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Path: utzoo!lsuc!jimomura
From: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: People don't know their history
Message-ID: <739@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Jul-85 20:28:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: lsuc.739
Posted: Wed Jul 31 20:28:56 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Jul-85 20:45:58 EDT
References: <307@looking.UUCP> <3306@garfield.UUCP> <228@watmum.UUCP> <2260@watcgl.UUCP>
Reply-To: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura)
Organization: Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
Lines: 53
Summary: Leveling Mt. Fuji

In article <2260@watcgl.UUCP> jchapman@watcgl.UUCP (john chapman) writes:
>> In article <3306@garfield.UUCP> lionel@garfield.UUCP (Lionel H. Moser) writes:
>> >> Nuking cities is something that was done once, strictly for dramatic effect,
>> >> to end the second world war.  I don't think it's on people's minds today
>> >> Brad Templeton
>> >
>> >Was the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki required to win WWII? Hadn't
>> >it become just a mopping-up operation when the bombs were dropped?
>> >Lionel H. Moser
>> 
>> Absolutely not. The alternative to the American forces was the invasion of the
>> Japanese home islands, which would be substantially different from invading
>> various & sundry colonial possessions along the way. The casualties were 
>> estimated to be in the range of 1 million or so, and there was fear that the
>> war would have continued to 1948. The Bomb was NOT merely a straw to break the
>> camel's back. It was instrumental in bringing the war to a quick conclusion
>> with minimal loss of American lives.
>> 
>> When discussing politics, it is usually very useful to get the facts straight,
>> the most important of which is the historical perspective on the issue.
>> 
>> 
>> Chris Shaw    watmath!watmum!cdshaw  or  cdshaw@watmath
>
> I'm not as familiar with that part of our history as I should be so
> maybe I shouldn't comment (but I can resist :-) ).  Wouldn't one
> bombing have been enough; perhaps even one bombing on an unpopulated
> area? e.g. Americans tell Japanese to pick a spot, any spot, and watch
> it dissappear.  Maybe I'm wrong but I would be jut as impressed by
> seeing the top of a mountain dissappear as by a city dissappearing.
>
>-- 
>
>	John Chapman
>	...!watmath!watcgl!jchapman
>
>	Disclaimer : These are not the opinions of anyone but me
>		     and they may not even be mine.

     That's an interesting thought.  The only piece of real
estate worth dropping it on (without people) would have
been Mt. Fuji.  I don't know what the effect of that would
really be.  It could be that leveling the top of Mt. Fuji
would only have infuriated the more nationalistic of the
Japanese (sorry guys, my name and my genes are japanese, but
to a great extent I'm as much a foreigner as anybody else
'here'--I'm just guessing).
 
                              Cheers! -- Jim O.

-- 
James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura