Posted on 08/06/2008 10:58:42 PM PDT by SmithL
OAK RIDGE - At the minute Wednesday that an atomic bomb was dropped 63 years ago, Ralph Hutchison suddenly stopped reading somber reflections on that historic instant when the world forever changed.
During the moment of silence that followed, a woman in favor of nuclear weapons could be heard in the background, defiantly singing "Onward Christian Soldiers."
Such is the study in contrasts typical for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance's annual commemoration of Hiroshima Day.
In front of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, alliance members protested the production of nuclear weapons, while atomic bomb supporters offered a noisy counter-protest nearby.
Alliance members Wednesday hung colorful paper peace cranes on the fenced border of the Y-12 National Security Complex, which holds the nation's biggest stash of bomb-grade uranium.
"The only thing that nuclear weapons are doing now is giving more nations the excuse to get them," said Eric Evers of Knoxville, as he displayed a poster showing the horrors of nuclear war. Evers said he's been protesting Y-12 for seven years.
At the same time, Rhea County residents June Griffin and her daughter-in-law, Stacy Griffin, stood next to Scarboro Road's intersection with Y-12's main entrance, holding a banner proclaiming "The Atomic Bomb Saved My Life" that's signed by several hundred World War II veterans.
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
Excepting that minor “dust-up” in the Atlantic prior to Pearl Harbor; remembering that the United States was a declared neutral country at the time and was openly violating the tenets of a neutral.
quite a story
Excellent response.....I never heard my father say Japanese without putting the word damn in front of it.....
My Uncle was a WWII battleship servicemen who endured attacks at sea. I know to keep my MR2 Spyder out of his sight! (I just can’t afford a corvette yet...)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=5894
Why Truman Dropped the Bomb
From the August 8, 2005 issue: Sixty years after Hiroshima, we now have the secret intercepts that shaped his decision.
by Richard B. Frank
It was indeed! Since then we have improved them and have a whole lot more of them. We do have some experience in delivering these to places where they are needed, and I am sure we will not hesitate to do it again should the need arise again.
Sad your dad had to go through that type encounter.
Amazing how the navel-gazers in the US are so uni-dimensional. The only bad actor is the US. These people have never lived abroad, apart from a vacation compound at a sea-side resort. Nor have they read history. Even the recent stuff. Obama’s most recent comments show him to be of the same stripe.
The old man was selling hand carved whistles on top of a mountain and my dad wanted to buy one.
Gettin’ it all ‘live’ from Mom right now. She says the old man noticed the ring when the money changed hands. That’s when the attack happened. Kicking and fists flying. He had a white ‘bandana’s tied around his knees.
She says it happened so fast. At first they all stood there with jaws agape. They had no idea what prompted it, until the tour guides told them it was the ring.
They laughed about it for years and loved to tell the story.
See Post #28
It was way more sad, IMO, for the old man.
My uncle -having been at Iwo Jima- made this especially poignant.
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