Posted on 10/29/2005 8:13:55 PM PDT by ncountylee
TOKYO (AP) - Victims of the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan joined a sit-in rally in Hiroshima on Saturday to protest plans to base a nuclear-powered American warship in the country, an activist said.
The protest came as talks got underway between top Japanese and American security officials on how to realign the U.S. military presence in Japan.
About 80 people - many of them victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - rallied against plans announced Friday by the U.S. Navy to deploy a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan, said Kazutoshi Kajikawa, who heads the Hiroshima Peace Movement Center.
"It makes me angry that America can even consider basing a nuclear carrier in Japan, the only country in the world to have suffered a nuclear attack," Kajikawa said.
Basing the ship in Japan will also put the Japanese public at risk of being exposed to a radiation leak, he said.
The U.S. has said the carrier can be operated safely in Japanese waters. American Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer told reporters Friday that nuclear ships had made 1,200 visits to Japan in the past 40 years without harming the environment.
The U.S. Navy said it decided to replace the conventional aircraft carrier now based in Yokosuka, just outside Tokyo, with the nuclear-powered ship because it has greater capabilities.
Just as well. The hole he dug was deep enough.
My pleasure Bro'. I am sure we crossed paths somwhere over there.
Semper Fi.
God's in his Heavan, all's right with the World!
Amen.
Went to lick his wounds after the tag team thrashing he just got. I will look for a reply to my documentation challenge though, as that is a mighty tall claim he made stating "I was once in the chain of command for any orders to use nukes on other people." Strong stuff, needs proving.
Actually....the Imperial Japanese Army had its Second Army Headquarters in Hiroshima...and at the time the bomb was dropped their were close to 30k soldiers in Hiroshima -- most of whom were killed due to the fact that ground zero was within a mile of their barracks.
The Second Army was the main body to execute Ketsu-Go, the Japanese plan for countering the anticipated US invasion of Kyushu -- Operation Majestic (originally Olympic).
So even though there were literally tens of thousands of women and children killed at Hiroshima....there were also tens of thousands of Imperial Army personnel also killed.
Don't hold your breath - he didn't respond to my post asking for doumentation on most of the victims being women and children.
Oh..and another correction....Hideki Tojo resigned as War and Prime Minister of Japan many months before the dropping of the A-bombs.
Thank you - both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were selected as legitimate miltary targets. End of analysis.
Little Bob
Make that "Little Boy".
Actually...Nagasaki was a secondary target to Fukuoka on August 9th. Due to many SNAFUs and the weather...Bock's Car ( the plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki) just barely was able to make one run over Nagasaki, was about to drop the bomb by radar, when the clouds cleared momentarily and ground zero ironically came very close to the Mitsubishi plant that had manufactured the torpedos that were used at Pearl Harbor...
Payback is a bitch...
Is that the same Mitsubishi plant that is now producing Galants, etc.?
I have a "Little Boy" on my keychain!!
Science isn't their strong suit.
BRAVO! Excellent post!
The atomic hell unleashed on Japan broke their will to continue the fight.
Not disagreeing with your statement in total, but the military wanted to still keep on fighting.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that 1) had the atomic bombs somehow malfunctioned, or 2) Truman somehow had the misguided balls to stop a two billion dollar project dead in its tracks without using the weapons --- we would had to have invaded Japan at the cost of hundreds of thousands of US lives, and most likely -- through more B-29 incendiary and carpet bombing, starvation because of the naval blockade, and suicidal resistance to our amphibious landings --- millions of Japanese.
In addition, Marshall was planning on using atomic bombs as tactical weapons on beachheads and troop concentrations, in the event of invasion.
Talk about unimaginable....that is exactly why Hirohito and the "peace" faction in the Japanese were finally able to overcome the fanatical resistance of the military...the military had nothing to offer the Japanese people but genocidal and cultural extinction.
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