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New York, 9:22 AM
Thu Dec 3
63 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/14/09
I saw a documentary called "White Light, Black Rain", about the bombings in Japan, and I have never, ever cried so hard in my life. It made me question my belief in God, made me wonder how the survivors could still believe in God themselves. The stories they tell are beyond horrifying and heartbreaking, and the images the same. The way they've been treated both by America and their own country is despicable. I have never understood the lasting impact such a horrible weapon can make until I saw this movie, and I urge everyone to see it. It's so important to understand, and not forget those days and those people.
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What I find problematic about nuclear disarmament--even though I really agree with it, particularly in the context of the extraordinary number of missiles the US and Russia have, and how decrepit and dangerous many Russian ones are--is that the knowledge of how to make nuclear missiles can never be erased now that it's in the public domain. It's just something to think about, not an argument against even very severe disarmament.
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also, war itself has evolved. urban geurrilla warfare is where it's at- so really, breaking ak-47s would be the better (even more impossible) goal.
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Like people are saying in the thread below, I can't believe we are taught in American schools that this was a justifiable action.
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Geez. Awful luck to be in both places, and yet astounding luck to survive both.
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In my experience, gradually. You start in elementary school by reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and having this vague, nebulous sense that a Really Bad Thing Was Done, and then as you get into high school history, you're taught basically that it was a last-ditch effort, that at least it worked to end the War (also a Bad Thing), that it had really horrible consequences that eluded foresight, and that it shouldn't be done again. Depending on the school, teacher, and state curriculum, you may get class time really to debate whether it ever should have been done or not, and if Truman was right to drop the bomb. These conversations are like most Big World Events discussions among 15-16 year olds, but it's good for the kids involved when they happen.
07/14/09
We also had to read Hiroshima in 7th grade, which goes into great detail on the horrors of the atomic bomb. Basically it was "this was a horrible, horrible thing, but it was the right thing to do." I honestly don't know if I believe that or not.
07/14/09
Edit: And when I think about it, this was also the tone during high school. It wasn't until college when I began to hear dissenting points of view from teachers.
07/14/09
im reading this amazing history of ww2 right now called human smoke- it has tons of telegrams from the war dept to roosevelt to churchill and so on and so forth. it's chilling to read what they were doing and how they were justifying it. not to mention, even, the other horrors perpetuated by all sides against civilians.
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The scarier ones are the ones that Russia has lost, or allowed to fall into disrepair. That's some seriously frightening shit.
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http://nukeometer.com/