There has not been a president like Trump ever even the presidents of the past were eventually stopped , President Obama even knew that peace is way to go. Hoping they do what they did to hold 1933 coin outlawing it any who possessed it went to jail fined it was illegal even to have it today. Trump madman out of control putting signature on dollar bill making 2 coins in his likeness , saying he is peace man when he is not. Wanting Noble peace prize. That is why June 8. ,1967 the country that attacked the U.S Liberty killed 34 and wounded 171 people never gets talked about.
We have been using AI for years , everything is AI you talk to AI on your phone , how do you know if your not talking to people that are AI now , we push buttons to show we are human but if the machine gets smarter as it collects info who is anyone to say a person is AI. I had an experience whete I went to court and brought info to the judge and he accused me of faking videos which I got from an official site decades ago . The stuff we do today we had in the 1960s 1970s 1980s personally think we are decades advanced then people know!
Only 2 countries attacked the U.S Japan December7 1941 bombing Pearl Harbor and Israel June 8 1967 attacking the U.S. Liberty killing 34 .lwounding 171 people it’s history I am surprised it was not deleted. iTIS never talked about ,
Speaking of being attacked, what would you call burning Washington DC? And as for casualties, about 15,000 US citizens died during that war. Do we still hate England?
To learn more about what really happened to the people of Hiroshima on that fateful day, I highly recommend our friend's book Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses. We recently arranged two book lectures for Bucky when he visited us in New Zealand. The Amazon writeup states: "In this vividly rendered historical narrative, M. G. Sheftall layers the stories of hibakusha-the Japanese word for atomic bomb survivors-in harrowing detail, to give a minute-by-minute report of August 6, 1945, in the leadup and aftermath of the world-changing bombing mission of Paul Tibbets, Enola Gay, and Little Boy. These survivors and witnesses, who now have an average age over ninety years old, are quite literally the last people who can still provide us with reliable and detailed testimony about life in their cities before the bombings, tell us what they experienced on the day those cities were obliterated, and give us some appreciation of what it has entailed to live with those memories and scars during the subsequent seventy-plus years."
It's interesting that everyone focuses on Hiroshima but rarely ever mentions Nagasaki. The former is of course entirely the responsibility of the US decision-making process. The warning issued at the Potsdam conference on July 26 of "prompt and utter destruction" was meaningless in the context of any known warfare. After all, Japan had just experienced the firebombing of Tokyo, killing over 100,000 and destroying 1/4 of the city. However, the complete lack of even the desire to discuss any surrender led to the second bombing, which was entirely on Japan.
You are right about that being a "world changing" event. Had the bomb been developed but used at that time, it certainly would have been at some subsequent time, most likely when China crossed into Korea in 1950. Sadly, oftentimes humanity has to learn by example (telling a child not to touch a hot object rarely works).
Confession: I love Hiroshima, and especially it's Peace Museum. Only visited the city and the museum twice; each time I wept openly in the museum. It is harrowing, as you'll know. The thought of DJT signing the visitor's book is, to, about as good as him for example signing the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling, or blumbering into the Louvre and scrawling "Donald" on La Giaconda… Hope it doesn't happen, as I don't believe he has the grace to write anything decent. Certainly after the way he raised Pearl Harbour to the Japanese Prime Minister recently…
What I will say is that was such a disgraceful act of welcoming such an important world leader like the wonderful leader of Japan. She should’ve been shown the class and appreciation she deserves. She’s a guest. To be mocked was ignorant and I thought racist. She was treated as if she was treated as if she was beneath them and that was not right. She should be welcomed back and they should do a wayyyyy better job of treating her with the respect she deserves when she comes back.
tRump doesn't consider any individual to be on his "exalted" level, let alone a mere woman!
The sad thing is that legitimate leaders feel that they must grovel and abase themselves before this utter disgrace of a human being, let alone a president.
Thank you for your post. I too have visited several memorials dedicated to horrific acts of mankind. I believe the estimate of those that died in the Nazi concentration camps is more than 6,000,000.
It is easy to remember the incredible slaughter of human beings in mass - and yet everyday humans are slaughtered in our country due to gun violence, unremembered except by family. Even now rampant slaughter of human beings is going on across our planet while most of us are unaware of it and even if we do know about these incidents we do nothing- we have become numb to the killing of children, women, men, other species, etc.. and we are even destroying our own planet. I have learned not to judge those who made the decision to drop those nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I wasn't there faced with that decision- looking at the alternatives - and I am so very grateful it wasn't my decision!
