Originally posted by clackers A pretty amazing documentary has the surviving Enola Gay crewmen of the time taken on a tour of Hiroshima like you, including visiting hospitals where some civilians were dying years later, without their identity being revealed to their Japanese hosts. Very touching, these guys were no longer 19 year olds who didn't understand the world.
I did some tracking of the timelines of the Trinity test, the Indianapolis, and the bomb over Hiroshima. The weapon was fast tracked, and the target identified way earlier. Hiroshima was one of the cities chosen because of lack of allied POWs, and being an industrial center. We even stopped "regular" bombing of the city weeks/months earlier so that we could asses the damage from the bomb.
The guys in the Enola Gay...had no real knowledge of what they were doing...just that they were dropping a "special bomb".
Not giving people the full truth is something that enables this sort of thing.
Humanity needs to stop doing these things...it makes your stomach turn.
Having been all through Japan, I also know there was zero chance of a successful invasion. Japan is one big craggy mountain range, with deep valleys and deep forests.
War makes for decisions and memories folks should never have to deal with.
Dropping an Atomic weapon is the worst thing we can do as humans.