VJ day

Exactly the same happened to my Uncle except he was actually in Japan near Nagasaki. On the day the bomb dropped all the guards disappeared and the camp was left empty.

When I was young woman I read a book written by a Japanese Dr. who was living in Hiroshima at the time. I have supported CND ever since.

Of course nuclear weapons should never be used.

And they should not have been used then.

I have supported CND too.

My Dad's take on it was that the bombs dropped in Japan saved his life - he was in the far east when they happened and reckons that he would have become a victim of the Japanese otherwise. He could never understand my allegiance to CND, and I had to respect his view.

If anyone drops a nuclear device now, it would be so much more powerful still, and likely to cause global devastation.

My stepfather was a POW in Changi among other places for three odd years, he was on the Burma railroad and like others suffered badly. He was captured on Java having been torpedoed while escorting civilians fleeing Singapore on one of last ships to leave. His friend who was captured at the same time was torpedoed and this time killed while being transported on a ship to Japan.
I acknowledge that the bombs were a dreadful thing, but from my perspective, the Japanese were barbaric killers, especially to the peoples of the countries they invaded/attacked from China to Australia. Their treatment of prisoners whether combatants or civilians was beyond belief. I won't go on, but as far as I'm concerned the only people responsible were the Emperor and his military hierarchy who simply wouldn't surrender and were prepared to fight to the bitter end taking thousands of American and Japanese lives with them including the slaughter of all POW's, allied or civilian. I'm sorry but for me they were just unspeakably awful. Ask the people of Nanking, Burma, Thailand and so on. Horror beyond belief.

Including the children?

Unspeakable.

Luckygirl My stepfathers take on the bombs were exactly the same as your dad's. After the terrible losses on both sides at Okinawa and Iwo Jima, and the dreadful losses on both sides that would be occurred trying to suppress the Japanese mainland this murderous war had to be brought to an end. The Japanese were warned again and again that something terrible would happen if they refused to stop fighting, and even after the first bomb had been dropped they still wouldn't surrender, their military even forbade any admission that this had actually happened that's why the second one was dropped! Regretfully I agree with both veterans point of view. Let's hope that we never ever come up against that sort of fanaticism again, though I have my worries about IS, given the chance.

So you would have liked advance warning from the Allies to evacuate all the children 24 hours before Hiroshima and Nagasaki would you jinglebelĺfrocks(or whatever pseudonym you are now going to hide under)? . Surely someone of your great age(see a prevoius thread re GNHQ) saw the consequences of the barbaric treatment meeted out by the Japanese to FEPOWs ? My uncle suffered as badly as nigglynellie's s-father. You had to see it to believe it. ...... flashbacks of beheadings and torture for years, leading to marriage breakdown, family disintegration, violent, uncontrollable rages. I do not want to ever see the use of nuclear weapons again but
Japan had been warned.... a warning they chose to ignore even after Nagasaki ( took them 6 days before they responded)

Blimey I can't believe how this thread is turning out.

My Uncle a Japanese POW became a lifelong pacifist as a result of what he experienced in Japan.

Anyone who advocates the use of nuclear warfare cannot possibly understand the implication of what they are saying.

Agree with your posts nigglynellie.
having a nuclear deterrent has stopped any more world wars. God forbid we ever have to use it.

The Japanese murdered plenty of children/babies! Men women, grannies, the sick,wounded. Singapore hospital bombed, it's patients bayoneted.The Chinese came in for special attention, as the Japanese particularly hated them! My s-father's chinese 'wife' and their baby were murdered, I won't go into how, and we only found any of this out after my mothers death and just before my s-father's death in 1987 aged 67. Before then he had never mentioned it, except to my mother. I can remember when I was a child, hearing what sounded like a 'commotion' coming from their room. I now know that it was nightmares and the unbearable memories of those dreadful years, no counselling for any of them. He was a lovely man, and a wonderful father to me and a loving loyal husband to my war widowed mother. I loved them both dearly and even after all these years still miss them both a great deal.

