[LLOYD_Ian@canon.com.au]

Well said!
I mean who started the whole thing?
If that didn't happen i wonder would we be around now? Would our countries be free?
I for one would not have liked to have had to make the desicion to use the bomb, the main thing is that we got the result we needed and if that's the
price of freedom then so be it!
It's not unlike the war we are fighting now against terrorism the enemy are similar in that they have no respect for life and frankly the world would
be better off without them!

IAN LLOYD - National Sales Admin. Team Leader
CANON - Business Imaging Solutions Group
Level 2, 1 Thomas Holt Drive, North Ryde 2113
PH: (02) 9805 2384
FAX: 1800 352227
E-MAIL: lloyd_ian@canon.com.au



                                                                                                     
                    Jeff and Jane Scott                                                              
                    <jscott@iinet.net.au>          To:     powderworks@cs.colorado.edu               
                    Sent by:                       cc:                                               
                    powderworks-admin@cs.co        Subject:     Re: [Powderworks] August 6, 1945     
                    lorado.edu                                                                       
                                                                                                     
                                                                                                     
                    09/08/2002 11:39 AM                                                              
                                                                                                     
                                                                                                     



Since I started this whole debate, I guess I should give my $0.02.

The dropping of the bomb at Hiroshima is a terrible part of the world's
history.  However, I do appreciate the logic that it helped avoid a full
scale land invasion and the many casualties that would have created, and
that it was chosen as the lesser of two evils.  Given the choice between a
one off event that ends the conflict or a drawn out campaign with great
losses on both sides, I'd probably favour the bomb.

The argument that Japan was all but defeated already, and that a US victory
was inevitable anyway has some merit, but I doubt that it would have been
an easy obtained victory, and it certainly would have resulted in more
casualties overall.

It's important to recognise that the psychology of the Japanese was one of
never surrendering.  If Japan had been invaded in a conventional manner, I
believe the war would have gone on a long time, as the Japanese would not
have given in even when the situation was clearly hopeless.  Even with an
atomic bomb destroying an entire city, it still took a week and a second
bomb before they surrendered.  Their belief in their own superiority and
invincibility was so strong that it took an awesome display of power to
break it and force the surrender.  A conventional invasion would never have
had that psychological effect, and they would have continued to believe
they were not beaten until virtually the last man.

In drawing attention to the anniversary of Hiroshima, it's not my intention
to kick the USA for doing such a terrible thing.  I believe it's a day that
should never be forgotten, because it demonstrates just what humanity as a
whole is capable of doing to itself.  It's irrelevant which country it
happened to be at the time - we need to remember what happened so that we
remember that we are capable of inflicting mass destruction on each other
in certain circumstances.

"It's the price of peace to remember that day"


jeff...

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