It was 62 years ago today we dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Approximately, 140,000 people died from this bomb in Hiroshima alone. Most of these people were civilians just going about their day.
3 days later, we dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Another 74,000 people dead. Mostly civilians.
In the years after, 160,000 people died from radiation poisoning.
Man is a disgusting creature.
We have no business being so righteous in this country.
Let’s hope nobody ever uses these types of bombs again. Although, I think that hoping for this might be a fool’s dream. I believe in my lifetime or my children’s that someone somewhere will be dumb and soulless enough to use nuclear weapons again.
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”—Albert Einstein
“Let me say only this much to the moral issue involved: Suppose Germany had developed two bombs before we had any bombs. And suppose Germany had dropped one bomb, say, on Rochester and the other on Buffalo, and then having run out of bombs she would have lost the war. Can anyone doubt that we would then have defined the dropping of atomic bombs on cities as a war crime, and that we would have sentenced the Germans who were guilty of this crime to death at Nuremberg and hanged them?”—Leo Szilard
”He knew he was beginning the process of annihilation of the species. It was not just a war crime; it was a crime against humanity.”—Peter Kuznick about Harry Truman
“The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military point of view, in the defeat of Japan.”—Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet
“The use of [the atomic bombs] at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.”—Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to President Truman
It’s good to remember these things, so that they never happen again.
Fresh Air Lover 
Amen
Good post Debbie. It’s very easy to “forget” these events or brush them under the carpet, but we can’t afford to do that.
I don’t think that man is a disgusting creature, but rather a dangerous creature. What separates us from the beasts is not necessarily our brains, but how they operate within us because only man could devise a way to single handedly wipe out their own species, not to mention other species as well.
Good post!
katrina: Yup.
steph: No, we can’t.
jr: You’re right. Dangerous.
Amen to that….Here’s to hoping they never happen again.
I remember in high school history we had to act out a Harry Truman trial and make up the whole thing. We did a ton of research and I was the one that prosecuted him. The class voted, and he was convicted. The funny part is that my ex-boyfriend was playing Truman.
weekends off: Amen to it.
b: You got to try your your ex-boyfriend. I wish I was so lucky. No really, Truman should have been tried for war crimes. Many have done far less and have been tried.
You’re right Debbie, he shoulda been tried for war crimes. But in the US, no matter what a President does, he’ll get away w/ it. If he does manage to lose his place in office & a trial starts, it’s known that the next-in-line new President will just pardon him.
And yet, we still have Guantánamo Bay.
Great post! Thanks.