The Japanese started the war in that area of the world simply because they wanted to plunder the natural resources of Malaya, the Phillipines etc some areas of which were under the control/protection of Britain and USA - it was for monetary/natural resources gain not because they were under threat! As others have said they were barbaric and cruel in the treatment of prisoners even civilian ones and many men died working for them building such things as railways with nothing like sufficient nutrition. If the horrendous bombs had not been dropped the war would have continued for much much longer with the consequential loss off life.
It was a terrible thing and nobody would say it was not but it was the means to an end and did save many lives too.

Sad that so many of you appear to think they deserved it.
It happened and nothing can change that, but my dad never wanted to see anything like it happen again. Until he died he had Japanese friends he would write to, and tried to learn about how they lived and brought up their families. He talked to them about their children and grandchildren.
They all wanted peace, and no more nuclear bombs, just like the president of Japan said today.

BBC4 tonight, 9.00 p.m., a programme called living in dread and promise, about nuclear power, should be very interesting.

I don't think anyone has said that they deserved it. I think everyone has agreed that it was a terrible event, but I think some of us feel that it was the only regrettable way to force a fanatical regime to lay down it's arms. The Japanese were pretty shocking to their own people, sending young men to their certain deaths in planes that were to be crashed into the decks of enemy ships is pretty grim. Their own civilians welfare was completely disregarded as the allies closed in! Their military were beyond belief. No they didn't deserve it, but how would you have stopped them fighting to the last man standing, and saved thousands of lives both military and civilian, men women, children,babies? It couldn't be done, the war would have gone on for months longer than it did with the accompanying horrors. No for me it was a necessary evil, to prevent more evil. Even after these bombs, the allies had to agree to allow the Emperor to stay on his throne, or the war would go on!!! The Emperor should have been convicted for war crimes bearing in mind his country had been rampaging round the far east since 1936!!! But, in the interests of peace the Emperor kept his throne!!!!!! Unbelievable really!

My dear uncle was in the RAMC as a radiographer in Burma when the men came out of the camps. He rarely spoke of it but he saw the evidence of such cruelty and the dire condition of the survivors, that he refused to his dying day to buy any goods produced in Japan.

Nobody wanted it, even at the time, but it was considered neccessary to stop the carnage and brutality. Nobody on this forum has said they deserved it.
it must have been an awful decision to make.It truly was a terrible thing.

I don't read the comments so far as saying "they deserved it" durhamjen. The war had to end and it seems fairly clear the Emperor would have continued to fight on, with the loss of even more life. I'm not defending the use of the nuclear bomb by the way but the question remains, would even more life have been lost had it not been used. From the discussions I've heard over the course of this week, that seems to be the case.

My mum was in the ATS in a remote camp location, which was used for men returning from Japanese prisoner of war camps. She said the men were housed as far as possible from the rest of the camps because their nightmares and screaming were waking and disturbing others. I've a number of close friends whose father's were prisoners and worked on the Railway. Those men suffered throughout their lives, with consequences for their loved ones. I don't feel we should take polarised views on such complex situations.

The population of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were warned in time to evacuate both cities before the bombs by leaflets dropped by air jings. Both cities were strategic military targets, Hiroshima with a naval base at Kure and a very large army depot. Kokura was the orginal target for which Nagasaki was substituted because of conditions on the day. Kokura was a major transport junction. Having said that, I've been to both cities and to the museums and I feel we should outlaw nuclear weapons but not unilaterally.

You said everything but, niggly. They were warned and they did not take any notice. Both you and absent said the same.
You both implied it was deserved.
140,000 killed in two cities, incinerated, the only way to stop them?
70 years later the survivors are still suffering from the after effects.
You think that's acceptable?
The war in Europe was stopped without dropping nuclear bombs, yet they had them then. Why do you think they were not used in Germany?

The war with Germany was not the same, and the Emperor would have never backed down or lost face by giving up, the war would have dragged on and on.

You either believe in having a nuclear deterrent, or you don't. it has kept the peace (from world wars ) ever since.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33755182

The two cities targeted were not military targets. Civilians were specifically targeted.

So called 'adults' can fight their wars if they so wish. But there can never be an excuse for killing innocent children. It's just not possible. Jesus Christ did at least get that right.

Why would I 'hide' *absentgrandma'? And I am no 'great age' thank you very much.

I'm not at all sure a nuclear deterrent has kept the peace. What peace? We can only be thankful that our present enemies do not have nuclear weapons.

Peace from world wars.