Appreciate so many of your points, but have to strongly disagree about the need to drop those bombs. The horror that was unleashed has had a lasting impact on human society and what's terrifying is that there's been no turning back. The threat of similar and far worse weapons being used is always looming.
"Estimated U.S. casualties for the planned invasion of Japan (Operation Downfall) varied widely, ranging from roughly 250,000 to over 1 million, including 500,000+ fatalities. Planners feared a "fanatically hostile population" and intense kamikaze attacks, leading to estimates of 1.7 to 4 million total Allied casualties in the worst-case scenario.
Estimated civilian casualties for a direct Allied invasion of mainland Japan (Operation Downfall) varied wildly but were projected in the millions to tens of millions. Due to Japan's "fanatically hostile population" policy and the militarization of civilians, projections suggested casualties could have exceeded 20 million, far surpassing deaths from the atomic bombings."
"Allied bombing raids on Germany in World War II caused an estimated 350,000 to over 600,000 civilian deaths, with roughly 800,000 to 1 million injured."
You should try to calm down and actually read some history. General MacArthur and his staff had been planning every aspect of the invasion for at least 6 months. The first phase would have been on the south island of Kyushu, culminating with a third invasion north of Tokyo planned for 1946. The invasion plans were so established that following the second A bomb and still no capitulation, the US command began planning ways to integrate the invasion with additional bombs.
Your childish ranting is meaningless and contributes nothing.
He was fired for insubordination, and that was 6 years afterwards. His planning and execution of the "Island Hoping" campaign in the Pacific was what enabled the US to seize the islands proximate to Japan and launch Operation Meetinghouse, the firebombing of Tokyo, which killed over 100,000 civilians and devastated 1/4 of the city.
It is true that his invasion plans were flawed, perhaps fatally, since the Japanese knew exactly where the first landings had to take place due to geographical constraints, and the only means of exit from the beachheads was a narrow pass that would have been heavily defended. Assuming, of course, that the landing craft survived the over 100 2-man suicide subs. Absent the A bombs, the subsequent invasion might well have ended in a bloody defeat for the US. And by that time, the US would have stockpiled many more such weapons which would have been used indiscriminately on every major city.
What did Japan have left to make war! Oh the island hopping was a stupid tactic and a needless waste of lives. How many marines drowned at Iwo Jima? MacArthur was maybe a slightly smarter version of hegseth.
Hello Jule... Thoughtful Post.... "Auschwitz and Dachau and Normandy", try visiting Wounded Knee, or Sand Creek, or the Abandoned Settlements in the Southwest to appreciate what was Endured By the American Indigenous... 'Manifest Destiny' was not Antiseptic... I too, share your Concern about DJT's Insanity...
Thank you for this reflection. I, too, have visited sites of the horrific holocaust in Germany and in Rwanda, the gut wrenching memorials to their genocide. Both are important, no, thought changing, to view. I'm always interested in your perspective yet am not ready to condone our attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yes, it was war, but craven and seeped in arrogance. When will humans ever learn? Love the photo; hate our justification.
A culture so obsessed with money and wealth as is much of the Trump-MAGA sphere, both accumulating it or denying to those considered unworthy of possessing it, can hardly be expected to care about humanity.
Dear Julie …in the first instance, THANK YOU so very much for this courageous and inspiring AND beautiful piece. I am so moved by your words. I shall return to it, if I may….….from my heart to yours in gratitude and in sorrow, but not despair.
I was on home leave prior to going to Vietnam in 1971. I stopped by the home of a WW II Marine who was one of my mentors in ham radio. His son was my age and we had met at the local astronomy club and later ham radio club. We spoke about his WW II service. He had been a Marine Raider. They came ashore in Sasebo Japan after the surrender. Sasebo is 19 miles from Nagasaki city center. My friend and another Marine grabbed a jeep and drove to Nagasaki. They drove across ground zero just a few weeks after the attack. They got severe radiation sickness. Lost all their hair. He suffered with cancers all his life. I came to understand later that his son was adopted. He looked at me that afternoon in 1971 and said "There is no nuclear option".
thank you so much. War of any kind, war that are necessary as it said here, should not happen. Human beings are always the same: if a few died for the sake of many...really?
There has not been a president like Trump ever even the presidents of the past were eventually stopped , President Obama even knew that peace is way to go. Hoping they do what they did to hold 1933 coin outlawing it any who possessed it went to jail fined it was illegal even to have it today. Trump madman out of control putting signature on dollar bill making 2 coins in his likeness , saying he is peace man when he is not. Wanting Noble peace prize. That is why June 8. ,1967 the country that attacked the U.S Liberty killed 34 and wounded 171 people never gets talked about.
