The 71st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaski

[HoloYolo]

Tomorrow and next Wednesday mark the beginning of the atomic age in a violent way. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Two cities decimated by two bombs. The effects still linger today, in Japan, America, and all across the world. Many people died in the belief that the war would come to a swift end. Although that is up to debate, this thread is not for that. It is to remember the lost lives of the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Mushroom cloud of Hiroshima's Little Boy

http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/120478.jpg

Mushroom cloud of Nagasaki's Fat Man.

(Sorry about it not showing up)

Edited August 6, 2016 by HoloYolo

[cubinator]

These technologies can be extremely useful for spacecraft and alleviating the ever-looming threat of climate change, among other things. It's unfortunate that they had to be conceived by conflict and hatred. My heart goes out to all those affected by the attacks, and I look forward to future, more benign uses of nuclear tech.

P.S. When I was at Udvar-Hazy earlier this summer I saw the bomber that dropped Little Boy. Quite humbling.

[polytechnique]

This sort of science I've heard likened to keys... a key that can open the gates of Heaven, but also the mouth of Hell.

I think nuclear power is a great alternative to the current fossil fuel methods we have (especially the promising-looking LFTR technology) but the creation and proliferation of nuclear weapons is an ... unfortunate side effect.

You could go on for hours and hours about whether or not the bombings were justified, but ... well, it happened in 1945, and the past is behind us. Maybe the destructiveness of the two bombings set the stage for the Cold War and prevented their further use, or maybe they created even more tension on a global stage. We won't know and we may never know what further effects nuclear weapons have... I just pray I won't see them used for anything but an Orion pusher~

[pandaman]

Sadly it is conflict that pushes human creativity, those bombs are very visible evidence of that.  Even the Apollo programme was largely a product of the cold war.

Much has been learnt since then about the effects of nuclear weapons, due in no small part to observations made in the aftermath and beyond.  The technology and knowledge to make them cannot be unlearned, but we do as a result of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have awareness and experience of the consequences of their use, which may have avoided them being used in relative ignorance and greater numbers since and will hopefully provide the incentive to not use them again.

 

 

[tater]

The beginning would have been visible out the window across from me right now, July 16, 1945 (except there were no houses up on the side of his mountain back then (kept maybe some sheep herder huts) here in New Mexico.

I'd take a brighter view of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Not the lives daily lost, but the multiple of those lives lost who were saved as a result. The bombings without question shortened a war which was killing thousands of people every single day it went on. It not only saved the lives of people scheduled for invasion (the only lives concerning the decision makers), but Japanese.

[Bill Phil]

And what of the triumph of Hiroshima becoming greater than ever before, after the bombing? That's cause for celebration. 

Yes, the bombings were and are terrible. But they're past events which we can't do anything about. I'm at least glad that both cities recovered. And yes, they have.

I think that the firebombings were much worse (and they were, killing many more people), but that was over time and not caused by one bomb.

World War II was not going to end in the pacific unless something drastic happened. Mainly: mass invasion (killing millions) or atomic bombings (hundreds of thousands). The lesser of two evils was chosen. And since they recovered from the bombings... I'd say it was awful but necessary.

Yes, the bombings were terrible, especially so for those who experienced them, but it did end the war. And many more terrbile things were happening, things which wouldn't have stopped if the war continued.