LITTLE BOY AND FAT MAN

[ancient-one]

I was stationed at NAS North Island and my wife and young daughter had come to San Diego. I got orders to go overseas and I was given seven days to get them back to Oklahoma and get back to San Diego.
We rode the Southern Pacific to Oklahoma and I don't remember how I got back to San Diego but I made it on time.
Two things stuck in my mind about the train trip. We learned of the bomb being dropped. Our daughter was about six months old and still needed some milk with none being available on the train. There were some Army troops on the train and at every stop they would fan out looking for milk and not one of them would take any money for the milk they found. That says a lot about the uniform not making any difference.
The only glitch on the train trip was we had a SP until we got to Amarillo
and let every one run around in their T Shirts because of the heat. A MP took over at Amarillo and made everyone get back in uniform.
When I got back to San Diego my overseas orders had been cancelled.

 

[Skeet 028]

I’ve lived in Japan for over 30 years and like it fine.
The “apologize for the atomic bombs” phenomenon is a US, not Japanese, thing, insofar as I know.

Not quite true. Remember all the Japanese movies such as Godzilla, Mothra etc etc? Part of the reason they were done was to make the US feel remorse for dropping those bombs. My father, two uncles and 5 other of their friends were at Okinawa. 2 died. 2 others wounded. Never forgot. One uncle who talked to me of the fighting told me it was brutal. Think of an invasion! I also had a friend who was a bombardier on a B-29. He knew he was not going to survive an invasion

 

[Frank46]

I had a teacher in junior high school whom I seem to remember was a Major in the army and he had been through what was left after both bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He told our class that whatever pictures or movies we had seen about the devastation did not compare to have actually seen it in person. Littman I believe was his name.
Frank

 

[Old 44 Guy]

I was 14 at this time. Everyone was glad the war was over. No one was concerned about the morals concerning using the bomb.

 

[rwsmith]

Continued fire bombing....

Harsh as it sounds, we did them a favor.

A sharp blade cuts the cleanest.

Demonstrating complete dominance was the only language they understood at the time.

Saved an innumerable amount of their people.

Continued fire bombing and the opening of forward bases in China would have had horrible results. If the allies had invaded, many Japanese women, children, non-combatants, home guard and a strong force of Imperial troops would have guaranteed a tremendous bloodbath, along with many Allied lives. It probably wouldn't stop until the Emporer's palace was threatened. Note also, that there was a faction who almost stopped the surrender when the Emperor recorded the surrender message. There were still plenty of Japanese willing to fight and die.

I maintain that mistakes involving the bomb were made after the war trying to use it like an ace up our sleeves and underestimating the abilities of other other countries to quickly make their own bombs and starting a race to build nuclear arsenals.

 

[Onomea]

Not quite true. Remember all the Japanese movies such as Godzilla, Mothra etc etc? Part of the reason they were done was to make the US feel remorse for dropping those bombs. My father, two uncles and 5 other of their friends were at Okinawa. 2 died. 2 others wounded. Never forgot. One uncle who talked to me of the fighting told me it was brutal. Think of an invasion! I also had a friend who was a bombardier on a B-29. He knew he was not going to survive an invasion

My father, a Marine, was on Okinawa, too. He believed he survived the war because of the atomic bombs. I have no reason, based on my own knowledge, to disagree. And, if so, the bombs are why I exist.

But all those grade B Godzilla, Mothra, etc., movies? Produced to engender remorse in the Americans for the bombings?

I ain’t buying it.

(For among other reasons, they were all low budget and in Japanese. That American audiences later liked them was an unexpected bonus for the producers, is my guess. I think some smart Americans must have realized their potential for making bucks stateside and bought distribution rights for a song. But I know little about movies in general. Anyway, FWIW, they sure never engendered any remorse in me...)

 

[DWalt]

There is book titled "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes. It is not light reading. In it there is a thorough and detailed discussion concerning exactly why and how the final decision was made to drop the bomb on Japan. Even Truman had his doubts and approved the mission only indirectly. Very worthwhile for those interested in such things.

 

[rwsmith]

Stan Hall......

...my Dad was an Army medic in the South Pacific...

...he was in Japan several times after the war...

..he said he thought the incendiary bombs dropped on the wood frame and paper buildings there had actually wrought more total destruction than the atom bombs...just not as quickly...

Our friend Stan Hall was also in the medical corp in the Navy and was part of the survey evaluating damage done by the bombs and medical needs. He said a lot of structure was burned so badly that if you kickd it, it would crumble. He also said that they were very nervous about people who were opposed to the surrender and acting autonomously.

