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Harold Agnew carrying the plutonium core of the Nagasaki Fat Man bomb, 1945.
"All that the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government, as originally organized, should be administered in purity and truth." – Robert E. Lee
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Those two bombs saved millions of lives.
NRA Patron
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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My FIL was a fighter pilot. He was on Okinawa training for the invasion when they dropped them. if the invasion had gone forward, I might not have had a wife to marry.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Joined: Jun 2008
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Less than 6.5 kilograms of plutonium 239 did all that damage.
Every day on this side of the ground is a win.
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Joined: Aug 2009
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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lightman
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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I grew up in Oak Ridge Tn. My dad worked at Y-12 weapons development plant, no idea what he did for a living. It was a surreal place to grow up. Patrick
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three rights make a left....
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Joined: Dec 2008
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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My uncle was a P.O.W. of the Japanese....after reading and hearing about the treatment the POWs received I haven't felt a twinge of compassion for those who died under Fat Man and Little Boy.
"...the left considers you vermin, and they'll kill you given the chance..." Bristoe
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Joined: Oct 2006
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Campfire Regular
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"Countdown 1945" by Chris Wallace, chronicling the development of the bomb and dropping it on Hiroshima is a good read.
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Campfire Savant
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Campfire Savant
Joined: Apr 2011
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My uncle was a P.O.W. of the Japanese....after reading and hearing about the treatment the POWs received I haven't felt a twinge of compassion for those who died under Fat Man and Little Boy. Not a bit
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Joined: Oct 2013
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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My paternal grandfather had 7 siblings. All 8 of them were Air Force. 4 were pilots. 2 of the pilots died in combat. One Korea and 1 Vietnam. One great uncle( the oldest) was a nuclear engineer. He drafted plans for the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki and was part of the crew that delivered the plans to the president and congress to show them progress/explain it. At his funeral( I was 14 so 20 years ago) were generals and pentagon employees who had worked with him. They spoke highly of him during speeches they gave at his funeral
his cancer was determined to have been caused by heavy metals and radiation( he was old as heck then so who knows what really killed him as he beat cancer 3 times). His wife died of same type cancer 20 years earlier. He lost a son 3 months after birth due to birth defects and leukemia they said were caused by his heavy metal exposures at oak ridge
His two daughters and one grandchild also died from cancer of same type in there mid life determined to be due to his service at oak ridge per the oncologist and researchers.
Talk about sacrifice. His lineage laid a heavy toll
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Thanks for sharing that story. Puts sacrifice into a different perspective.
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Joined: Dec 2019
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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-OMotS
"If memory serves fails me..." Quote: ( unnamed) "been prtty deep in the cooler todaay " Television and radio are most effective when people question little and think even less.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2002
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My uncle was a P.O.W. of the Japanese....after reading and hearing about the treatment the POWs received I haven't felt a twinge of compassion for those who died under Fat Man and Little Boy. The two atom bombs did nothing more than we had been doing every night to Japan for many weeks. Curtiss LeMay was systematically leveling the nation of Japan, one city at a time. The incendiary bombing campaign of city after city was killing as many Japanese every night as the atom bombs did. The only difference was that it only took one plane and one bomb to do the job. Many, many things contributed to the Japanese surrender. The knowledge that Russia was almost knocking on their back door encouraged many of the Japanese to wish to surrender to the USA before the Russians got there. So, were the atom bombs inhumane? No, no more so than any other part of the bombing campaigns over Japan and Germany. Were the two atom bombs actually necessary? Yes, I believe they were. They were the straw that broke the camel's back among the hard line Japanese generals who wanted to fight to the last child standing and the last grain of rice.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
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Joined: Oct 2013
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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That story is probably not all that unique to my family in this area unfortunately. Some gave all and then some.
Living in East Tn, and not far from oak ridge, I have known multiple people who have died from heavy metal poisoning/radiation induced cancer who worked at oak ridge facilities. Most were older folks.
My father is a brick mason. Owned a commercial masonry company for longer than I have been alive. He bid a job at oak ridge. Said he showed up with his crew to start the job and there were guys in hazmat suits using g counters at the site. He asked why they were their in suits. Most didn’t say a thing
Said one of the workers walked up to him and said he would leave and not come back if he was them. Told him levels weren’t safe for extended exposure in that area. It was a retaining wall for some kind of retention pond I believe.
Dad said he doesn’t miss the money he left behind there. Lol
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Joined: Sep 2014
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 21,864 Likes: 5 |
My uncle was a P.O.W. of the Japanese....after reading and hearing about the treatment the POWs received I haven't felt a twinge of compassion for those who died under Fat Man and Little Boy. The two atom bombs did nothing more than we had been doing every night to Japan for many weeks. Curtiss LeMay was systematically leveling the nation of Japan, one city at a time. The incendiary bombing campaign of city after city was killing as many Japanese every night as the atom bombs did. The only difference was that it only took one plane and one bomb to do the job. Many, many things contributed to the Japanese surrender. The knowledge that Russia was almost knocking on their back door encouraged many of the Japanese to wish to surrender to the USA before the Russians got there. So, were the atom bombs inhumane? No, no more so than any other part of the bombing campaigns over Japan and Germany. Were the two atom bombs actually necessary? Yes, I believe they were. They were the straw that broke the camel's back among the hard line Japanese generals who wanted to fight to the last child standing and the last grain of rice. What was done by two bombs was horrific. But actually just thin icing on a big cake. So much focus on two cities in an agressor nation. No attention at all to the cities of England, France, Poland.... Never even hear much of Dresden. War, is horrific. Period.
Parents who say they have good kids..Usually don't!
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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Those bombs killed a whole whole whole lot of Innocent people
Women, children, elderly people who did nothing wrong. And killed people from radiation induced cancer and illnesses for years after.
Those bombs though, saved more lives than could be imagined by helping to end the war. I read once that people stopped and looked at the devastation caused by those bombs, and began to realize how brutal war was. They took blinders off after that. I forget the exact number, but it was the largest loss of human life in less than 5 or 7 seconds I believe. Crazy isn’t it
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Posts: 10,812 |
I think all that damage done in one sudden blast...one airplane that was hardly noticed...it would have been one thing to have wave after wave of bombers going over, dropping thousands of bombs...when one plane cruises over, hardly noticed, drops one bomb, hardly noticed, and in an instant levels a whole damn city....there had to be something surreal about that, something that told the Japanese they were through.
Mathew 22: 37-39
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Joined: Jan 2012
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 67,217 Likes: 41 |
It’s still early in the thread. I will wait for : “my grampie,dad, uncle Pete, etc helped with the surrender terms”
Cmon whoever, you can do it
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I’ve read that during the height of the uranium enrichment at the Y-12 plant, Y-12 was using around 15% of the entire electrical output of the entire nation for months.
I’ve lived 5 miles from Oak Ridge my whole life. There are some nasty things in the ground there.
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Campfire Ranger
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OP
Campfire Ranger
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Posts: 23,319 |
My uncle was a P.O.W. of the Japanese....after reading and hearing about the treatment the POWs received I haven't felt a twinge of compassion for those who died under Fat Man and Little Boy. Australian soldiers after their release from Japanese captivity in Singapore, 1945
"All that the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government, as originally organized, should be administered in purity and truth." – Robert E. Lee
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