Were The Japanese Warned About Fat Man & Little Boy?
Commentary
Quite a stir has been raised my recent commentary (from this Catholic's perspective) on the upcoming anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan. I've been accused by some of advocating indiscriminate killing, to murder, to racism.
I'll counter the hysterical with the historical.
Many of those of my own Faith who disagree with me have cited 2314 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as to why they believe I'm in error.
To wit: 2314"Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation."110 A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons - to commit such crimes. The key word here is "indiscriminate". As I will prove in this commentary, Hiroshima and Nagasaki simply weren't indiscriminately destroyed cities, but valid military targets.
Commentary
Quite a stir has been raised my recent commentary (from this Catholic's perspective) on the upcoming anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan. I've been accused by some of advocating indiscriminate killing, to murder, to racism.
I'll counter the hysterical with the historical.
Many of those of my own Faith who disagree with me have cited 2314 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as to why they believe I'm in error.
To wit: 2314
posted by Kevin Whiteman at
1:39 PM
6 Comments:
Scott,
Nope, they never did.
Never
The book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" seems to take issue with the USIS' characterization of Nagasaki & Hiroshima.
The Japanese did not accept an UN-conditional surrender, which was offered before Hiroshima--and that was a topic of some debate in the Oval Office.
In the end, the Jap and US military won out over the civilian leaders of each country.
If you call that "winning."
Caveman, thanks for bringing out some facts that few people (besides war historians) know. I have read, to slightly amend Caveman and VSO, that Mitsuo Fuchida survived the war, became a Christian and a missionary ards, and visited the US publicly apologizing for his part in the attack on Pearl.
http://historicalbiographies.suite101.com/article.cfm/biography_of_mitsuo_fuchida
Indiscriminate? I thiught they were aimed pretty well. "Indiscriminate" implies you didn't know where they were going; both were very carefully dropped on the enemy.
I've heard that in Nagasaki they didn't drop the bomb on a military target, but on the Catholic cathedral, quite a distance away...
Elise B.
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