There is nothing that makes me feel more grateful for life than seeing pictures from the Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombings. Every time I see a picture of an atomic bomb exploding I feel a knot in my stomach -- as if I could feel all of the souls reaching out to me in pain, frozen forever inside that single image.
I have long had mixed opinions about the bombing and about whether or not dropping the bomb was the right thing to do. I have always edged towards believing we never should have dropped it. However, the following comment, left by an anonymous person on the site below, has made me realize how difficult a decision it must have been for those in power at the time, and how in the end, there was probably no good solution.
During World War II, nearly 500,000 Purple Heart medals were manufactured in anticipation of the casualties resulting from the abandoned invasion of Japan, Operation Downfall. As of 2005, all the American military casualties of the following sixty years - including the Korean and Vietnam Wars - have not exhausted that stockpile.
And to think we have over 20,000 of these nuclear weapons still intact around the world, more than enough to wipe out the entire human race.
Why?
My boss (died in 2003) was on a boat to invade Japan before they dropped the bomb. When they decided to drop the bomb they were sent to the Philipeans.
Use to think back, what if… would he have made it out… where would I be working?