HBO: White Light, Black Rain: the Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

[BigRedJed]

Holy balls. Tough to watch.

Linky (http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/whitelightblackrain/)

[Dio]

Call me when HBO gets around to Pearl Harbor.

I won't be holding my breath

[SicEmBaylor]

Should have nuked the bastards thrice just to drive the point home.

[Okla-homey]

http://aycu04.webshots.com/image/41083/2005168676160009951_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005168676160009951)

They're working on the capsized hull of USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941 because there are hundreds of men trapped and suffocating to death inside.
Men, who hours earlier, believed their nation was at peace.

[Jerk]

Curtis Lemay killed more Japanese by firebombing Tokyo.

Where's the liberal sob story on that?

The atomic bombing of Japan saved lives...both American and Japanese.

[Harry Beanbag]

Curtis Lemay killed more Japanese by firebombing Tokyo.

Where's the liberal sob story on that?

The atomic bombing of Japan saved lives...both American and Japanese.


The people who get up in arms over these things are generally historically challenged anyway. The Tokyo Raid is not a very well known chapter of WWII history.

[SoonerBorn68]

Somehow I have zero sympathy for Imperial Japan. I'm sure the Chinese, Koreans, & the rest of the Far East under Japanese tyranny during the 1930's & '40's share this feeling. Maybe the Bastards of Bataan would like to chime in.

Example 1 (http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=japanese+atrocity&spell=1)

Example 2 (http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&safe=off&q=rape+of+nanking)

Neither link is safe for work or for those with weak constitutions.

The Japs were no better than their German allies.

0 sympathy--they started it, they suffered.

[Viking Kitten]

Given that most of us understand that, militarily, the U.S. had no choice, I find it confusing that some are unwilling to express sympathy for the innocent civilians, thousands upon thousands of children, who suffered for their fathers' mistakes.

Good on the filmmaker for reminding us exactly why an attack of that sort should be the absolute last resort.

[Mjcpr]

Look, a Jap-lover. Git 'er!!

[usmc-sooner]

hit em again.

[M]

Somehow I have zero sympathy for Imperial Japan. I'm sure the Chinese, Koreans, & the rest of the Far East under Japanese tyranny during the 1930's & '40's share this feeling.

:les: Is 'East Sea,' not Sea of Japan!!!!1

;)

[MojoRisen]

2 times was enough- but one time was not. that was a last resort - they would not surender and even the civilians claimed they would fight till the death - so they are not neccisarily civilians at that point.

[crawfish]

HBO is also developing the miniseries "The Pacific" by Speilberg/Hanks, a Band of Brothers-style production about the other part of WWII.

[SoonerBorn68]

Given that most of us understand that, militarily, the U.S. had no choice, I find it confusing that some are unwilling to express sympathy for the innocent civilians, thousands upon thousands of children, who suffered for thier fathers' mistakes.


Just how "innocent" were the civilians? The Japanese industrial infrastructure was rooted in the homes of these civilians. Uniforms & weapons were produced there. The Japanese war machine was born there. The children, well, I'd feel some sympathy if their fathers (and mothers) had some for their enemies.

I don't expect anyone to read this all the info in this link, but it's a real eye opener to what the Japanese did:

http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres_pacific.html

[Curly Bill]

We can always just say: they started it.

If you ask me, if you start a fight you deserve whatever the other guy gives to you.

[frankensooner]

My pops was stationed in India in WWII in the Army Air Corps. Had a full out invasion of the Japanese mainland been required, Dad would have been used for sure in that endeavor. I thank Harry Truman for my very existence.

My Uncle was a Marine in the South Pacific in WWII. He brought back some of the most gruesome pictures I have ever seen. The Japanese were brutal warriors and were extemely cruel to those they had conquered.

I had another uncle, a naval aviator, shot down and killed by the Japanese.

Having said all of that the film was pretty interesting.

[Curly Bill]

My pops was stationed in India in WWII in the Army Air Corps. Had a full out invasion of the Japanese mainland been required, Dad would have been used for sure in that endeavor. I thank Harry Truman for my very existence.

My Uncle was a Marine in the South Pacific in WWII. He brought back some of the most gruesome pictures I have ever seen. The Japanese were brutal warriors and were extemely cruel to those they had conquered.

Having said all of that the film was pretty interesting.

Salute to your pops and uncle!

[OUDoc]

If you ask me, if you start a fight you deserve whatever the other guy gives to you.
True.
If you start it, you can't bitch about the ***-whipping you receive. They definitely started it.

[BigRedJed]

Jesus Christ, people, I'm sorry I started this thread. I don't think for a minute that dropping the A-bomb was indefensible. I think Truman made a tough decision, and the right decision. That show, by the way, doesn't portray the U.S. as a villian, or the Japanese as a people as innocent victims. Even some of the A-bomb victims in the show were discussing how Japan brought it upon themselves, and how they were furious at THEIR government. If you actually watched it, rather than having a gut reaction to the subject matter, maybe you could discuss the show intelligently.

But if you have one iota of human compassion, you can't help but feel for the people in this film. The film shows film footage of children dealing with burns and radiation poisoning. You surely can't be angry at the Japanese children. It shows burned-to-a-crisp bodies, and cities reduced to rubble. If anything, it's a cautionary tale that drives home just how much we should hope to avoid a nuclear exchange, ever.

In the abstract, dropping those bombs was the right thing to do. But if you somehow think it was a good thing, then you have no soul.

[OUDoc]

I'm not going to read Jed's post, but rather have a gut reaction to the subject matter. ;)

The bombings were horrible, but not as bad as a prolonged ground war in Japan. We made the best call with the information we had. It saved OUR lives at the expense of theirs.

[usmc-sooner]

I've never really like Japanese kids. As a matter of fact they anger me.

[frankensooner]

The stigma attached to the survivors was pretty bad. The Japanese Government didn't want to pay for treatments and they were pretty much shunned by their countrymen when they found out they had been in the bombing. Sad.

[BigRedJed]

Yet again, all I'm saying is that I believe it is possible to simultaneously support the decision that is fairly universally accepted to have been the right one, and at the same time feel compassion for a melted eight year old Japanese girl.

[usmc-sooner]

, and at the same time feel compassion for a melted eight year old Japanese girl.

you're soft

[OUDoc]

Jed's a communist.

[jk the sooner fan]

i seriously doubt she's 8 anymore....

[jeremy885]

Yet again, all I'm saying is that I believe it is possible to simultaneously support the decision that is fairly universally accepted to have been the right one, and at the same time feel compassion for a melted eight year old Japanese girl.


I'd rather have a melted eight year old Japanese girl, then a DEAD grandfather who had just completed basic and was about to be sent to the Pacific, when the war ended.

But that's just me.

[usmc-sooner]

that melted Japanese girl would gut Jed like a fish.

[BigRedJed]

Wow. Another disturbing moment in SF history. You folks are welcome to start your own thread on this subject (I suspect you will), but MY thread is done.

*click*