It’s funny I was just thinking that exact thought earlier today.
The NASCAR people kind of got stuck in my head and I thought about all of the hyper patriotic t-shirt crap I see people wearing at work and thought to myself people in other parts of the world don’t even come close to our trashiness. We are a nation full of flagrantly tasteless people
It may surprise you that people with a closer connection to those locations may think of the bombings in a more somber light.
It’s not just a question of whether the bomb or the decision to drop it was inherently “evil,” it’s a question of whether it’s something that warrants gleeful celebration in a “rah-rah-sports-go-USA!” kind of way.
Your observation about how time and distance changes perspective goes both ways. Americans—even Americans who have fought in armed conflict—have no living memory of their own nation’s cities being bombed into oblivion and burned to ash while millions of civilians are widowed, orphaned and turned into refugees. As you say, war is war—but we, as a nation, have a different experience with war than many and as a result we may be more prone to think of it as an heroic adventure instead of a horrific display of mankind at its worst.
Many sports mascots in the US and abroad use imagery of war, but most avoid referencing specific acts of war that remain in living memory and have living victims.
They can keep the symbol, but change their name to the Richland Farters.
As I mentioned above, that was societally acceptable 70 plus years ago, but come the fu@k on, really not cool any longer, for so many reasons.
I agree, a walk through any American city and we witness our fellow Americans pushing the envelope of craptastic, daily.
saying japan doesn’t admit what it did in ww2 is wrong is like saying america wants to build a border wall
What I saw in a documentary a few years back was that Japanese schools in the High School level plow through thousands of years of ancient history, and when they come to the 20th century they kind of breeze through it in a month… after the final finals were already taken, when no reasonable kid is paying attention.
Add some extra lines and you get a muffin.
If nothing else I reckon quips along the lines of “our team bombed again” must have worn out their welcome long ago.
I grew up in. Los Alamos and our high school football team was the “Toppers.” because we were on “top” of the mesas. Our two junior high school teams were the Cougars and the Pueblo Indians. So… there’s that.
I’ve not been to Nagasaki but I did spend a week in Hiroshima which was the site of the first bomb.
I was there for a meeting but took the time to walk through the ground-zero area (famous in the photos) and the museum, which is very well done and quite moving.
I was born after the war but my father was in it and several other family members of his generation. I know the issues of the war and how it was fought.
After leaving the museum, looking at the peace memorial nearby, and thinking about the whole conduct of the war, my overwhelming sense was - this is what you get if you start a war.
The atomic bombing was not an obvious outcome of starting the war - no-one knew about it then. But it is the way that the US ended the war. There’s no cheering for that - it’s just that that is what it took.
It is true that many people died. It is also true that the number is far few than would have died, on both sides, had the US invaded the Japanese mainland.
The lesser of two evils.
Yep… because the people who died in the only atomic bombs dropped in history were the specific people who started the war. So they deserved to die. Especially the babies. They are the literally worst. I mean, why can’t they clean up their own poops… /s
Right?
And I don’t for a second buy that dropping two nukes
“is just what it took to end the war either.”
No - they weren’t. No more than the people who died in Dresden were the ones who supported Hitler in his rise to power.
They weren’t the specific people who started the war any more than your grandparents were the people who (may have) fought against Hitler/Mussolini/etc.
When it comes to war - individuals no longer matter. That’s what war is about. States/nations/countries fight wars, not individuals. Individuals can have a major impact on what happens and how (Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Eisenhower, FDR) but these are not the individuals for whom you grieve.
These individuals did not deserve to die. Nor did the sailors at Pearl Harbor. Or on board the many ships and aircraft the US used against Japan. They were no more guilty than those babies over whom you cravenly grieve.
A lot of people died, in a bunch of wars, for you to have the ability to express your opinion. As I do for my similar ability.
Don’t sell it lightly.
So just what do you think was the deciding factor for Japan to surrender?
Or are you trying to make a different point?
“But the other side did it too” has never been a defense for war crimes.
Where is the monument to the victims of slavery and genocide (in the US, not to mention its colonies).
and the forced prostitution,
and the massacres on civilian populations,
and a lot more.
Addressing the a-bomb symbol. Yep, maybe it is a good idea to ditch that symbol - otherwise you’ll wind up with a historical artifact right up there with the symbolic BS of the wild west, gunslingers etc. America is still playing that out in the suburbs and is yet to get over it.
On the need to develop the a-bomb in the first place. Sure - had to beat the Germans to the punch - but then after overcoming Germany and spending a gazillion dollars you still had several shiny a-bombs. And why were they dropped? To save a million GI’s as the convenient rationale tries to tell you? (That was a fair enough estimate by military planners who had no knowledge of the a-bomb). What about the Soviet advance across Europe and the threat it posed to overrun the allies? What about Japan desperately trying to sue for peace? Payback for not declaring war before Pearl Harbour? - well they were not permitted to declare war where they! Why did the US drop the bomb? It was politically expedient. Why did they drop 2 bombs? Well they had 2 bombs of a different type handy and it would be a shame not to field test them both.
You might want to reflect on why you immediately decided that this particular Japanese teen represents “the Japanese” and bears responsibility for the entire nation.
They teach you this almost immediatey when you attend school, and I think at least through all of grade school(9 years), you stood up and said it every day. It seems so bizarre in retrospect but there was nothing at all strange about it at the time.
Obviously, those two bombs were. My point is that they, and that kind of wanton death and destruction, didn’t have to be the deciding factor.
