LINKY

NAGASAKI, Japan — A siren wailed and a bronze bell rang out Tuesday as Nagasaki (search) marked the moment 60 years ago when an American plane dropped a plutonium bomb, killing tens of thousands and sealing Japan's (search) defeat in World War II (search).

About 6,000 people, including hundreds of aging bomb survivors, crowded into Nagasaki's Peace Memorial Park (search), just a few hundred yards from the center of the blast, for a solemn remembrance and moment of silence.

When the silence ended, Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Itoh (search) had some angry words for the leaders of the nuclear powers, and especially the United States.

"To the citizens of the United States of America: We understand your anger and anxiety over the memories of the horror of the 9/11 terrorist attacks," he said. "Yet, is your security enhanced by your government's policies of maintaining 10,000 nuclear weapons."
YES it is, moron
Itoh also urged Japan to get out from under the U.S. "nuclear umbrella." About 50,000 U.S. troops are deployed throughout Japan under a post World War II mutual security pact. I got no problem bring ing these troops home

Tuesday's remembrances began just after sunrise, hundreds of Catholics joined in a special Mass at Urakami Cathedral, which at the time of the bombing was the largest in Asia with 12,000 parishioners — 8,500 of whom are believed to have been killed.

When the cloudy sky lit up in a sudden flash at 11:02 a.m. in 1945, two priests were hearing confessions inside the cathedral and 30 faithful were inside. Everyone in the church died and the statues around them turned black because of the intense heat.

Ironically, Nagasaki was not a primary target.

Three days after the Enola Gay dropped the "Little Boy" bomb on Hiroshima, killing at least 140,000 in the world's first atomic bomb attack, another plane took off to deliver the second A-bomb to the nearby city of Kokura.

Kokura was hidden under a thick cover of smoke. The plane circled three times, then changed course for Nagasaki, where it also encountered thick clouds.

With dwindling fuel, the pilot nearly turned around — but then the clouds broke. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II.

Nagasaki's devastation has been overshadowed by Hiroshima, where some 55,000 people swarmed into that city's Peace Memorial Park to mark the 60th anniversary of the attack last week.

The people here, however, have not forgotten. I see this as a good thing

"Together with some 260,000 A-bomb survivors ... I swear in the presence of the souls of the victims of the atomic bombing to continue to tirelessly demand that Nagasaki be the last A-bomb site," said Fumie Sakamoto, who represented the survivors at Tuesday's memorial. Sakamoto was a junior high school student when Nagasaki was bombed.

The remains of thousands of the dead have never been found. Japanese estimates of the death toll itself range from 60,000 to 80,000. Nagasaki officials on Tuesday used 74,000 as the death figure.

Throughout the worst-hit parts of town, thousands of colorful paper cranes, which are believed to ease the pain of the dead, were draped over stone monuments dedicated to the victims.

A steady stream of tourists also flowed into Nagasaki's A-bomb museum, where horrific reminders of the attack cover the walls; a broken clock with its twisted hands stopped at the instant of the blast, photos of the dead or the burned.

In sharp contrast with the museum at the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo, which has been widely criticized as one-sided in favor of Japan's wartime leadership, the Nagasaki museum is careful to place the attack firmly in its historical context.

Visitors see a timeline of Japan's own military adventures, and exhibits note Tokyo's alliance with Nazi Germany. The final hall is taken up by appeals for the abolition of all nuclear weapons.

Other than the many small monuments around town, few signs of the devastation remain.

A scenic port city with a population of about 420,000, Nagasaki is today a popular tourist destination known for its Chinatown, one of the largest in Japan, and its vaguely European flair.



If only we had the same clarity of vision on who are enemies are today that the WWII generation had

Fuck him. Typical japanese understanding. Trying to compare what they did in WW2 to 9/11. They cant understand.

Fuckem. Remeber Pearl Harbor. And all the other soliders who died. Oh, yeah, fuckem.

Shouldn't have started it fucker.... Oh, and where is the apology we have never gotten ?

Maybe Tibbets' grandson should fly a B-2 over Nagasaki for old time’s sake.

* I am not advocating another bombing of Nagasaki.

WTF? Should'nt Hiroshima and Nagasaki still be glowing from radiation?

Quoted: Shouldn't have started it fucker.... Oh, and where is the apology we have never gotten ?

