Atomic

chicoazul · November 4, 2009

Reading a quite superb book at the moment (same one as Bruce is reading too) called http://www.amazon.co.uk/Storm-War-H...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257307193&sr=8-1 The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts.

Part of it looks at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I don't know how many times you've read about it but it absolutely tortures me when you try to comprehend it.

I know the arguments, bringing end to the war and saving lives in a potential land invasion, and then the prevention of future World Wars through fear alone but on a human scale, its something I don't think I can ever get my head round.

Here's a BBC re-enactment of the Nagasaki bombing, which is probably not for the faint hearted.

YouTube - Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Reenactment

A photo, as often, can tell the tale:

Bundy · November 4, 2009

Good thing it has pictures.

Jamo Martinez · November 4, 2009

Horrendous.
I'll say no more so the thread doean't get closed

teppic · November 4, 2009

very grim.

if anyone is curious how we might live after a nuclear war, there was an excellent but horrifying bbc movie called 'threads' made in the early 80's.

please god, never again.

toffeestillidie · November 4, 2009

compare the death toll to the amount that died in the firebombing of dresden... the dropping of the a-bomb was horrific, but no more horrific than the idea of war in itself. the only difference was that the death's occurred with a huge boom. its sad really, you'd think we'd have moved on from barbaric behavior by now

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian · November 4, 2009

fight war not wars

monty · November 4, 2009

The only thing that barbarity did was to bring an end to the Second World War.......................and caused the Cold War. Decisions made by people who did not have to face the consequences

BigBlueConk · November 4, 2009

Never again. Shocking.

NeoNaoNeo · November 4, 2009

Think about this all the time. Biggest atrocity ever perpetrated in the history of our species.

There's no justification for killing 80,000 civilians, men women and children, in an instant. Melting them, turning them to dust, and leaving thousands with organs falling out, eyes hanging out of sockets, desperatly trying to find their loved ones.

The end doesn't justify the means.

Goat · November 4, 2009

War is war, but thats just taking the piss.

chicoazul · November 4, 2009

MikelsGoat said:
War is war, but thats just taking the piss.

In some weird way, you might have just defined it.

SuitsBlueX2 · November 4, 2009

Wonder how many Japs were crying over this

Unprovoked attack remember.
With that in mind, had they (the inventers of the suicide bomber) or the Nazi's had the technology to engineer and deliver a nuclear holocaust, would they not have on humanitarian grounds? I am a little unsure.
It is an awful shame so civilians had to die in such a horrifying and nightmarish way, but as usual the decision makers that had taken them to war were absent from the casualties.
"War is the continuation of Politics by other means"

Goat · November 4, 2009

He has a point.

chicoazul · November 4, 2009

It was a horrid, stupid unprovoked attack on the Americans. Shithouse tricks.

But dropping that bomb was an awful things, obviously I wasn't living at that time and I may have even been with it to bring an end to the war but in hindsight - what a horrid thing. 100,000 people wiped out in an instant and much suffering for generations to come from those who survived.