Conv-A-Bomb

From: Ron Turner

Dated: August 10, 2014

Subject: The Daily Appeal -- Wednesday, August 6

Nancy,

Harrison Salisbury's 900 Day Siege of Leningrad (or close to that title wise) is well worth reading. It might be particularly inspiring to those in the AFRTS vets; some of the many heroes were artists and broadcasters. One of my few triple reads.

Regards,

Ron T.

From: Dick Ellis

Dated: August 6, 2014

Subject: The Daily Appeal -- Wednesday, August 6
History today:

1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.

From: Ron Turner

Dated: August 10, 2014

Subject: The Daily Appeal -- Wednesday, August 6

Jim et al,

I often think of my very liberal-somewhat socialist-Christian Japanese university professor who argued that the bomb was necessary to ending the war - nothing less would have sufficed was his argument.
Sort of related: the most deaths in any one city during WWII were in St. Petersburg (aka Petrograd/Leningrad). The majority of those deaths were from starvation resulting from being virtually surrounded/bombarded/attacked for about two and a half years.
Regards, Ron

From: Nancy Smoyer

Dated: August 10, 2014

Subject: The Daily Appeal -- Wednesday, August 6

While in St. Petersburg years ago, we visited a "graveyard" which consisted of huge mounds of earth covering the mass graves of civilians. There was a small museum there, all in Russian, where I noticed a small (1"x2") dark brown something. I asked our guide and she said it was a piece of bread--the daily ration. Hearing from her what was like to live during and after that time was very sobering.
Nancy

From: Frank Rogers

Dated: August 9, 2014

Subject: The Daily Appeal -- Wednesday, August 6

Perhaps Jim W. can expand on this. When I was there, each Aug 6 was observed with great ceremony to add the names of all who were in Hiroshima and died, to the list of those considered killed by the bomb. I believe that even today, Hiroshima citizens are not considered favorably for marriage by someone outside the city, as they may be contaminated.
Meanwhile, V-J day is never called a "surrender" but just an ambiguous "the day the war ended."
Consider Japan's Hiroshima action with the lack of any significant observance of the Pearl Harbor attack. I would hope there is at least some recognition at the USS Arizona.
Frank

From: Jim White

Dated: August 9, 2014

Subject: The Daily Appeal -- Wednesday, August 6

Frank,
I already made a few comments about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bomb anniversaries in a reply to a message from Mike McNally. But, to add a little. I honestly don't know if people from Hiroshima/Nagasaki are avoided as marriage partners or not. I haven't heard anything to that effect but that doesn't mean much. I do recall going in early 2002 to Hiroshima to a wedding reception of one of my graduates. She was from the Osaka area so her groom must have been from the Hiroshima area. Otherwise, there would have been no reason to hold the wedding and reception in Hiroshima. And, as I recall, no one was wearing a radiation suit nor were iodine pills passed out at the end of the reception.
Yes, both cities still add names to those considered killed by the bombs. But, I must admit I have a hard time getting my head around the idea that someone who dies 68 or 69 years after the dropping of the bombs and who may have died at 70 to 80+ or more, was an "a-bomb victim." Both cities have "great ceremonies" but--as I told Mike--they tend to be pro-forma anymore.
The Japanese still use "the day the war ended" and never say that they "surrendered." Although, some will admit to have been defeated by the U.S.
Your Hiroshima versus the Pearl Harbor attack comparison is interesting--but I think that there is some kind of annual ceremony at the Arizona monument each December 7th.
Jim
PS: In total, more people were killed in the Tokyo area due to our fire-bomb raids than were killed in either Hiroshima or Nagasaki. It just took a little longer--but "dead is still dead." And injured or mentally scared is still ..... As the years past I am more and more convinced that my wife suffers from PTSD caused by being on the wrong end of the Tokyo bombings.

[NB: In August 2016, President Obama was the first U.S. President to visit the A-Bomb Memorial in Hiroshima. While I, personally, didn't think that it was such a big deal, the Japanese press played it up very big--but, then, that is what the press does.]

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The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

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