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 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.
—
SurvivalBlog Writing Contest
Today we present another entry for Round 90 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
- A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
- A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
- A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
- DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
- Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Resources (a $350 value),
- A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
- American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
Second Prize:
- A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
- A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
- Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
- Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
- An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).
Third Prize:
- A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
- Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit. This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag. The value of this kit is $220.
- Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
- A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for the delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!
Round 90 ends on September 30th, 2020, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Butchering non-combatants — women and children, libraries and hospitals and cultural centers — is inexcusable.
Who were the puppet-masters pulling the strings of American president Truman?
Follow the money…. who benefits?
An excellent book about the puppet-masters is SUPERMOB by Russo, but be prepared for hundreds of documents exposing the uncomfortable truth.
“Butchering non-combatants” Ironically that is exactly what the Japanese did in China, Korea and the PI.
The ‘bomb’ stopped the war. The Japanese leaders were committed to put women and children on the beaches to stop the coming invasion. Their own estimates were that over 20 million Japanese women, children and old men would die in the futile attempt to prevent the invasion. I do understand your point but you simply do not understand the reality. The reality is the nukes were the best thing that could happen to Japan AND to American forces. My uncle was literally on a ship headed to Japan on Aug 6 1945 after over four years fighting in the South Pacific. He told us that everyone on board cheered when they finally heard that Japan had surrendered. Make no mistake, his life was valued even though he was not a women or child.
IMHO Japan should celebrate Aug 6th as “wake up day” because that is when Hirohito finally woke up and told his military leaders “no mas”.
OneGuy,
You argue a different point by focusing on a small picture during a small time-window.
This’s understandable; I take no offense in it.
Why choose that particular time to escalate that decades-long conflict in the first place?
Follow the money… who benefits?
Here is one possibility:
* The puppet-masters ordered Frank The Gimp to war as a continuation of the decades of their conflict against other people.
I hesitate to use the trendy term ‘racist’ to describe the acts of that group of puppet-masters.
However, it seems to fit their justification of xenophobic destruction of ‘everybody not us’.
The individuals downrange of their hatred don’t need to be any specific shape or color or belief.
Only one point is important:
* Their targets are ‘not us’… although they are willing (eager?) to sacrifice some of their kind ‘in service of the greater good’.
*****
And, speaking of a blast measurable in atomic-bomb units, why destroy much of the food supply for the Lebanese people — Arabians and Christians and dozens of other groups — and destroy a primary Mediterranean port in the process?
Until the Lebanese port is re-built — an uncertain process during this phase of the Economic Lock-Down — who owns the ports the rest of that shipping is forced to use?
Who benefits… follow the money.
I say this as clear as I can:
* Who benefits from constant conflict?
I do not intend to discount the good intentions of anybody volunteering during this continual conflict — ‘my uncle volunteered to do this’, ‘my aunt volunteered to do that’ — based on propaganda from TheMainStreamMedia.
I understand your commitment to your family; I encourage you to support your loved ones.
Let’s see if we can hold two thoughts simultaneously:
* Can we agree conflict volunteering merely plays into the scheme of the ‘everybody not us is our enemy’ crowd in their patient rush to destroy/enslave ‘everybody not us’?
Evil doesn’t have a day off, doesn’t take a vacation.
On his WoodPileReport, Ol’ Remus advised us to “avoid crowds”.
Could a healthy way to ‘avoid crowds’ be not believing the propaganda from TheMainStreamMedia?
I don’t know exactly what happened in Lebanon. It seems likely that a military target was hit and it blew sky high. If that is the case, that Lebanon had military grade explosive devises stored there, then I would not blame the intended target country for blowing them up.
I don’t know all the conspiracy theories and you seem to be into them more than me. But the one thing, the one ‘tell’ of all conspiracy theories is that like pictures of UFO’s everything is fuzzy. Can you name names? People, groups, countries that are conspiring rather than vague references?
Large Marge:
I have learned over the years that the story, the narative, is not part of the truth. We have to go beyond the narrative to arrive at something that resembles the truth.
The war against Japan was never about Japan. It was always about Europe, in particular, the protection of England. FDR was horny to get in on the European war. Like Wilson, FDR saw fortune and glory for America while acting as a protector for dear old Mother England in the process. We have been cleaning up after England’s messes for over a hundred years. Think about the death and destruction that has been ongoing in the Middle East for many decades. That was a European problem caused by England, France, Tzarist Russia and the disastrous Sikes/Picot Treaty of 1916. That treaty created artificial borders, throughout the Middle East, where none had ever existed prior to the treaty.