We have been using AI for years , everything is AI you talk to AI on your phone , how do you know if your not talking to people that are AI now , we push buttons to show we are human but if the machine gets smarter as it collects info who is anyone to say a person is AI. I had an experience whete I went to court and brought info to the judge and he accused me of faking videos which I got from an official site decades ago . The stuff we do today we had in the 1960s 1970s 1980s personally think we are decades advanced then people know!
Only 2 countries attacked the U.S Japan December7 1941 bombing Pearl Harbor and Israel June 8 1967 attacking the U.S. Liberty killing 34 .lwounding 171 people it’s history I am surprised it was not deleted. iTIS never talked about ,
Speaking of being attacked, what would you call burning Washington DC? And as for casualties, about 15,000 US citizens died during that war. Do we still hate England?
BIG difference between a deliberate attack and a mistake during the middle of a conflict. For reference as to those types of mistakes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655
Just a wonderful article about a horrific topic.
To learn more about what really happened to the people of Hiroshima on that fateful day, I highly recommend our friend's book Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses. We recently arranged two book lectures for Bucky when he visited us in New Zealand. The Amazon writeup states: "In this vividly rendered historical narrative, M. G. Sheftall layers the stories of hibakusha-the Japanese word for atomic bomb survivors-in harrowing detail, to give a minute-by-minute report of August 6, 1945, in the leadup and aftermath of the world-changing bombing mission of Paul Tibbets, Enola Gay, and Little Boy. These survivors and witnesses, who now have an average age over ninety years old, are quite literally the last people who can still provide us with reliable and detailed testimony about life in their cities before the bombings, tell us what they experienced on the day those cities were obliterated, and give us some appreciation of what it has entailed to live with those memories and scars during the subsequent seventy-plus years."
It's interesting that everyone focuses on Hiroshima but rarely ever mentions Nagasaki. The former is of course entirely the responsibility of the US decision-making process. The warning issued at the Potsdam conference on July 26 of "prompt and utter destruction" was meaningless in the context of any known warfare. After all, Japan had just experienced the firebombing of Tokyo, killing over 100,000 and destroying 1/4 of the city. However, the complete lack of even the desire to discuss any surrender led to the second bombing, which was entirely on Japan.
You are right about that being a "world changing" event. Had the bomb been developed but used at that time, it certainly would have been at some subsequent time, most likely when China crossed into Korea in 1950. Sadly, oftentimes humanity has to learn by example (telling a child not to touch a hot object rarely works).
Confession: I love Hiroshima, and especially it's Peace Museum. Only visited the city and the museum twice; each time I wept openly in the museum. It is harrowing, as you'll know. The thought of DJT signing the visitor's book is, to, about as good as him for example signing the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling, or blumbering into the Louvre and scrawling "Donald" on La Giaconda… Hope it doesn't happen, as I don't believe he has the grace to write anything decent. Certainly after the way he raised Pearl Harbour to the Japanese Prime Minister recently…
💜🌶🧠🌶💜
What I will say is that was such a disgraceful act of welcoming such an important world leader like the wonderful leader of Japan. She should’ve been shown the class and appreciation she deserves. She’s a guest. To be mocked was ignorant and I thought racist. She was treated as if she was treated as if she was beneath them and that was not right. She should be welcomed back and they should do a wayyyyy better job of treating her with the respect she deserves when she comes back.
tRump doesn't consider any individual to be on his "exalted" level, let alone a mere woman!
The sad thing is that legitimate leaders feel that they must grovel and abase themselves before this utter disgrace of a human being, let alone a president.
Well said.
This was a beautiful piece. I love Japan and all the sushi.
Thank you for your post. I too have visited several memorials dedicated to horrific acts of mankind. I believe the estimate of those that died in the Nazi concentration camps is more than 6,000,000.
It is easy to remember the incredible slaughter of human beings in mass - and yet everyday humans are slaughtered in our country due to gun violence, unremembered except by family. Even now rampant slaughter of human beings is going on across our planet while most of us are unaware of it and even if we do know about these incidents we do nothing- we have become numb to the killing of children, women, men, other species, etc.. and we are even destroying our own planet. I have learned not to judge those who made the decision to drop those nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I wasn't there faced with that decision- looking at the alternatives - and I am so very grateful it wasn't my decision!
Appreciate so many of your points, but have to strongly disagree about the need to drop those bombs. The horror that was unleashed has had a lasting impact on human society and what's terrifying is that there's been no turning back. The threat of similar and far worse weapons being used is always looming.
