On August 6th, 1945 at 8:16 a.m. (Japanese time), an American B-29 bomber– the Enola Gay– dropped the world’s first war-time atom bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people were killed as a result of the blast, with another 35,000 injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. History is always written by the victors, so the reasoning and justification for this will be argued for years to come. But one thing is for sure: this action officially ushered in the nuclear age in war and has generated mass fear among civilization ever since, even though the firebombing of Japanese cities caused far more damage and loss of life. An interesting side note is Tsutomu Yamaguchi. He was 3km from the Hiroshima blast but survived. Along with a few other survivors, he made his way to his hometown, Nagasaki, and was again within 3km of the second blast yet survived this one also.
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The prepper holiday “Paratus” will be celebrated on September 21st. Paratus was originated by “Commader Zero”, the pen name of the editor of the long-running Notes From The Bunker Blog.
How many American lives did the use of the bomb save?
My dad, for one. He’d just come back to the front after convalescing from leg wounds suffered during the Vosges Mountain Campaign and was being sent to the Pacific theater to prepare for the invasion. He was always most grateful that Truman made the decisions he did. As am I.
I have no problem with the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They ended the war and reduced the total casualties on both the Japanese and American sides.
Six of my uncles fought in the Pacific, and all except one would have been likely involved in the invasion of the Japanese main islands, and that one was already dead on Saipan.
Nope, no sympathy at all.
Not only no sympathy but Japan owes us a “thank you”. Their own estimates were that 20 million Japanese would die defending the homeland from an invasion. This two bombs were the greatest humanitarian act in the history of man.
I also had two uncles on ships waiting for the invasion. One uncle was a radio operator on Tinian island when the Enola Gay took off. He confirmed to me that no one on the island except a handful of people knew anything about the bomb. Even his radio operator job gave him no hint of anything happening.