[timewitnesses] Re: The A Bomb; and the Korean Show - Ronald Gillen

From: Tim Merry (timmerry@mitmania.net.au)
Date: Sun Mar 04 2001 - 16:27:55 PST


Hello Ron (and everyone),

The Korean show you attended sounds frightful!   And I hope you've
recovered from it all by now.

In your March 04 message you said:

> The Atomic bomb business could have been handled better, dropping it on
> population centers is not my idea of warfare.   (snip)

I have a problem with your reference to 'population centres',
because this implies that civilians are innocent, and (ipso facto) that our
young men in uniform are fair game!  I take the oppposite view: civilians
(except for children and those teenagers too young to vote)are rather more
guilty than the general run of uniformed men and women ; civilians are
largely responsible for what goes on in their respective countries, even in
dictatorships.

You cannot possibly claim that civilians are innocent, because this implies
that their husbands, brothers, sons and daughters in uniform
are guilty - and are consequently fair game!  Civilians are to blame
for what takes place in a country, surely;  the old newsreels show
how happy they were when the war was 'going well' for their side!
In any case, from the moment WWII started civilians were targeted
especially by those who began it all (indeed this has been so in all
previous wars throughout history).

> I feel that a
> demonstration bomb should have been dropped in Yokahama- >.Tokyo harbor to
> give them some idea what would be forthcoming if they continued the > war,
> along with leaflets before and after the demo warning them of
> impending doom.

To telegraph your punches is to expose your own men to danger, as
well as risking the complete failure of your own operation.  And who
should suffer but those who began it all!  And don't forget, there were
only two bombs available and ready to go - I think that's right.

>  I lived in Japan and can assert the average citizen had no clue what
> their government was up to

 I've heard that one too. But this is the usual response, surely! Either
that, or...' Yes, but I was only carrying out orders'

Anyway, Ron and I have expressed two opposing views - what do all you good
people think?

Tim Merry
timmerry@mitmania.net.au





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