No alternative? Are you nuts? What planet do you live on? You’re despicable!
• Total deaths by the end of 1945: ~200,000–210,000
• Long-term deaths from radiation effects: tens of thousands more in later decades.
Would never have occurred if they were white! Appalling!
"Estimated U.S. casualties for the planned invasion of Japan (Operation Downfall) varied widely, ranging from roughly 250,000 to over 1 million, including 500,000+ fatalities. Planners feared a "fanatically hostile population" and intense kamikaze attacks, leading to estimates of 1.7 to 4 million total Allied casualties in the worst-case scenario.
Estimated civilian casualties for a direct Allied invasion of mainland Japan (Operation Downfall) varied wildly but were projected in the millions to tens of millions. Due to Japan's "fanatically hostile population" policy and the militarization of civilians, projections suggested casualties could have exceeded 20 million, far surpassing deaths from the atomic bombings."
"Allied bombing raids on Germany in World War II caused an estimated 350,000 to over 600,000 civilian deaths, with roughly 800,000 to 1 million injured."
Are you out of your mind there was going to be no invasion! They were done! Just needed to kill some yellow folks!
You should try to calm down and actually read some history. General MacArthur and his staff had been planning every aspect of the invasion for at least 6 months. The first phase would have been on the south island of Kyushu, culminating with a third invasion north of Tokyo planned for 1946. The invasion plans were so established that following the second A bomb and still no capitulation, the US command began planning ways to integrate the invasion with additional bombs.
Your childish ranting is meaningless and contributes nothing.
Do you recall that MacArthur was a nut case and Truman had to fire him! His plans were those worthy of our mad king!
He was fired for insubordination, and that was 6 years afterwards. His planning and execution of the "Island Hoping" campaign in the Pacific was what enabled the US to seize the islands proximate to Japan and launch Operation Meetinghouse, the firebombing of Tokyo, which killed over 100,000 civilians and devastated 1/4 of the city.
It is true that his invasion plans were flawed, perhaps fatally, since the Japanese knew exactly where the first landings had to take place due to geographical constraints, and the only means of exit from the beachheads was a narrow pass that would have been heavily defended. Assuming, of course, that the landing craft survived the over 100 2-man suicide subs. Absent the A bombs, the subsequent invasion might well have ended in a bloody defeat for the US. And by that time, the US would have stockpiled many more such weapons which would have been used indiscriminately on every major city.
What did Japan have left to make war! Oh the island hopping was a stupid tactic and a needless waste of lives. How many marines drowned at Iwo Jima? MacArthur was maybe a slightly smarter version of hegseth.
Hello Jule... Thoughtful Post.... "Auschwitz and Dachau and Normandy", try visiting Wounded Knee, or Sand Creek, or the Abandoned Settlements in the Southwest to appreciate what was Endured By the American Indigenous... 'Manifest Destiny' was not Antiseptic... I too, share your Concern about DJT's Insanity...
Julie!
Thank you for this reflection. I, too, have visited sites of the horrific holocaust in Germany and in Rwanda, the gut wrenching memorials to their genocide. Both are important, no, thought changing, to view. I'm always interested in your perspective yet am not ready to condone our attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yes, it was war, but craven and seeped in arrogance. When will humans ever learn? Love the photo; hate our justification.
Always a fan, Nancy
😢
A culture so obsessed with money and wealth as is much of the Trump-MAGA sphere, both accumulating it or denying to those considered unworthy of possessing it, can hardly be expected to care about humanity.
Dear Julie …in the first instance, THANK YOU so very much for this courageous and inspiring AND beautiful piece. I am so moved by your words. I shall return to it, if I may….….from my heart to yours in gratitude and in sorrow, but not despair.
Win xx
I was on home leave prior to going to Vietnam in 1971. I stopped by the home of a WW II Marine who was one of my mentors in ham radio. His son was my age and we had met at the local astronomy club and later ham radio club. We spoke about his WW II service. He had been a Marine Raider. They came ashore in Sasebo Japan after the surrender. Sasebo is 19 miles from Nagasaki city center. My friend and another Marine grabbed a jeep and drove to Nagasaki. They drove across ground zero just a few weeks after the attack. They got severe radiation sickness. Lost all their hair. He suffered with cancers all his life. I came to understand later that his son was adopted. He looked at me that afternoon in 1971 and said "There is no nuclear option".
thank you so much. War of any kind, war that are necessary as it said here, should not happen. Human beings are always the same: if a few died for the sake of many...really?