A sad display of history

[41chevy]

Today August 6 the U.S. dropped the first of 2 Atomic bombs on Japan. Both sides still agree that as tragic it was, the end result was the elimination of the potential of 1 million or more casualties on both sides was spared from happening along with a long projected battle for the mainland.

A pretty blond spokeswoman mentioned that if the United States and Japan had a treaty like President Obama is going to have with Iran the bombs would never have been used,, (???) WTF does any one on the staff know history?

[BigRWfan]

No they do not.

[kscarbel2]

For those who value the gained insight that historical knowledge inherently yields, this is a good read.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/08/05/stalin_japan_hiroshima_occupation_hokkaido/

https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/30/the-bomb-didnt-beat-japan-stalin-did/

[41chevy]

For those who value the gained insight that historical knowledge inherently yields, this is a good read.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/08/05/stalin_japan_hiroshima_occupation_hokkaido/

https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/30/the-bomb-didnt-beat-japan-stalin-did/

Very interesting, much insight to Stalin's plans. I always felt Stalin's death was a blessing to the West in the long run.

Patton seemed to be the only one who saw the threat of the post WWII Soviet Union. Paul

[david wild]

Obama really thinks that a piece of paper will stop bombs, ?? if they want they will do what ever they want.

[41chevy]

Obama really thinks that a piece of paper will stop bombs, ?? if they want they will do what ever they want.

The same man who says the economy is in trouble because there aren't enough people of "color" and minority engineers....

[BC Mack]

Obama really thinks that a piece of paper will stop bombs, ?? if they want they will do what ever they want.

"those who fail to learn from history tend to repeat it"....

if you want to read/google about British PM Chamberlain's trip to Munich in 1938 and see the similarities to what is happening with Obama and Iran it could get frightening...

Chamberlain returned to Britain and acclaimed he had a written agreement with "Mr Hitler" for "Peace in our time"... all the while the invasion of Poland and the holocaust was being planned in Berlin.

this era prior to 1939 was a very unstable period with countries being traded by the European superpowers of the day, France and Britain, Hitler had already made moves into Czech territory but everyone believed he wouldn't go any further... they had a signed agreement ..!!!!

we all know what happen in '39.

BC Mack

[mowerman]

lets go trump rah rah rah !!!!!!!...we need a real president this time...bob

[41chevy]

"those who fail to learn from history tend to repeat it"....

if you want to read/google about British PM Chamberlain's trip to Munich in 1938 and see the similarities to what is happening with Obama and Iran it could get frightening...

Chamberlain returned to Britain and acclaimed he had a written agreement with "Mr Hitler" for "Peace in our time"... all the while the invasion of Poland and the holocaust was being planned in Berlin.

this era prior to 1939 was a very unstable period with countries being traded by the European superpowers of the day, France and Britain, Hitler had already made moves into Czech territory but everyone believed he wouldn't go any further... they had a signed agreement ..!!!!

we all know what happen in '39.

BC Mack

Hillary also believes that meaningful dialog and jobs are what the Iranians and ISIS want from us. Both are treacherous in my eyes.

People also forget or don't know the the Soviet Union started on Shicklgrubers side in the beginning.

[Vladislav]

Both sides still agree that as tragic it was, the end result was the elimination of the potential of 1 million or more casualties on both sides was spared from happening along with a long projected battle for the mainland.

Any thing in our world has multiple sides to look at. A clever man can see at least more than one.

And you're almost right about Schicklgruber. There was a military parade in Warsaw after occupation of Poland in 1940. Both Germans and Soviet Union divisions marched there. There probably is a video on U-tube.

[kscarbel2]

Japan’s longest day: plot that nearly prevented war from ending

The Financial Times / August 13, 2015

On the night of August 14 1945, as Japan prepared to surrender to the Allies, a group of rebel officers launched a coup d’état and seized control of Tokyo’s Imperial Palace.

Determined to fight on, even if it meant the annihilation of their country, the plotters ransacked the palace looking for the prepared recording of Emperor Hirohito’s surrender message and very nearly prevented the end of the Second World War.

The events of that night — symbolising a loss of political control over the military — have come sharply into focus on Friday’s 70th anniversary as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, seeks to reinterpret Japan’s pacifist constitution and make it easier for its armed forces to fight.

The main actors from that August night are long dead, but one man still living spoke with almost all of them. In the mid-1960s, Kazutoshi Hando interviewed the protagonists for his book Japan’s Longest Day , a classic account of the hours leading up to the surrender. “Even 20 or 30 years later the plotters still thought it was wrong for Japan to capitulate,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times.

The book — remade as a film for the 70th anniversary — is almost unbearably tense. The fanatics plead with the head of the army to lead their coup, only for him to commit ritual suicide instead, while gangs of students roam the streets seeking to assassinate the prime minister.

It is often assumed that Japan’s surrender was inevitable after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but even after the devastation of those cities half of the cabinet refused to accept the allies’ terms. The deadlock was only broken when the prime minister in an unprecedented step asked the Emperor, a constitutional figurehead, to decide whether to surrender.

The surrender came as a shock to a military that was planning to fight to the last man.

A successful coup was plausible. “The plotters probably thought they had a 50:50 chance,” says Mr Hando. The moment of greatest danger came on the morning of August 14 when the rebel officers knew the cabinet would meet at the prime minister’s residence.

They planned to confine all members of the peace faction then install a military government.

If that had happened, says Mr Hando: “There would have been no way to form a new cabinet with the power to surrender. It would have ended as it did in Nazi Germany.” The Allies would have invaded Japan to be met by waves of suicide attacks.

But the prime minister got wind of the danger and had his colleagues meet at the Imperial Palace instead, The plotters seized the palace later in the night in a desperate attempt to prevent the Emperor’s broadcast of surrender.

In the book it is striking just how little the atomic devastation of two cities seemed to play on the minds of the politicians planning surrender and the officers trying to stop them.

Years after writing Japan’s Longest Day, Mr Hando says he came to think the atomic attacks were more significant: they shocked Japan’s top brass, who had been told such weapons could not be ready in time for the war, but now feared an atomic attack on Tokyo.

But he says Japan’s leadership had a sketchy understanding of what nuclear weapons really meant: it took until three days after Hiroshima, for example, to confirm the weapon used was atomic. “The leaders understood better than the general public, but there were still many who didn’t comprehend it fully,” says Mr Hando.

The author, now aged 85, is part of the dying generation with personal memories of the war. He remembers feeling deeply moved when Japan adopted its pacifist constitution in 1947, and while he says an old man has no right to decide, he clearly opposes Mr Abe’s changes.

Japan’s greatest assets is the international trust its post-war pacifism has earned, says Mr Hando. “To throw that away on a needless national security law . . . I think is completely unnecessary.”