RadioBanter - I Couldn't Bow Low Enough!

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I Couldn't Bow Low Enough!

Met an elderly Japanese gentleman while having brunch today. Long
story short, his family was a victim of the American war crimes,
specifically the dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I've never felt
so ashamed to be an American. I couldn't bow low enough in apology for
this nation.
Keke Goldfeller

On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 23:11:28 -0500, Keke Goldfeller wrote
(in message ):

Met an elderly Japanese gentleman while having brunch today. Long
story short, his family was a victim of the American war crimes,
specifically the dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I've never felt
so ashamed to be an American. I couldn't bow low enough in apology for
this nation.
Keke Goldfeller

Twit-filter invoked.

not even a very good troll

plonk

Keke Goldfeller wrote:

Met an elderly Japanese gentleman while having brunch today. Long
story short, his family was a victim of the American war crimes,
specifically the dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I've never felt
so ashamed to be an American. I couldn't bow low enough in apology for
this nation.
Keke Goldfeller

Life's a bitch. They should have thought about that before they bombed
the crap out of Pearl Harbor. They had delusions of grandeur even
thinking they could whip our ass. Also, dropping the bomb was not a war
crime. The only black mark I can see is the detainment of Japanese U.S.
citizens. But if he was actually Japanese, and not a U.S. citizen, he
has no real gripe there either. Heck, you might as well have bent over
and let him drive you home.
Sad... MK
--
http://web.wt.net/~nm5k

Yup, pretty unskilled. Oh, well, at least I won't
read his drivel henceforth.

"Gray Shockley" wrote:

| Twit-filter invoked.
|
| not even a very good troll
|
| plonk
|

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"Somebody Somewhere" wrote in message
news:bm9ub3RtZQ==.739d74c4e0e16c03d2c482960f0c7bd6 @1066088183.cotse.net...
Keke Goldfeller wrote:

Met an elderly Japanese gentleman while having brunch today. Long
story short, his family was a victim of the American war crimes,
specifically the dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Huh????

Oh yes, of course! I forgot that treasonous liberal swine like you always
call killing an enemy that brutally attacked your country a "war crime".

You're right, of course. When those slant-eyed gooks attacked us, we
should
have all committed suicide to spare the noble enemy the trouble and
expense
of killing us themselves. My, how insensitive we were!

No, we shouldn't have.. we should have done most of what we did, with two
exceptions.

1) We should not have imprisoned Japanese Americans on an assumption that
they could possibly side with the land of their ancestors.

2) We should not have bombed hundreds of thousands of civilians into vapor.
Yes, there were military targets in the area, but that does not, and cannot,
excuse the deaths of so many civilians, any more than Al Qaida can be
excused for the deaths at the WTC.

I've never felt
so ashamed to be an American.

You're NOT an American. You're a loony left wing crybaby liberal parasite
piece of **** who's lucky that you haven't been lynched for your treason.

In the America I call home, everyone has the right to their opinion, and the
right to voice it (yes, even you). I consider myself a moderate
conservative, but let's get real here.. if it were not for "liberal
parasites", you would not have the standard of living you enjoy today. You
would be working for pennies an hour, while your boss lived high on the hog.
You would have no protection against any of myriad mistreatments at the
hands of police or government officials. Your wife (assuming you are male)
would not be able to work.

"Brenda Ann" wrote in message n

2) We should not have bombed hundreds of thousands of civilians into vapor.
Yes, there were military targets in the area, but that does not, and cannot,
excuse the deaths of so many civilians, any more than Al Qaida can be
excused for the deaths at the WTC.