 

[rwsmith]

Who was the Japanese leader that said....

When I was stationed in Pearl Harbor, I dated an Air Force Brig. General's daughter for a time. Her dad was the Inspector General for Pacific Air Forces and based out of Hickam Field. She told me a story one time that her father was escorting some Japanese dignitaries around the base and on the facade of one of the buildings, there were still bullet or shell fragment craters. The Japanese, not realizing the significance of the damage, asked why it was like that. General Beyer looked each of them in the eye, one at a time, then replied: "We keep it like that as a reminder to never let our guard down again". When the realization dawned on them that it was damage from 07Dec1941, they were reduced to tears. After that, it must have been a pretty awkward tour. I always wanted to ask the man himself to tell the story, but as an enlisted sailor dating the daughter of a highly decorated flag officer with over 200 combat missions, I was slightly in awe of him.

..."Any country that engages in such atrocities (paraphrase) had better win the war." Both Germany and Japan are lucky to have any of their culture left.

 

[STCM(SW)]

All I will say is some try to rewrite history.
As far as I'm concerned more people were killed in the fire bombing of Tokyo then the two A bombs.
The invasion of Japan would have cost more lives on both sides then were lost with the two A bombs.

 

[crazyphil]

I and my wife took our daughter, her husband, and two kids to Hawaii
thirty some years ago. Went to the Arizona memorial. Went into the
theatre to watch the movie. We were the only Americans. All the rest
were Japanese tourists. I never heard such quiet before or since.
President Truman took some heat, but it was the right decision.

 

[buskerpcr]

Tell any SNOWFLAKES you know who whine on on how unjust dropping the bombs were, to read the book DOWNFALL and see what was waiting
for our troops , very disturbing.

 

[pmanton]

I was at Hiroshima in 56. It was a somber experience even 11 years after the bomb dropped. It was estimated that we would have lost over a million men it Japan hadn't capitulated.

 

[jag312]

Tell any SNOWFLAKES you know who whine on on how unjust dropping the bombs were, to read the book DOWNFALL and see what was waiting
for our troops , very disturbing.

The snowflakes probably won't believe it. I have been told that Japan wanted to surrender, but we wouldn't accept their surrender until we tested the bombs on them. Total Bovine Manure.

 

[DWalt]

Revisionist history is an ancient game. Even the Egyptians engaged in it.

 

[sw282]

Harry Truman was a "Man's Man''. Veteran of the trenches of WWI.

He knew first hand what war was like... l worked at Anneston Army Depot awhile back..

We built an incinerator there to burn the Chemical Weapons made there.

Chemical weapons/gas made during WWII for killing Japanese people on

the Home lslands BEFORE an American lnvasion... Ole Harry said he would

kill them ALL. They would CEASE to be a culture. He was prepared to

gas EACH island... Gassing was to be done BEFORE the first Marine ever

set foot on a Home lsland.

The Emperor should have HUNG just like 0le Tojo.

 

[MRB1]

I worked with a man that survived Pearl, and carried a ultra-intense hatred for all japs to his grave. He said many times that our biggest mistake was stopping at two bombs - he wanted the entire country wiped off the face of the earth. He had "PEARL HARBOR" tattooed on the back of his hand as a daily reminder of the day.

 

[sw282]

l think l remember reading years ago we had used all our fuel on the 3

bombs including Trinity in New Mexico..

 

[muddocktor]

l think l remember reading years ago we had used all our fuel on the 3

bombs including Trinity in New Mexico..

No, Hanford was busy making Plutonium. As I posted about above, the "Demon Core" would have been shipped out and ready use by around August 19. With the dropping of Little Boy, we did use up most all of our stocks of U-235 though and it took quite a while to build back inventory of it for more gun type a-bombs. The gun type Uranium bombs were very inefficient also, with only less than 1 kg of fissile material undergoing fission out of a 141 lb core. Fat Man had a 14 lb core of Pu-239/240.

 

[OMCHamlin]

After VE Day, my father was told that he would be transferred from duty in the Atlantic to the Pacific for preparation for the invasion of Japan. he told my mother that he didn't know if he would survive the war, but he knew that a lot of young men in his command would not. That was the reality.



It would have rained gold nuggets long before my mother and father would have apologized for the bombs. The bombs ended the war and saved countless lives.

Same here, pop was in ETO, but headed to PTO with training along the way. Uncle J. R. was already in theatre, most likely, neither would have made it home, luck only goes so far... I would not be sitting here typing this. Would you be here not reading my not posted post? How would our world have changed?
It is not very likely that you will ever see me apologize for our use of these weapons.