Shikita ga nai.
Reminds me of the Vietnam sniper Hathcock. Asked by some reporter if he ever had any regrets over killing an enemy. Replied something like “Hell no. But I sure had regrets about my misses; them escaping to go and kill more of my brothers.”
We saved a million American lives by dropping the bomb. We also saved 10s of million Japanese lives by dropping it.
That is the projected deaths predicted by a land invasion of Japan.
No regrets, nor should he.
Japan had its own nuke program and even reportedly tested a nuke in North Korea several months before we tested ours.
They were the enemy and wars are won by killing as many of them as possible.
People today look at historic events not in their own context, but the irrelevant present context. (Hence the, “do you feel any regret” questions.) We, as observers of the past, have to attempt to put ourselves into the context in which the actions took place. I saw a presentation recently stating that American marines committed war criminal acts by shooting Japs when they could have taken them prisoner at Okinawa. When the people around you are dying wholesale, some killed by an enemy they assumed might be surrendering, then the only thing to do is survive. Assume any enemy you see is attempting to kill you and take the appropriate action. Not the action somebody who has never seen combat, and never lived anywhere but a college dorm, thinks they would have taken in your place.
Why would he have any regrets? He helped save hundreds of thousands of our soldier’s lives.
The headline is a disgrace. Of course there are no regrets.
Low level fire bombing killed more than both nukes.
Do you have any regrets?
Eff NPR.
My regret is that their commie studios haven’t yet been nuked.
NPR wishes Japan had won.
Any modern person thinking we should have done something else in that situation simply reveals themselves to be horribly ignorant of history. I don’t take such a person seriously.
Even AFTER two bombs, there STILL was an attempted coup by junior officers of the Japanese military to intercept the Emperor’s surrender message to prevent its broadcast. That’s how insane and suicidal some elements of the Japanese power structure was.
The A-bombs were an act of mercy to end the death spiral that was the Pacific War. It was merciful to both American soldiers AND Japanese civilians.
Nor should he... That mission saved millions of lives and even countless millions afterwards. There hasn’t been an atomic bomb, or anything stronger than that used since in an offensive military operation.
Mission accomplished!
They tracked these guys down every year. The answer never changes.
Do they think there was going to be some revelation in the ensuing year?
I have a friend of mine coming in next week end who was part of the invasion force of about 500,000 troupes that were ready to invade Japan until the Bomb was dropped.
Just remember, a Democrat used nuclear weapons. A Democrat.
They want to use them on Russia now too.
Democrats. Nuclear weapons.
56 Chinese POWs..
Weaponized Bubonic Plague. Twice tested in China and they were working on a delivery system to hit Hawaii, Australia and the West Coast of the US.
Let's not even bring up their cannibalism of POWs. As that was not official policy.
The only regret was that it did not happen sooner. The Empire of Japan was worse then Nazi Germany. And they had had a longer time to do what they did having started in 1895 with the murder of Queen Min of Korea.
Japan is a civilized country now. But it will take at least another hundred years for their neighbors to begin to regard them with anything but horror and anger.
Their reasons are just.
May G-d bless him and keep him.
5.56mm