No shit.  To those fucking arrogant assholes, Pearl Harbor was justified and Nanking never happened, but Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes.

We did them a Fuc&$g favor !  If that war would have went on hundreds of thousands would have died.

They started it, we finished it. Payback is a Beotch.

We should have flown a B29 over the event...

Quoted: We should have flown a B29 over the event...

Quoted: We should have flown a B29 over the event...

And boom goes the dynamite!

In a couple of generations Japan's actions during the early 20th century will be totally absent from Japanese schoolbooks. Count on it.

Note today that the subject of WWII goes unsaid. A couple of Japanese students recently told me that it is a subject they never speak of.

They killed more in Nanking than Hiroshima/Nagasaki combined without breaking a sweat. Even the German diplomats were appalled. The turds have never accepted their responsibility. Their contemporary text books gloss over their role in WWII. HIROHITO SHOULD HAVE SWUNG.

Quoted: In a couple of generations Japan's actions during the early 20th century will be totally absent from Japanese schoolbooks. Count on it. Note today that the subject of WWII goes unsaid. A couple of Japanese students recently told me that it is a subject they never speak of.

+1

I recall my grandfather (who served in the Pacific campaign) telling me how the Japanese officers would carve steaks from the thighs of American POWs and feed the flesh to their conscripts.

They should thank us for not A-bombing Tokyo.

The Mayor  Forgot about

Quoted: Quoted: In a couple of generations Japan's actions during the early 20th century will be totally absent from Japanese schoolbooks. Count on it. Note today that the subject of WWII goes unsaid. A couple of Japanese students recently told me that it is a subject they never speak of. +1 I recall my grandfather (who served in the Pacific campaign) telling me how the Japanese officers would carve steaks from the thighs of American POWs and feed the flesh to their conscripts. They should thank us for not A-bombing Tokyo.

They were fucking cannibals?!!

The mentality that these morons have with nukes reminds me of a gun grabber that's been a "victim of gun violence," so they think all guns should be banned. I was the victim of a goddamned automobile accident when a lady rear ended me, but you don't see me calling for a ban on all cars. So if we get rid of our nukes, does that mean Russia and China and Iran and...

Quoted: LINKY Itoh also urged Japan to get out from under the U.S. "nuclear umbrella."

Would be our honor. They are welcome to face China armed with Toyotas & Hondas.

Visitors see a timeline of Japan's own military adventures, and exhibits note Tokyo's alliance with Nazi Germany. The final hall is taken up by appeals for the abolition of all nuclear weapons.

Really?  Does this include Bataan, Nanking, Pearl Harbor?  If you throw a rock at a hornet's next, dont be surprised when you get stung.  STFU.

I annoyed my wife when we visited Germany.  Everything more than 50 years old got the same comment:

"Whoops.  We missed a spot."

I am going to Japan in March.  Looks like they more than deserve the same running commentary.

Didn't we kill more people firebombing them than both A-bombs combined?


+1 Perl Harbor

Quoted: I annoyed my wife when we visited Germany.  Everything more than 50 years old got the same comment: "Whoops.  We missed a spot." I am going to Japan in March. Looks like they more than deserve the same running commentary.

Don't buy any antiques.

Quoted: Didn't we kill more people firebombing them than both A-bombs combined? +1 Perl Harbor

Yes. By far.

A story told to me years ago by a college aquaintence (so, take it with a grain of salt).

He was from a seaport community in MA. There was a local watering hole frequented mostly by non-tourists. Mounted on the walls were a few photographs
of the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. One day a small group of Japanese fishermen was there and while they were sitting at their table they were talking excitedly in Japanese, but by their gestures, laughter and mock "dive bombing" noises you could tell that they were making references to the pictures. One of the locals walked up to their table and in a loud voice exclaimed "Hiroshima... BOOM"! (punctuating the remark by spreading his arms to indicate a big explosion). The fisherman fell pretty silent, paid for their food/drinks and left.

Quoted: Visitors see a timeline of Japan's own military adventures, and exhibits note Tokyo's alliance with Nazi Germany. The final hall is taken up by appeals for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. Really?  Does this include Bataan, Nanking, Pearl Harbor?  If you throw a rock at a hornet's next, dont be surprised when you get stung.  STFU.

