jo grant wrote:
I do not; however, I recall charts of the destroyed areas of Hiroshima
and the military and industrial, along with the naval facilities--to the
best of my recollection--were either spared or suffered only moderate
damage.
Pentagon and Defense Dept public relations painted a convincing
picture--to the general public--that the bombs "saved millions of
American lives." but those were the acts of a terrorist government.
JW reply:
I agree with your thought that "those were the acts of a terrorist
government." There was no military need to invade Japan in 1945, a
naval blockade would have been sufficient although political pressure
may have been applied for a more decisive action.
As for the military aspect of Hiroshima, in my recollection it was a
major army headquarters and I have no idea how the command, supply,
communications and intelligence functions were spread throughout the
city, and I wonder if the US really knew what kind of damage one bomb
would do. I am assuming that they were not thinking of it as some sort
of precision weapon. The naval facilities were (and are) at Kure across
the bay. How much destroying Hiroshima affected Kure, I have no idea.
There was also a naval air base at Iwakuni, about 30 miles south and out
of the blast range. What effect cutting the cord at Hiroshima had on
the air base is also something which I do not know. Destruction in
central Hiroshima on the delta was massive.
-- Jerry West Editor/publisher/janitor ---------------------------------------------------- THE RECORD On line news from Nootka Sound & Canada's West Coast An independent, progressive regional publication http://www.island.net/~record/
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