“The cities we bombed were also major industrial sites for the Japanese military.
Somehow, that part of the story is left out of the picture and the anti-Americans paint the picture of America attacking random towns where people were living and working happily.
They were building the machines that were killing Americans and our allies.”
Hiroshima was an army and naval garrison, as well as an industrial base. The Nagasaki bomb exploded directly over the sprawling Mitsubishi armament works. One of the Nagasaki photographs that never gets displayed by the peaceniks is that of a Long Lance torpedo, laying in its cradle, surrounded by debris and bathed in sunshine inside the roofless Mitsubishi factory.
Another reason the bombs were so necessary was to secure the lives of the 25,000 Amerian POWs held by the Japanese and used for slave labor. My dad who was in the Bataan Death March among them.
see his obit: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Francis-Hall-Van-Buskirk—1921-2008-After-Bataan—survivor-embr
and their use as slaves: http://www.rense.com/general8/pows.htm
To a man (and woman) they believed if not for the bomb those still living would have died (almost 50 percent from Bataan did anyway).
My Dad’s story of the day after surrender, they knew something was up, the prison guards started leaving and they brought out the redcross packages they had never distributed. The prisoners had been hearing stories, but didn’t know what to believe. It was a few days (almost a week) before any allied troop contract was made. Throughout this hellhole of a four year ordeal, they maintained camp order, followed their officers, cared for their sick, and buried their buddies.
U.S. treaty ending the war prevented the POWs from suing the Japanese companies that they were slaves for.
I have often flew over Tinian and looked down at the old airfield and thanked god for the Enola Gay. In a real sense that is my birthplace. I live but a few miles from the airship at Dulles and to this day have not been able to visit for the emotions it would bring up in me. The Enola Gay was my dad’s angel (and my stork). He is my Hero.
Incidently his first name, Francis,(my middle name), comes as direct descendents from Captain Henry Francis, of the Virginia Militia died at the Battle of Shallow Ford in the Revolutionary War.
Some of us Americans have been at the side of Lady Liberty with our swords drawn for many generations.
The Big Boo
Gary Francis Van Buskirk
I’ve read that the special torpedo that was made by the Japanese for use at Pear Harbor (shallow water was a problem) was developed in Nagasaki.
Poetic justice?