Unit 731

"Activities

A special project code-named Maruta used human beings for experiments. Test subjects were gathered from the surrounding population and were sometimes known as "logs" (maruta 丸太). This term was the result of the feeling of the scientists that killing a prisoner was the same as cutting down a tree. The test subjects ranged from infants to elders to pregnant women along with the fetus. Many experiments were performed without the use of anesthetics because it was believed that it might affect the results.
[edit]

Vivisection

   * Live vivisections were performed on prisoners infected with various diseases; scientists would remove organs to study the effects of the disease on the human body.
   * Prisoners were amputated limb by limb to study blood loss.
   * Arms were cut off and reattached to opposite sides.
   * Limbs were frozen and sawed off.
   * Stomachs were surgically removed and the esophagus was reattached to the intestines.
   * Parts of brain, lungs, liver, etc were taken out.
   * Vivisection of a pregnant woman (impregnated by one of the doctors) and the fetus.

[edit]

Weapons testing

   * Grenade tests used human targets at various distances and positions.
   * Flame throwers were tested on humans.
   * Bombs were tested on humans tied to stakes at various positions.

[edit]

Other experiments

   * Human subjects were deprived of food and water to study the effects and duration before death.
   * Prisoners were placed in pressurized chambers until they died.
   * Frostbite experiments were conducted on prisoners to determine how long humans can survive when exposed to extreme temperatures.
   * Temperature experiments were performed to determine the relationship between temperature, burns, and survival rate.
   * Prisoners were placed into centrifuges and spun until they died.
   * Animal blood was injected into humans.
   * Prisoners were bombarded with lethal doses of x-ray radiation.
   * Gas chambers tested chemical weapons on prisoners.
   * Air bubbles were injected into prisoners' bloodstreams to simulate a stroke.
   * Sea water was injected into prisoners to determine if it could be substituted for saline.

Reply to all Japanese:If there had NOT been a Pearl HARBOR.......there would NOT have been a HIROSHIMA.    

Quoted: Maybe Tibbets' grandson should fly a B-2 over Nagasaki for old time’s sake. * I am not advocating another bombing of Nagasaki.

That is what I was thinking, every year on the anniversary do a flyover with B-2s, maybe drop hundreds of littel bomb shaped candies?

Quoted: Quoted: Maybe Tibbets' grandson should fly a B-2 over Nagasaki for old time’s sake. * I am not advocating another bombing of Nagasaki. That is what I was thinking, every year on the anniversary do a flyover with B-2s, maybe drop hundreds of littel bomb shaped candies?

Atomic fireballs.  

Well actually there are two replies.

Yes there would never have been a Hiroshima or Nagasaki- or the more destructive conventional firebombing on Tokyo that killed more people than both A-bombs combined- if there had never been a Pearl Harbor

But besides that, having drawn us into the war the Japanese public, just like the Germans, were a fair target not just due to the limitations of weapons technology at the time but because in BOTH countries Militarists came to power through abuse of democratic institutions that lacked sufficent safeguards against Mobocracy.  The overwhelming majority of Japanese, just like Germans, followed racist demigogues into putting Hitler and Tojo in power and supporting them well into the war.

Yes there were anti-war Japanese and anti-nazi Germans, but they were in both countries powerless minorities.  

Its not surprising that the Japanese don't want to talk about WWII.  Who wants to talk about when they were a idiot?  Japan's very economic success SINCE WWII only reenforces the stupidity of their ancestors decisions before WWII- it proves that they could have gotten everything the militarists had promised the Japanese people WITHOUT bloodshed.

Given that they really need to sit on the Communists/Socialists that keep organizing these A-Bomb ceremonies every year.  These ceremonies are backed NOT by the nationalist right that are the direct decendents of the militarists of old but by the various shades of Marxists who are the decendantds, ironically, of the pre-war anti-war and anti-militarist groups... who hate the US far more than our old enemies in Japanese society do!

We need a lot more than 10,000 bombs.

I think we should hit them again.

Dec 7, 2005 seems like a decent enough date for them to figure it out.

go back to your cartoon tenticle porn, your scat porn, and your vomit porn you stupid ass

Quoted: We need a lot more than 10,000 bombs.

+1 and the balls to use them

bump for the night crew