It probably could have been avoided. But the people involved blew it.
"Mainly at the top". We were already close to winning the war at that
point. But the mindset of the people and the military left little
regard for the Japanese at that point of the war. They did have it
coming, but we might have gotten carried away a bit. The people that
built the bomb, never expected it to be as powerful as it was. After
they tested it, many that built it didn't think it should be used. But
the people that ran things at the top didn't really care, or realize
just how powerful it was. All they wanted to do was get Japan to
surrender. Either by bomb or a mainland strike. But due to ignoring
the best advice at that time, they blew any chances of a diplomatic
end to the war. Only a very few people here, really had any idea how
the Japanese people thought about things. A former ambassador to
Japan, knew how they thought, and gave the best suggestions to the
text in the pact offered. But others altered the text to where it left
the Japanese no way out but to keep fighting. At that point,
protecting the emperor, who was viewed as a god, was the ONLY real
concern of the Japanese in favor of ending the war. But the original
pact gave the emperor no real consideration to staying in power. Why?
Because they altered the text that the former ambassador proposed. If
they had left the original text as is, which the former ambassador
pleaded to do until the last minute, the bomb *may* well have been
avoided.

But I still have no overwhelming pangs of guilt myself, because
#1, they started the whole mess by bombing us. Severely, I might add.
#2, the Japanese did prove to be very brutal and vicious in war. They
were the first to use methods that we would have considered criminal
before that war. Mainly their treatment of captured solders.
My grandfather fought in the Pacific on many islands, and there is no
doubt they would have slit his throat for a nickel had they captured
him.
#3 I wasn't even born yet, and had nothing to do with it.

Myself, I would have never bombed a city full of civilians if I had
been president at that time. I would have found a suitable Japanese
military group or base to use as an example, and to give a
demonstration of the bombs power first.
I would have gave them a good touch up, aimed at the right people,
maybe even over the ocean nearby. But not totally destroy a city with
many civilians in it. Being they were about to cave in anyway, that
probably would have done the trick. I think that would have been
preferable to a mainland invasion, and saved lives. Also they were
very scared of Russia and that would have been a factor. But Truman
did use it as he did, good or bad, and there is nothing we can do
about it now. Maybe the present and future people can use it as a
useful lesson, but I sort of doubt they will pay any attention. Using
the bomb caused us many problems on down the road. We would have never
been in an arms race with Russia, if we hadn't used the bomb. Might
have never had a Korean war, because we *might* have ended the war
before Russia invaded that area. "July instead of August" Russia
invaded Korea in the final days of the war, if I remember right. The
world would have ended up quite different. It's all armchair
quarterback talk at this point nearly 60 years later...People now
don't think like they did then. Even in the US. It was very patriotic
to kick a Japanese's butt in those days. I doubt that many of the
general population had that much of a problem with it. But of course,
like now, they were kept in the dark like mushrooms. All they knew was
we were finally kicking their tails into the ground, and ending the
war. MK

It's all armchair
quarterback talk at this point nearly 60 years later.

Gotta agree here. While I believe wholeheartedly that the original post on this
thread was a troll lookin' for noise, I've seen some interesting points and
mostly decent discussion on the issue.
We might want to remember that not only were we trying to impress upon the
Japanese the power of the weapon, but also impress it upon the Soviets... the
Cold War started a lot earlier than many think, and one of the reasons for
outright use on a civilian target with no hesitation after decision was to show
the Russians that we weren't in the mood for nitpicking negotiations and land
grabbing deals when the war was over. Of course, that's exactly what DID happen
afterwards, but that was what many in the U.S. 'up-top' were thinking at the
time.
I sure wish we hadn't used it quite so indiscriminately, and I wish it had
never happened... but I also wish the Battan Death March hadn't happened. I
wish Pearl Harbor hadn't happened. Hell, I wish the whole fiasco from Hitler to
Stalin to Hirohito, Churchill and Roosevelt/Truman, had simply never happened.
If we could have avoided Archduke Ferdinand's assassination, we may well would
have avoided the whole of the 20th Century's biggest problems.
But like you said, this far down the road, it hardly matters. Try to understand
the mindset, the emotions, of an earlier, more desperate time, and then move
on. Learn from their mistakes, grow from their accomplishments, make their
world your own.
They put the status quo into place, got some of it hugely wrong, but when has
human kind ever done everything right all the time?
Except me of course. :-)
Linus