tos@psc70.UUCP (06/10/86)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
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A tangential comment to this debate: I recently took a trip to
Japan and while there visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hiroshima,
in particular, has turned the bombing into a tourist industry
and seems to show little resentment. Nagasaki, on the other hand,
seems very bitter and their bomb museum, which they illogically
call The International Cultural Center, tries to equate the
bombing with the Holocaust. Perhaps they are bitter about being
a secondary target since the August 9th bomb was destined for
Kokura but confusing atmospherics caused the plane to pass on
that target and continue on to Nagasaki. BTW the primary target
at Nagasaki, the giant Mitsubishi ship yards, were missed by a
country mile and the bomb did comparatively little damage to
the city proper.
What is really sobering about contemplating both bombings
is the amount of damage a crude A-bomb can cause. The Hiroshima
bomb was a 13 Kiloton Uranium bomb and the Nagasaki bomb was a
22 Kiloton Plutonium bomb. These are dirty firecrackers when
compared to the literally thousands-of-times more powerful H-bomb.
Had one of those been dropped there would have been one enormous
crater where Hiroshima and Nagasaki stand.
While walking around the peace parks I was terribly disturbed
by the casual attitude of the people. In Nagasaki, for example,
the school kids happily swarmed over the remnants of bombing.
I got the feeling that to them the bombing was something that
happened long ago and far away. I suspect that the human race
has learned nothing from this. So what else is new.
ktos@psc70.UUCP (Dr.Schlesinger) (06/11/86)
This follow-up posting was an unfortunate error -- linked wrong posting with this heading. Sorry. I've once before had trouble aborting a posting when I knew I goofed it up. Will try to learn. Tom Schlesinger, Plymouth State College, Plymouth, N.H. 03264 uucp: decvax!dartvax!psc70!psc90!tos