Gotta deal with the Kenyan issue first, otherwise the Islamic Final Solution will not end in our favor.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 08/11/2010 7:19:41 AM PDT by nuconvert
WASHINGTON: Some 25 years ago I was asked to speak at a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the death of the famous war correspondent, Ernie Pyle, who had been killed by a Japanese sniper on a small island off Okinawa in the last days of World War II. The memorial was held in the Punch Bowl, the national military cemetery overlooking Honolulu.
It was a mid-morning affair that attracted more than a thousand spectators, most of them veterans of the bloody campaigns in the Pacific from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima and Okinawa ― all of them "Ernie's boys.'' In the mist and sunshine of a glorious Hawaii morning with the weathered faces of America's best generation surrounding me in campaign hats and medals, it was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had.
I recalled that day and the memories of loved ones lost during that bleak time of my boyhood as I read that Barack Obama had deployed the American ambassador to Japan as an official delegate to the 65th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, a decision that at best can only be described as insensitive to the feelings of millions of Americans who still remember vividly the pain and anguish caused by the Japanese Empire in World War II.
How surprising that Obama, who grew up not far from the sacred ground of Pearl Harbor and the cemetery where the victims of Japanese treachery lie, would become the first American chief executive to do so since the conflict in the Pacific ended in August of 1945 with the only two atomic detonations in anger in history.
(Excerpt) Read more at koreatimes.co.kr ...
We should be careful when we view the culture of Imperial Japan from the perspective of Western Liberalism. Every person; young, old, women, disabled, had military duties. The society was completely militarized. The invasion would have encountered fanatical resistance everywhere, from 'civilians' armed with bows and arrows, explosives, zip guns, and what have you. As was demonstrated during the campaign, the closer we got to the home islands, the fiercer and more horrible the fighting became. If Okinawa/Iwo Jima are used as an indicator, then we could expect that nothing short of complete annihilation of everything- people, property, the land itself- would suffice. This would probably mean the end of Japan as a nation and as a people. And at the cost of at least hundreds of thousands of American casualties, likely including my dad. The Fat Man called it off at the last minute, and I thank God for that.
Gotta deal with the Kenyan issue first, otherwise the Islamic Final Solution will not end in our favor.
The concept of war crimes did not exist until after the Nuremberg AND Tokyo war crime tribunals that followed the end of World War II. Yes, there was a war crime tribunal in Tokyo May 1946 - November 1948.
At the “International Military Tribunal for the Far East” (the official title), over 5,700 Japanese leaders , military and civilian, were charged with various types of war crimes.
Among the charges were POW mistreatment including execution, forced prostitution (”comfort women”) and biological warfare experimentation on prisoners including POWs.
The push for making war “more humane” has been around for about 150 years. The push for punishing war crimes has been around for half that. Both are good ideas. But good ideas can not hide the basic truth - war is about killing people and breaking things on a large scale.
Once the dogs of war have been unleashed and the cry of havoc has been yelled the options are limited to a short bloody war or a long bloody war. The Bard knew this how many centuries ago?
Yes indeedy!! seriously tho the japanese nation is way better off b/c of how history played out...they were under the control of despotic.rulers that didnt give a rats ass about the citizens. On hiroshima day the japs should thank the USA for setting them free. That’s the truth and the stupid teachers are full of it today.
Unsubstantiated hearsay.
While croos teaching in high school
.... Wow, Waverunner, you’re awesome! good job... small skirmishes to win a larger war...
ymmv
Dittos to everything you said...my Dad was awaiting the invasion as well, his duty station being aboard a medium-sized landing craft full of Marines. Neither you nor I would have the luxury of sitting around second guessing Harry Truman because we would, more than likely, not exist at all.
200 years from now, I want their children's children's children
to cower and cringe in fear whenever they hear the sounds of jet engines overhead
because their legends tell of fire from the sky.
I want them to hide in dark caves and holes in the earth,
shivering with terror whenever they hear the roar of diesel engines
because the tales of their ancestors talk about metal monsters
crawling over the earth, spitting death and destruction.
