Hiroshima @ Nagasaki

[BHelmet]

I thought the Japanese were already trying to negotiate surrender when we nuked the 2 cities. At least that is the standard “conspiracy” theory. (And that this was really a message to Russia)

Anyway, if that is a picture of Tokyo after a fire bombing, it looked pretty much the same as Hiroshima. Interesting that the buildings don’t look scorched black and the lack of soot and debris. Bizarre. And the few buildings that are relatively in tact look very old.

 

[Possibility of Being]

Anyway, if that is a picture of Tokyo after a fire bombing, it looked pretty much the same as Hiroshima. Interesting that the buildings don’t look scorched black and the lack of soot and debris. Bizarre. And the few buildings that are relatively in tact look very old.

A far as I know, most houses were built of wood and those were scorched by napalm bombs. What survived the fire were buildings made of stone.

 

[Aerick]

Are you sure? That's what Tokyo looked like after March 1945 firebombing, which would become the deadliest air raid in human history, including each of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

View attachment 42528

Was what caused this incendiary bombs?
This town looks wiped off the map.
I understand that this bombing was more deadly than that of Nagasaki.

 

[BHelmet]

Was what caused this incendiary bombs?
This town looks wiped off the map.
I understand that this bombing was more deadly than that of Nagasaki.

I think they used phosphorous. Vonnegut wrote about the Dresden "Cat's Cradle" fire bombing - ghastly, hideous and cruel. Also sucked the O2 out of the air, if I remember correctly. The utter lack of debris in those photos is amazing.

 

[Possibility of Being]

I think they used phosphorous.

Wikipedia has a pretty decent entry on that bombing:

Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

See also here:
33 Haunting Photos Of The Firebombing Of Tokyo In 1945

Late that evening, more than 300 B-29s departed their bases on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. Seven hours and 1,500 miles later, they arrived above Tokyo. The first bombers set fires with small bombs at five locations. These would act as targets for all following bombers.

Between 1:30 and 3:00 a.m., Operation Meetinghouse began to firebomb Tokyo.

The planes dropped 500,000 M-69 bombs in total. Clustered into groups of 38, each device weighed six pounds, and each deployed batch spread out during descent. The napalm within each casing spewed flaming liquid upon impact and ignited everything in range.

 

[BHelmet]

130am-300am. Ugh. Outrageously cruel. Everyone sleeping. Brushed under the rug of historical amnesia.

 

[XPan]

Wikipedia has a pretty decent entry on that bombing:

Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

See also here:
33 Haunting Photos Of The Firebombing Of Tokyo In 1945

I can’t believe

that the Tokyo bombings flew totally under my radar ?!! The images are horrid, and endless sad. So, more heavy breathing today uh !

i did hear, as a child, about napalm fire bombs and remember very well that sense of dread and fear from the tellings of my family during WW2.

 

[JimDuyer]

Are you sure? That's what Tokyo looked like after March 1945 firebombing, which would become the deadliest air raid in human history, including each of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

View attachment 42528

My first wife was Japanese. Her mother lived in Tokyo during the fire bombings. Not nearly all of the city was damaged - quite a bit was but nothing like it would have been had they dropped an atomic bomb on the Imperial palace. In fact she bought up rice, changed it into liquor, and hid it under her wooden house. After the war she made a fortune with it, since all the liquor factories were gone, and she then used the money to buy a shipping company. Quite wealthy, they were.

The thing is, the ones that would know are the ones that the bombs were dropping on. And based on their suffering from radiation exposure and blindness from the blasts, I would have to take them at their word. They believe it, and they are the best witnesses, in my less than humble opinion. And yes, I did travel south and actually talk to some of the people.

 

[luc]

He says: "It was a hoax, because Hiroshima was a port city and I assumed that someone equipped a barge with tons of TNT and slipped this barge in the harbor, flew a plane over and dropped something and set off this bomb. So, I assumed this was a trick to fool the Japanese into thinking we had an atomic bomb. But Nagasaki wasn't so accessible. Many people must have wondered why we dropped two bombs, why wasn't one enough. My first thought was that there were two to convince them it wasn't a hoax."

The reason I have heard for this (dropping 2 bombs) in school by a great history teacher is straight-forward and plausible: the US wanted to test the A-bomb in different terrains/under different circumstances.

 

[loreta]

I do not know if that can help, there is a book written by John Hersey, Hiroshima. It tells the stories of six survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It is regarded as one of the earliest examples of the New Journalism, in which the story-telling techniques of fiction are adapted to non-fiction reporting.

And the movie made by a Japanese director, Shōhei Imamura, about the bomb on Hiroshima, "Black Rain".

Ah, and the movie "Hiroshima mon amour" by Alain Resnais.

 

[BHelmet]

The reason I have heard for this (dropping 2 bombs) in school by a great history teacher is straight-forward and plausible: the US wanted to test the A-bomb in different terrains/under different circumstances.

Uh you don’t have to kill a quarter million people to do that. I Think the first one was - “see what we got here?” And the second said “and this was not a one shot deal. We got plenty more where that came from.” And the message was sent that the US was not above massive unnecessary slaughter/we are not afraid to use these things (primarily directed at Stalin). That allowed us to dictate the terms of all our post war relationships.

 

[dmnlksm]

The atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki due to heavy fog. Kokura was the first target. There's a lot of clear information about that.

Whatever the reason, the "Fat man" could not be thrown into Kokura because of this fog cloud. With about 45 minutes remaining over the city, the crew decided to head for the secondary destination: Nagasaki. Nagasaki was listed as one of 17 possible atomic bomb targets under plans drafted in April 1945, but in May the city was delisted. Although Nagasaki had a large port and facilities that manufactured torpedoes for the Japanese navy, the city also included a camp for US prisoners of war. Nagasaki, located in a mountainous geography, was also a military challenge. Kokura and Hiroshima were cities on somely flat plateaus, while Nagasaki was at the bottom of a deep valley.

 

[Aerick]

The Tokyo Firebombing Was Deadlier Than Hiroshima — So Why Haven't You Heard Of It?

"LeMay stated years later that he had no problem killing innocent Japanese people at the time. He was hailed as a hero and awarded numerous medals for his contributions to Operation Meetinghouse. March 1945."

He is not human ! Psychopath 3D STS covered with numerous medals.