posted on August 11, 2001 12:30:52 PM new
Femme, Toke, I failed to ignore some things that frustrated me that can't be changed. I should know better.
The US had enough material for 3 bombs. The gun type bomb (Little Boy / Hiroshima) they were reasonably sure would work without a test, the theory was sound and the device simple. They were so unsure of the implosion type bomb (Fat Man / Nagasaki) they felt a test was mandatory at Trinity. This left the US with only 2 bombs and it would be months before enough material would be available for more. Leaflets were dropped all over Japan after Hiroshima and again after Nagasaki telling the people to ask why no news came from these cities. The US bluffed Japan into believing they had large supply of atomic bombs.
The Enola Gay mission on HIroshima commanded by Tibbets was a textbook operation. They left Tinian bombed the primary target and returned to Tinian. The Bock's Car mission on Nagasaki commanded by Sweeney was almost a disaster, almost everything that could go wrong did. Nagasaki wasn't their primary target, it wasn't even the secondary target, it was the third choice due to cloud cover at the first two targets. Sweeney's plane lost 600 gallons of fuel (a faulty solenoid wouldn't allow them to use one of the tanks.) The rendezvous with the two planes to escort him was screwed up costing him an hour. By the time Sweeney reached Nagasaki he had enough fuel to make one pass and hopefully make it to Okinawa or ditch in the sea near Okinawa, he couldn't make it to Iwo Jima, much less back to Tinian. Sweeney did some serious piloting getting to Okinawa. Sweeney's plane started loosing engines as soon as the wheels touch the runway as the fuel was exhausted, it was that close.
Up until Hiroshima and Nagasaki many of the Japanese people thought they were winning the war. After Emperor Hirohito spoke many of them were sure they had won.
Japan was fortunate that the US were their conquerors.
posted on August 11, 2001 01:04:13 PM new
"What if's" could fill the sky, but...
What if Russia beat us to Japan as well? Do you think that Japan would be where it is today?
What if Germany had beat us to developing the Atomic Bomb, and used it? Treaties with Hitler were not worth the paper they written on. In time, he would have had Japan as well.
What if we didn't help them after the war? Laft them as the world left Germany after WWI? Or worse, if we occupied them the way Russia occupied the Europian countries?
What if's abound. Were our soldiers lives less imortant then the lives of the Japanese? During the war, Hirohito had everyone ready to fight. Look to the kamakazi pilots, the fighting on Iowa Jima and Okinawa, and all the in-betweens. We did what was best, for then as well as now.
I will say this until the day I die:
I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!
Rick
In the begining, God created the heavens and the earth.
