Re: [tlug] A-bomb service

[Jawaad Mahmood <jawaad.mahmood@example.com>]

You could apply the same thinking to any kind of atrocity.  Like it or not, the a bomb was a deeply unsettling event.  War is old and we all have a general idea of what it is like.  Potentially eradicating a city with a single bomb isn't - moreover, contaminating it with nuclear fallout is terrifying.

It is really gauche to post in a Japan-related group about how the A-bomb is overrated.  Reminds me of a high school classmate who went in front of our teacher (holocaust survivors daughter) and started off his speech with "We all hear about the 6 million Jews that died in WW2 but hey not the 20 million Chinese?". To an extent he had a point, but it was utterly without tact and served no purpose other than to inflict pain on our teacher.

Yeah, we are hardcore computer nerds and feelings are for the weak but let's save our rants for our own failures; raining on someone else's pain is rather depressing (especially when the Bomb survivors have unerringly worked for peace, something that benefits us all, as opposed to working merely for compensation or to impose themselves on others) 



Sent from my iPad

On Jul 29, 2010, at 8:23 AM, Fredric Fredricson <Fredric.Fredricson@example.com> wrote:

>  On 07/27/2010 04:40 AM, Lewske Wada wrote:
>> A lot of countries are going to send their representatives to the
>> A-bomb memorial service on Aug. 6 this year. I hope this will cause
>> progress in decreasing nuclear weapons in the world.
> Totally OT but:
> <rant>
> I never understood why 100,000+ deaths by two A-bombs are so important to
> remember compared to the ~2,600,000 other Japanese killed in WWII. Or the
> 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 Chinese killed etc.
> 
> I think that these particular A-bombs probably saved lives, considering
> that the (failed) defense of Okinawa claimed 100,000 Japanese lives and
> about as many Okinawan lives, how many Japanese and American lives would
> it have taken if the US had tried to invade Japans mainland?
> 
> I am no fan of A-bombs or any weapon but you do not need A-bombs to
> create a hell in earth. I have no numbers but I am pretty sure the
> Kalashnikov AK-47 have claimed far more innocent lives than atomic
> weapons so a ban on AK-47s makes more sense, almost.
> 
> There is no glory in war, no heroism and no winners.
> </rant>
> 
> /Fredric
> 
> PS. Numbers from Wikipedia
> 
>> http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20100727a1.html
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Lewske "Ryu" Wada
>> Web: http://run.sh/
>> Email: ryu@example.com
>> ICQ: 348990359
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
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