(Untitled)

[benchilada]

THINGS THEY DON'T TEACH US IN OUR HISTORY BOOKS:

The actual anniversary was yesterday.

65 years ago the United States committed a war crime against Japan by firebombing ordinary citizens in Tokyo.

100,000 civilians died by explosion and fire, the largest number from any attack during the entirety of the war.

I wish I could be surprised that war

Comments

Q!!!

[mildsevens]

what a great place to put this question i've been meaning to ask informed people...
so my boyfriend and i were discussing the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki (as we often do) and we have been doing extensive research on this subject...and what we want to know is:

Is there a bigger death toll that occurred in a matter of minutes/hours than Hiroshima? According to wikipedia, 60,000 people died on impact at Hiroshima, is there a bombing or other atrocity that killed more than that at once?

Help me, benchilada readers!!

Re: Q!!!

[mildsevens]

also, i should clarify - is the tokyo firebombing death toll of 100,000 *on impact?* Or is that of people who eventually succumbed to illness, etc. over a period of time?

Re: Q!!!

[mildsevens]

good suggestions, thank you! I'm going to check into some of the ww1 battles, to see if any of the numbers come close.

[neogrammarian]

My grandfather flew the planes that made those runs, as far as I know.

My grandfather tried to be a hero every day of his life.

I fear my grandfather may've been a bit of a bastard.

It's difficult to express how hard it is to square having someone like that in one's family.

Thanks for the post, Ben.

[pure_doxyk]

WAUGH AND YUCK.

There are no innocent countries anymore; Nations are all mass murderers. Only people can still be looked in the eyes...if they survive.

[his_spiffyness]

One of the other forgotten facts of the war was the Soviet Union's declaration of war with Japan two days after Hiroshima. Japan was already exhausted from fighting the U.S.. With the threat of a second front opening up, punctuated by the Nagasaki raid, what was left of their will to fight was broken. History doesn't like to record that it was our alliance with the Russians that had as much to do with the ending of the Pacific war as the nuclear threat.

[andyluke]

I didn't know that one either. The chain of command is a shithead.

[auroracita]

I didn't know about this, and I'm glad I do now. I am really surprised at the level of flip you're getting over talking about this.

We've been at war for 8 years. Perhaps it's desensitizing us all. That shit ain't right.