If we read the actual history of the events that lead to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, we can see FDR’s manipulation of, not only Japan, but of the American people. The trade sanctions and the oil embargo the US had placed on Japan, were unnecessary while being counterproductive to American business interests. The Japanese were manipulated in the same manner as the Confederacy was manipulated by Lincoln. Poke a bear long enough and it will attack. But then again, that was the plan all along. As for the manipulation of the American people, think about what happened to the America First movement that started in late 1939. What happened to that movement once the Japanese attacked?
Japan’s attacks on China were not our concern, not our fight. Calling for American volunteers to help the Chinese people would have been, should have been, enough. That volunteer program was very successful though very limited in scope. That volunteer program could have been expanded to keep the Japanese at bey while not provoking all-out war.
Fast forward to mid-1945. FDR had just died, Germany and Italy had already surrendered, and Japan was on a fast-track withdrawal throughout the Pacific. Japan was suing for some kind of peace deal. They were mostly just asking for the retention of their Emperor. The Japanese High Command were not stupid people, they knew the war was lost. The also knew they would have no help from their allies in Germany and Italy, both had already been defeated. However, we had our own terrible Wunderwaffen in form of the Atomic Bomb. Our political leaders wanted to make a political point to the Japanese and to the world at large while issuing a stearn warning to our erstwhile ally, the Soviet Union and especially Joseph Stalin.
Was the dropping of the A-bombs necessary to bring the war to a close? No! We could have and should have issued a truce to Japan, long enough to bring the Emperor and at least some of the Japanese High Command, to the US to actually view, in person, our new bomb and all of it’s potential terror. We could have also invited Stalin. When the bomb exploded, Truman could have turned to the Emperor and said, “In 30 days, I have your signature on a surrender decree or, that is what happens to Tokyo and then every city in Japan!” War over, invasion unnecessary, no taking of the lives 250,000 men, women, and children in a matter of seconds.
Even the American High Command was against the use of the bomb, this included both Eisenhower and MacArthur. They knew it was unnecessary to claim a victory over the Empire of Japan. Truman had other ideas, he was the President and his desires and the desires of the American deep-state of that time won the argument.
This is revisionist history. The purpose of revising history is to get us back to the truth. None of this is new information, it is out there for those who seek the knowledge. It was indeed immoral to use nuclear weapons then, it would be immoral to use them today. This is also not the whole sorted story.
You ask great questions, Large MArge.
In the documentary movie, The Fog of War, Robert McNamara was interviewed shortly before death. One thing, among other that he had never admitted before was a conversation in early 1945 with Curtis LeMay, commander of the bombing campaign against Japan. He was LeMay’s aide-de-camp, I think.
When discussing the firebombing of Japanese cities, which, as JWR noted, was way more devastating than the A-bomb, LeMay noted that “if we lose this war, you and I will be tried as war criminals for burning those cities and their people”.
Please forgive my less than perfect recollection of the exact quote.
Carry on in grace
Large Marge, war is hell. … Hellish things happens to noncombatants in all wars. It’s possible to view photographs of WW2 in Europe. Death of the combatnats and noncombatants is the specter of war everywhere.
Maybe, someone can contact Democrats like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and ask them, if the Democrats would be willing to pay reparations to Japan, for the actions of >Democrat President Harry Truman. [Trump so far has been working to stop the endless wars carried on by the USA, as of 2020.]
FIY, I’m a baby boomer, that listened to WW2 stories growing up. I even had a public school teacher, that was captured at the start of WW2 by the Japanese military. He spent the entire war as a prisoner of war (It wasn’t a cake walk).
The >two atomic bombs put an end to the war (and the USA won). ~All other conjecture is just conjecture.~ ….. People, I heard speak about WW2, that had a direct link to combat, were glad Japan finally surrendered. (They didn’t like the death and destruction caused by the atomic bomb, but the alternative was worse!) …. … +Much of our modern liberal history seems to be written by devotees of Joseph Stalin.
*********
I’m asking for an Indulgence from the ‘Powers that be’ at Survivalblog to make the following comment. [And yes, I’m an Irish Catholic.]
About ‘SUPERMOB by Russo’ = There’s review of the book on forward(dot)com. Their motto is: = Forward, ~ Jewish, Fearless Since 1897[ lite.
My comment was cut in half, by the automatic censor. The review by the Forward site uses quotes from the Supermob book to illustrate, how the Supermob book is typical anti-Jewish propaganda.
[I wish I could get my entire comment here, to illustrate the nature of the Supermob book.]
