive with Flying Tigers. He was an expert on air cargo movement and decades ago he explained to me how a Soviet nuclear reactor could be dismantled and flown to another location within the USSR. He knew the tarmac strength of the airports, the planes required, radiation testing equipment needed, man hours, fuel expenses, etc etc. He was a truly smart fellow.

BTW: My wife and I stopped watching movies years ago, but here is an excellent film on the immediate US occupation of Japan: youtu.be

And I'm sure you must have read this book (or watched the movie): static.oprah.com

#20 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-08-07 02:49 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

#20 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS

I'll check out the film. Thanks!

My FIL stayed in when the Army Air Corp became the Air Force. I have some incredible photos he took during bombing runs in their B-25 Mitchells.

Since supplies were so scarce, everything having to be flown over "the hump" to China from India, they developed a bombing technique for accuracy called "GLIP bombing." Most times, when they were going after a bridge or railroad, they where 100=200' off the deck, taking small arms fire.

The GLIP bombing technique and the B-25 "Bridge Busters"
www.youtube.com
He's memorialized at the Flying Tiger museum in China. We have his silk map, bomber jacket, and a whole lot of photos he took from the cockpit. Another cool one is my FIL playing poker with Chennault and some of the other guys from his bomb group.

This is an interesting and historically important story he told me:

The reason China is communist today is because of what happened in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese surrender. Chinese Nationalist leader, Chiang Kai Shek, and Gen. Claire Chennault (commanding general of the 14th AAC in China) were good friends. Chennault's commanding officer, Gen Joseph Stillwell, heard Chiang Kai Shek went over his head to President Truman to demand Chennault be reinstated as commander of the 14th AAC, and got a big case of resentment against Chennault. So, when the Japanese surrendered, and Chiang asked for weapons to fight Mao, Stillwell ordered that only rusty pieces of artillery, guns, mortars, and other rusty weapons from the Pacific and CBI be given to Chiang Kai Shek's Chinese Nationalist forces.

When Chiang got the weapons most of them didn't work. And that is why the Chinese Nationalists lost to Mao, who was outnumbered by them. True story.

#21 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2025-08-07 03:57 PM | Reply

BTW, my FIL was instrumental in seeing that African-American soldiers were given opportunities to advance in an era when AAs were largely relegated to kitchen duties and such. 1950's and 60's.

A retired general, he was an "Eisenhower Republican," and would have kicked BOAZ's traitorous ass and then done it again.

#22 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2025-08-07 04:03 PM | Reply

When Chiang got the weapons most of them didn't work. And that is why the Chinese Nationalists lost to Mao, who was outnumbered by them. True story.

#21 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2025-08-07 03:57 PM | Reply | Flag:

The Communists were armed with captured Nationalist and Japanese weaponry. Chiang Kai Shek's areas suffered hyperinflation because of incompetent management, the entire KMT was corrupted with officers stealing soldiers pay and food. They defected to the Communists. The KMT made major strategic errors in choosing occupational areas and patrolling the areas around those. The PLA had highly experienced and effective leaders like Lin Biao.

True story.

#23 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2025-08-07 04:09 PM | Reply

Corruption, poor morale, poor strategy, economic collapse, refusal to reform, and the CCP mobilized popular support against them. The lend lease gear sat in Shek controlled warehouses and never made it to Chinese divisions. It's because those divisions didn't exist to begin with. The training to use the weapons didn't exist.

China is Communist because the Nationalist regime was corrupt, incompetent, and self-interested to the point of self-destruction.

#24 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2025-08-07 04:16 PM | Reply

If Chiang had gotten the weapons he was promised instead of rusted out pieces of crap things could have turned out differently.

I got the story I related above directly from my late FIL, who was privy to the entire affair.

#25 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2025-08-07 04:21 PM | Reply

#22: Good story, AU, thanks, many of your Chinese Civil War points rings bells in my memory cells. There were internal disputes within the US military that didn't help matters too. For example, US Army G2 didn't like or trust the OSS.

BTW: My late uncle who lived in China during the war told me that in the book Formosa Betrayed, a Japanese general on Taiwan readied his large unit for an honorable, formal surrender to a US military general or admiral. A USN NCO, possible a SeaBee, arrived on a landing craft with a small party of lightly armed sailors and asked who the general was: www.history.navy.mil

#26 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-08-07 04:25 PM | Reply

All speculation.

#27 | Posted by RightisTrite at 2025-08-07 04:38 PM | Reply

If Chiang had gotten the weapons he was promised instead of rusted out pieces of crap things could have turned out differently.

Probably not, the Soviet Union wouldn't allow a democracy to exist on its borders.

Do Lumpers even understand what was happening in Asia? Its similar to how the US enjoyed Cuba become a Soviet satellite country, wasn't going to happen.

Or how Vietnam was going to be a democracy if the US just tried hard enough...

LOL

Great theory though Lumpers.

#28 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-08-07 04:48 PM | Reply

China is Communist because the Nationalist regime was corrupt, incompetent, and self-interested to the point of self-destruction.

This is possible. But not likely.

What other fantasies do you Americans hold about Asia?

#29 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-08-07 04:48 PM | Reply

What other fantasies do you Americans hold about Asia?

Monkey Brain stew is a national treasure as is fkkking bats and pangolins, which is what caused covid 19.

Also, Asian women can't drive but they are good at math.

#30 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-08-07 04:57 PM | Reply

And Mongolians are always trying to break down the great wall.

#31 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-08-07 04:59 PM | Reply

South Park has taught me everything I need to know about Asia.

#32 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-08-07 04:59 PM | Reply

#29

I once thought they were unusually intelligent... until 1Nut burst that bubble.

Then there was the American husband who brought his Japanese wife into my office one day. She started rambling on about how white people were dirty, stinking people who didn't clean themselves properly after going to the bathroom.

They weren't there very long.

#33 | Posted by Corky at 2025-08-07 05:58 PM | Reply

#33: Hi Corky: FYI: The Japanese are an extraordinarily clean people that enjoy long baths known as "onsen." After poo, the Japanese people wash themselves in a bidet. Each hotel I've stayed at in Japan have them built into the toilets. This wife was accurate, but impolite in her discourse. The normally polite Japanese people use the term "gaijin" for foreigners, derived from their word for 'crazy.' When someone is a little off, the Japanese quietly refer to them as "kichigai." i.ytimg.com

#34 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-08-07 06:41 PM | Reply

#4
Yeah, I know. The Smart Toilet with Bidet Built In was popular here at that time in the '90s, and I knew exactly what she was saying... I got the impression she was having just as much fun embarrassing her husband as she was by trying to tick me off.

Didn't werk.

#35 | Posted by Corky at 2025-08-07 06:50 PM | Reply

#34, duh

#36 | Posted by Corky at 2025-08-07 06:50 PM | Reply

#35: The bidet worked in this film: www.youtube.com

#37 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-08-07 06:54 PM | Reply | Funny: 1

Many countries have bidets in all bathrooms as a standard feature. Especially hotels throughout Asia.

#38 | Posted by moder8 at 2025-08-08 12:47 AM | Reply

"Hiroshima"
By John Hersey
The New Yorker
August 23, 1946
www.newyorker.com

#39 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-08-08 06:07 AM | Reply

I'll tell a Japanese person that the USA should apologize for unleashing the terrors of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but only if they also tell me that Japan should unconditionally apologize for having one of the most atrocious regimes ever known

#40 | Posted by hamburglar at 2025-08-08 02:32 PM | Reply

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