I want their mothers to be able to admonish them with
"If you don't behave, the Pale Destroyers will come for you",
and that will be enough to reduce them to quivering obedience.
I want the annihilation to be so complete that their mythology
will tell them of the day of judgment when the stern gods from across the sea
.. the powerful 'Mericans .. destroyed their forefathers' wickedness.
(Original created by BlueLancer ... 13 September 2001)
“I think of the children happily playing in the streets, the moms reading books to thier children...”
Military training was an important part of Japanese school cirriculum. Every student received military training from a very young age.
*Yet, even so, I think of the children happily playing in the streets, the moms reading books to thier children, and all those kinds of things as a bomb comes falling down from the sky.*
In Japan in 1945? They were too busy training to be suicide commandos for the Emperor. All 100 million of them were suspected to die for their living deity. Do some reading before you overdose on sentimentality.
*There are millions of AMERICAN kids who would never enjoy the love of a grandfather. *
No, there are millions of American kids who wouldn’t have been born.
*How surprising that Obama, who grew up not far from the sacred ground of Pearl Harbor*
Wait, I thought it was Kansas...or Indonesia...or Illinois?
Oh, I bet you have something to say about this.......
Kids are kids, you’re freakin’ retarded if you believe your own nonsense. You think they were out stabbing mockups of charlie all day? Hardly, talk about delusional, some of the comments on this thread have been absolutely rediculous and border line hysterical ...
Wait, I thought it was Kansas...or Indonesia...or Illinois?
Actually, it's a trick question.
He never grew up.
How many “kids” did the Japanese military slaughter between 1931 and 1945? What mercy did the Japanese populace deserve in 1945?
*some of the comments on this thread have been absolutely rediculous and border line hysterical ...*
Maybe you’d feel more at home at DU or Daily Kos—there about your speed & style. If one cannot get ‘hysterical’ over some of the greatest war crimes ever committed by man—which vastly overshadow a measely atom bomb that killed less than the firebombing of Tokyo—what is there left to get hysterical about?
And lastly...”Charlie”? Getting your Asian wars mixed-up?
Pathetic.
Seriously, are you 13 years old? You probably have been raised on a media diet of the Japanese as peaceful, bonsai-tending, paper-crane folding, PS3 playing, peaceniks who do nothing but cram for tests since your brief time on Earth began. You clearly are in over your head here.
Those Japanese children were growing up to be these monsters:
http://incredibleimages4u.blogspot.com/2010/04/brutal-japanese-during-second-world-war.html
I wouldn’t watch the videos or look at the pictures if I were you.
I spent all day Tuesday touring the Hanford Site. 65 years and a day after Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki, the first stop on the tour was the B reactor which produced the plutonium for the bomb. I just stood in front of the loading face and gave thanks to the generous God who allowed us to get the bomb first. Anyone who had a father or grandfather in the military in 1945 and thinks that dropping the bomb was a war crime should just STFU every August and be happy that their ancestor came home alive in order to produce stupid, ignorant children who are free to believe left-wing, bleeding heart propaganda about the war.
The tour was completely awesome. Any one who can plan far enough ahead should try to snag a spot on one of them. They are free but require reservations. The reservations website opened up at 12:01 AM on a Tuesday in March. By noon most of the seats appeared to be snapped up.
In addition to the B reactor, we drove through the 200 East and West areas where the plutonium was separated and a lot of today's cleanup efforts are focused. We got to watch the burial process for low-level waste and the construction of additional pits. We also saw the pit where the Navy disposes of the reactor sections of submarines and surface ships.
The only disappointing thing was that there is no gift shop. I need a t-shirt. The tour runs on a schedule so that the bus has to be at particular sites for scheduled briefings at scheduled times, so we were pushed along. They have Saturday tours which allow about 4 hours at the B reactor. It's on my list for next summer.
Besides, M-1A's don't run diesels. They have gas-turbine powerplants.
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