Ground Zero - Nagasaki

[Shayne]

Nagasaki

A second Atomic bomb to mankind was dropped on Nagasaki, following Hiroshima. A Plutonium bomb named “Fatman” with the potential of 1.4 times greater than “Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima, was dropped by an U.S. Army aircraft B29 “Box Car”, resulting with the death of 74,000 people due to the intense heat, blast and radiation of the bomb, and approximately 75,000 injuries (estimation as of December, 1945).

Like Hiroshima, victims of the bomb are now still suffering from the aftereffect of the radiation. In the year between August 2004 and July 2005, 2,748 people have died, making the total number of identified victims to 137,339 as of July 2005. The average age of survivors of the bomb has now exceeded 73 years.

View Nagasaki hypocenter (Ground Zero), listen to the sounds and try to imagine the devastion that happened over 60 years ago here (http://ww2panorama.org/panos/yoshito_nagasaki_01.html)

[Jamie]

My father is a WW II American war veteran as well as a number of my uncles, the same is true with a number of you folks.

The problem here is that you are looking at WW II through the lenses of the year 2000. It isn't the same. My generation has a hard time looking at WWII the way my father and uncles folks did. I remember getting into arguments with my dad. I finally understood it when I attended funerals of my friends who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001.

They had to fight back with everything they had and prayed that that was enough. They didn't have the luxury of being able guage and only apply an "appropriate" response.

It is true that the US use of nuclear use of nuclear wepons caused a great deal of death and pain and misery, not only then but for generations to come; however we didn't start the war.

By the way even after the yse of these weapons Japan was ready to surrender, they would have fought to the death. The only reason they surrendered was that the emporer Hirohito intervened and ordered it.

[Shayne]

I supose if they hadnt dropped the atomic bomb then even more people would died from the war.