From: Dave Cornelius (dwcorns@en.com)
Date: Mon Mar 05 2001 - 15:01:28 PST
A thought for Teddy: Albert Einstein was remorseful that a device resulting from his theories about the atom was used on Japan and Einstein was even a Jew! The issues created by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are moral issues not strategical. the two main arguments always advanced for the bombings is always (a) it shortened the war and saved American lives and (b) revenge for Pearl Harbor. I am no expert and I was born after the war had ended too but I think I understand some things about politics. The Vietnam war was never popular because we had no tangible reason for being there. World War II could have ended up the same way if had not been for Pearl Harbor. During the late 30's we were heavily involved in supplying the allied war effort in Europe but because it was not "our" war, the popular opinion of the country prevented us from declaring war on Germany. We were in Holocaust denial like the rest of the world and too busy climbing out of the Great Depression to be very excited about rushing off to die on a foreign continent. So someone, somewhere maybe got the idea to load up Pearl Harbor like "the fatted calf." They moored the Pacific Fleet battleships in battleship row, parked all the airplanes on the tarmac at Hickem field, turned off the radar, ignored the capture of a Japanese mini-sub beached inside Pearl, stalled a diplomatic solution in Washington, and somehow failed to find the bulk of the Japanese fleet as it set waiting... then had the audacity to call it a sneak attack! In declaring war on the Japanese we also got to declare war on Germany. That's how we got into the European theater of WWII by my reconning... by tricking the Japanese into attacking us. Was it a day of infamy? Yes but the infamy must be shared! It was a day the biggest bully on the block dared the littlest bully on the block to take a swing... and darn if the little guy didn't oblige and take a poke at us! A simple case of self defense on our part... uh huh, sure! Perhaps we shortened the war in the Pacific and perhaps we saved American lives but I would suggest that that gave little comfort to the trapped men on the U.S.S. Oklahoma and U.S.S. Arizona who spent from December 7 to December 22 starving, asphyxiating, and dying inches below the surface of Pearl Harbor.. victims of a political agenda. I guess my biggest regret over using the bomb is that the Japanese people are still paying for it today in higher cancer rates, infant mortality, and other medical problems. Which will be the first generation of Japanese that does not have to pay the price for their ancestor's mistakes... I fear I shall not live to know and that is perhaps the biggest infamy of all! Hopefully however, we will continue to beat out atomic "swords" into plowshears! At 12:47 pm 3/5/01 -0600, you wrote: >Hello; > >I am 41, and did not live through WWII. I am American, female, and not in >the least remorseful that we bombed Japan. I, too, am of the opinion that >the population of a country is responsible for the actions of their leaders. >In the case of Japan, they struck us first, without cause. We are supposed >to feel bad because they made the mistake of picking on someone bigger than >they were? To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: timewitnesses-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/