YES, I'D DROP THE BOMB AGAIN

Express U.K. ^ | Tuesday May 25,2010 | Ed Pilkington

[Repeal The 17th]

Theodore Van Kirk is sitting at his desk in a detached bungalow in the gated community outside Atlanta, Georgia, where he lives. The room is cluttered with boxes, trinkets, shelves full of books on wartime history and photographs of planes on the walls...

[Fantasywriter]

I have been corresponding for some time with a young Canadian who gets all his news from the MSM. He is ecstatic that Obama wants to unilaterally disarm the US of nuclear weapons. I owe him a reply to this drivel, but I’ve put it off because it’s so daunting.

Put another way, where do you even start with such a person? He has visited Japan, and thinks the dropping of the two bombs is one of the greatest historical wrongs ever done to any people on earth. I don’t want to write a book-length email back to him, and I’m not sure that would do any good. Brevity is the soul of wit, and a short reply is likely to make a stronger impact on him than a very lengthy one.

There are some ideas already on this thread I can use. If anybody has anything to add, I’ll be profoundly appreciative. I’m going to be in and out, so I may not be able to thank Freepers as quickly as I’d like. So thank you in advance!

[warsaw44]

We were preparing to invade main land Japan with a force numbering in the millions.

---

and what weapons were going to be used to clear the beaches for as far as the eye could see? Both atomic bombs. Thats not a theory either: thats a fact.

The Southern most section of Japan were the Allied ( but not Russian ) landing was to take place was filled with defenders, suicide aircraft, etc. We were going to blast the beaches and then make the landings.

Those weapons were going to be used on Japan on way or the other in order for that war to end.

[MollyKuehl]

Unfortunately, the MSM ilk is indoctrinated to serve a certain purpose where they’re not interested in educating and informing the masses on any other subjects than creating the perfect atmosphere for Libs to run amok.

[WellyP]

My son and I were at the Air and Space Museum out at Dulles. I could not stop looking at two aircraft, the SR-71 and the Enola Gay. They define this nation, or used to!

[buccaneer81]

IMHO we should have used them on the Soviets at the end of WW2.

Why do you think Patton died in a "traffic accident" shortly after the end of the war?

[Amberdawn]

That was when Americans were American.....

[SirLurkedalot]

Same here.

Great tagline btw

[buccaneer81]

Bock's Car is at the USAF Museum in Dayton. I always look in awe at it when I visit.

[jesseam]

My dad was the Intelligence Officer for the 509th Composite Bomb Group and knew Tibbets and crew of the Enola Gay quite well and also the crew of Bocks Car. He was with them in Nevada when they practiced bomb runs on a target in the desert. He passed in 1986.

[Retired Greyhound]

Of course he would. Ultimately, the outcome was a favorable one.

But the fact that it was even necessary is sad. Those crazy Japanese tyrants put their people in that position.

My mother-in-law was a nine year old living not far from Hiroshima. She remembers the devastation.

WW2 is one of lowest points in human history.

[WellyP]

My son and I were at the Air and Space Museum out at Dulles. I could not stop looking at two aircraft, the SR-71 and the Enola Gay. They define this nation, or used to!

[MollyKuehl]

Take pictures (if allowed) next time you visit the museum and share them with us. The sacrifice done by our Manhattan Project scientists and our military people should never be forgotten.

[Retired Greyhound]

Because the UK dailies are actually trying to sell papers, not advance and agenda (and suck up so that they can receive a Federal bailout, as are the US rags).

[RinaseaofDs]

“WW2 is one of lowest points in human history.”

One of them. I agree.

[warsaw44]

Remind this idiot that it took TWO atomic bombs for the Japanese to surrender. One would have thought all the Japanese would need to experience was one such attack and surrender would have taken place hours later.

The Atomic bomb was the ultimate weapon ever developed by mankind at that point in time - something only imagined by all the other warring countries - and it took the use of such a weapon twice to get the Japanese to finnally give up? And yet your pal thinks Japan would have surrendered with an Allied invasion.

The American, Brits and everyone other than the Soviets invade from the South, the Russians invading from the North. Does anyone really think anything at all would have remained in Japan? The entire place would have been flattened and most of the country would have been wiped out.

What does your friend think the Allied reaction would have been when the Japanese military started deploying chemical and biological weapons? I’ll bet he hasn’t a clue about that Japanese program. It was the most advanced in the world putting even the German’s to shame. They’d even figured out how to parachute bombs ladden with infected fleas without killing the fleas!

Ask your pal about the Japanese jet fighter program and long range bombers and what affect would they have if they just had more time to finish development?

Remind your friend that discussing or expressing an opinion on a subject one knows nothing about is never a good idea.

[deks]

I think there’s some good stuff on this thread...

The Hiroshima Rorschach Test

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2309523/posts

[SirLurkedalot]

No kidding; IIRC a sniper took out his driver.

I often wonder just how far back the infiltration goes..

[AnalogReigns]

Let's not forget the actual plane that ended the war, after dropping the 2nd atom bomb on Nagasaki, Bockscar:

I had the happy fortune to interview Gen. Sweeney while doing a journalism internship in DC back in '95.

The Japanese high command, and the Emperor were totally unwilling to surrender after Hiroshima...and ONLY after Nagasaki was hit did they agree to US terms. The strategy was to fool the Japanese into thinking we could do this to every one of their cities...when in actuality, we couldn't have made any more bombs for many months.

Sweeney had a similar attitude as described here, totally convinced he (and we) did the right thing. He looked and acted like Santa Claus without the beard, as I recall.

[samtheman]

My father was part of the US forces staging to invade Japan. Might be no him — might be no me — if Truman hadn’t used the bomb to end the war.

[buccaneer81]

Take pictures (if allowed) next time you visit the museum and share them with us.

I will. Photography is encouraged. I'll be there again in July when the Dayton Air Show is on.