August 6 1945: Bombing of Hiroshima Opened the Atomic Age
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August 6, 1945.
Sixty-three years ago, the bombing of Hiroshima helped bring about the end of the most destructive world in the history of the world.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks at the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman on August 6 and 9, 1945. After six months of intense firebombing of 67 other Japanese cities, the nuclear weapon “Little Boy” was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed on August 9 by the detonation of the “Fat Man” nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. These are to date the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare.
–Wikipedia: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Japan announced its surrender six days later on August 15, 1945.
To all those who sit in comfort in 2006 and render judgment on those who lived and made decisions sixty-three years ago, a few reminders.
1- Those in 2006 do not have husbands, brothers and sons who would have faced certain death in an invasion of Japan in 1945.
2- Did not have to live through the preceding four years of nearly total war.
3- The U.S. was finishing a war which began on December 7, 1941, when it was attacked, without warning, by Japan.
Those who argue in favor of the decision to drop the bombs generally assert that they caused the Japanese surrender, preventing massive casualties on both sides in the planned invasion of Japan.
Those who argue against the decision to drop the bombs characterize them as inherently immoral, war crimes or, crimes against humanity and/or state terrorism. They may also argue that they were militarily unnecessary.
Regardless, today is the 63rd anniversary of the beginning of the Atomic Age.
From that point forward, the stakes for disagreements between nations were raised immeasurably.
by Mondoreb
image: RidesAPaleHorse
Anniversary of the Bombing of Hiroshima…
DBKP has the reminder that today’s the 63rd anniversary of the dawn of the nuclear age. The United States launched history first’s nuclear attack on August 6, 1945, at Hiroshima, Japan……