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China-Japan-Koreas

Anti-nuke activists leave for N. Korea to visit A-bomb survivors

2007-10-06

SHENYANG, China(AP) - (Kyodo)Eight anti-nuclear activists, most of them Japanese, departed for Pyongyang via Shenyang in China on Saturday to study the current situations facing North Korean survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The eight people include Takashi Mukai, deputy chief of the Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs, known as Gensuikin, Shingou Fukuyama, an executive officer of the association, and Li Sil Gun, head of a Japan-based organization that helps Korean atomic bomb survivors. They plan to return to Japan on Wednesday.

They will meet with members of a North Korean group of atomic bomb survivors to grasp their current situation and explain the Japanese government's support for victims of the bombings living abroad, with the aim of improving support for those living in North Korea.

According to the North Korean group, about 900 North Korean atomic bomb survivors remain alive.

Posted by:anonymous5089

#11 Word, OP. The nuclear bombs SAVED Japanese and American lives alike.

Posted by: Zenster 2007-10-06 23:41

#10 Most Americans don't know that a B-29 fire raid in July over Tokyo burned out 31 square miles of that city, and killed over 2 million people. The death toll for both Heroshima and Nagasaki was less than 10% of that (200,000). LeMay had plans to burn out every major city in Japan before the invasion. The casualties would indeed have been in the 5-10 MILLION under those circumstances. The Japanese survivors of these atomic attacks are just angry because they were the first from the new weapons. If Iran and Soddy aRabida don't mend their ways, they won't be the last. I will stand up and applaud the use of nukes on the streets of my city, if it happens.

Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-10-06 23:29

#9 Shieldwolf - WWII Japanese were islamonazis?

Who knew?

Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-10-06 21:10

#8 Also read any of the declassified reports on the Japanese Home Island defense plans : the Imperial Japanese were HOPING for 5-7 million civilian casualties to turn the US public against the war. They also had turned all their K-12 schools into suicide factories by running drills with 20 pound book packs on children that had a string hanging out. The children would run over to and crawl under a Sherman tank mock-up and pull the string - candy or some other goodie was their reward for doing that. If the US had invaded, those backpacks would have been 20 pound satchel charges and the string would have activated an instantaneous fuse, destroying the tank and splattering the child.

Posted by: Shieldwolf 2007-10-06 20:07

#7 If you want a complete history of the last days of the Japanese empire, read Downfall by Richard B. Frank. It gives, in detail, the description of the bombing raids on Tokyo and other cities. It explains the American expectation of casualties, both military and civilian, in case the US invaded. It also explains that the next step in the bombing campaign would have taken out the rail network, preventing rice from reaching the cities. If we had done that, it would have led to mass starvation in Japan. Yes, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused horrific casualties. However, if the US had continued to bomb Japan, and then invaded, there would have been many, many more casualties.

Posted by: Rambler 2007-10-06 19:02

#6 Procopius2k, I haven;t been able to watch Ken Burns' "The War" so I'm not familiar with the hokum you're referencing (could you drop me an email to enlighten me, please?), but I have seen the wildly varying figures for Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

Just like the figures for civilian casualties in Iraq - you'd think nuking Iraq would have been better casualty-wise.

Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-10-06 16:54

#5 Could be a win-win situation, see if they survive.
If not, everybody wins.

Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-10-06 14:12

#4 For the Anti-nuke crowd I would ask: "Would it have been better for the U.S. to invade Japan and kill half the population than to drop two bombs and save millions?" Dead is dead, nukes are just better at it. Review the battles of Tarawa, Saipan, and Okinawa and you will understand why Truman went with the Nuclear option.

Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2007-10-06 12:37

#3 Guess they got tired of the grass & tree bark soup?

Posted by: Raj 2007-10-06 11:08

#2 Expect the usual 'propaganda' numbers on the casualties [just like the hokum passed by Ken Burn's "The War"]. Bets on what numbers will be used?

Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-10-06 09:15

#1 Interestingly the atom bomb survivors have a little better life expectancy than average (in Japan that is. Who knows about Norks).

Posted by: Albert Phish7327 2007-10-06 08:07

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