The link for forward(dot)com has an illuminating review of the rantings in the book = Supermob by Russo.
Must read letter from Gen. Flynn:
https://www.westernjournal.com/exclusive-gen-flynn-letter-america/
1) One issue re the atomic bomb is whether journalists sitting safely in their armchair are entitled to argue that tens of thousands of soldiers should have died for the journalists’ moral opinions. Especially when the journalists never get within 400 miles of the battlefield.
One of my uncles came back from the Pacific a broken man — I remember my Mom speaking of how he had been so forceful and powerful when he entered the military.
2) The second issue is what journalists HIDE from the public. A recent book notes that Roosevelt was sending bombers and napalm to the Philipines BEFORE Pearl Harbor, preparing to fire bomb the flammable Japanese cities. That Pearl Harbor was the Japanese preempting Roosevelt’s preemptive strike.
3) In my opinion, the really guilty party is President Millard Fillmore — who in 1853 sent Commodore Perry and his gunships to Japan to FORCE the opening of Japan to US ships.
That stupid act of unnecessary, unprofitable aggression scared the Japanese, overthrew the Shogun and his centuries old policy of isolation and triggered the Meiji Restoration that made Japan into a rapidly industrializing, aggressive military power with an urgent need to capture western technology and seize the resources necessary to make that technology work. With the chickens coming home to roost 85 years later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_of_Kanagawa#Perry_expedition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration
“A recent book notes that Roosevelt was sending bombers and napalm to the Philippines BEFORE Pearl Harbor”
Could you provide the book title? I’d be interested to read it since napalm is considered to have been invented in 1942.
Good point about Millard Fillmore and the Perry Expedition.
1) See “The Rise of American Air Power” by Michael S Sherry, pages 101-105.
The money quote from General Claire Chennault, working for the Chinese, regarding how American bombers based in China could “burn out the industrial heart of the [Japanese] Empire with fire-bomb attacks on the teeming bamboo ant heaps of Honshu and Kyushu”.
Ref:
https://books.google.com/books?id=bcRWmE8KUDQC&q=Japan%27s+cities#v=snippet&q=Japan's%20cities&f=false
2) What the military historians fail to see fully is the intelligence aspect. The push to drag the USA into WWII by provoking an attack by the Japanese has been laid at Franklin Roosevelt’s feet but FDR’s primary advisor for China was SOVIET agent Lauchlin Currie. The Soviet Union needed US assistance more than Britain — and got it after Pearl Harbor.
Some think that Currie was also the reason China was later lost to Mao and the Communists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauchlin_Currie#Soviet_agent
3) Good thing we had the Venona codebreaking operation to eventually warn us of Currie’s treachery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venona_project
Too bad Soviet agents Kim Philby and Bill Weisband were looking over the shoulder of the codebreakers and telling Moscow of their progress.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meredith_Gardner#Venona_project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Weisband
Anyone who thinks that moralizing or armchair generalship wins wars is both a coward and a liar. Naked, unrestricted, violence, in the worst possible way is what causes an enemy to stop fighting. I have no doubt as to what the Japanese would have done if they had atomic weapons before we did. After they raped and murdered and plundered their way across Asia and the Pacific, they got what was coming to them. You do such things, and you place your civilian population in the cross hairs of terrible retribution. You can play that women and children card all you want, but if you cross the line, you’ll pay the piper. The Japanese are lucky to be alive.
Well said, Sir.
amen…the bombing saved lives of OUR troops which is all that matters….
…also there was the infamous Unit 721.
We should also remember the brave souls lost onboard Extortion 17, this day 2011.
Sean said, “Naked, unrestricted, violence, in the worst possible way is what causes an enemy to stop fighting.”
I wonder if he will say this when the enemy is him and his family?
How would he become the enemy?
Simple…..
Refuse to be forcibly chipped with a microchip. Refuse to give up his means of self-defense. Refuse to bow the knee and burn incense to Caesar.
The government will label him an “enemy of the state” and “Naked, unrestricted, violence, in the worst possible way” will be what the government visits upon him.
I wonder if he’ll support that kind of violence when its directed at him?
Snotty Boy
I’m missing your point…
Of course unrestricted violence will be visited on we who will not bend the knee to the government. It will be met in kind with the same unrestricted violence from it’s intended victims as the Japs experienced. It’s called “war.”
They started it, we finished it.
Much was lost on both sides. More will be lost in the conflict to come.
But Snotty, what would you propose instead, harsh language? Bow? Yield? Kneel?