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>American B-29 bombers dropped leaflets all over the city, warning us that Nagasaki would ‘fall to ashes’ on August 8. The leaflets were confiscated immediately
by TremendousJudge 3y ago
>American B-29 bombers dropped leaflets all over the city, warning us that Nagasaki would ‘fall to ashes’ on August 8. The leaflets were confiscated immediately by the kenpei (Imperial Japanese Army)
Yikes. Imagine living in a situation where the government of your own country has as much care for your life as the enemy.
- cafard 3y agoWasn't Nagasaki a secondary target, chosen because the first was clouded over?
- nvy 3y agoThey dropped leaflets stating "some or all of the cities named" would be destroyed in the coming days.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoWhat else did you expect? It was wartime. Controlling the propaganda and information and not letting the enemy direct their narrative was something each government wanted to fully own regardless of the outcome to civilians, even the allies: The Londoners were told that the V2 rockets landing on their heads were "gas explosions" because it was better for population morale them not know the enemy has such advanced long range strike capabilities as that would increase fear and lower morale and we're less likely to support long time war attrition with this knowledge. Same with the Japanese, why would they parrot the enemy narrative to the population, especially that until after the bomb blast was examined, Japan didn't believe that the US already had a nuclear weapon so soon.
- chmod600 3y ago"especially that until after the bomb blast was examined" The first bomb had already been detonated in Hiroshima a few days prior. They had radio. Are you saying they still felt the threat was not credible?
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoI was talking about the first bomb.
- chmod600 3y agoAlso, that was the second bomb, so it was a very credible threat.
- kerkeslager 3y ago[flagged]
- kouru225 3y agoWhat is nationalist about this comment?
- kerkeslager 3y agoThe inability of the poster to imagine their own country doing something similar. If you don't like my current-day example, perhaps you'll like this more relevant-to-the post example: https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/15fka53/telling_the_true_story_a_thread/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/15fka53...
- TremendousJudge 3y agoNo, no I do not. Not everybody on the internet is from the US you know.
- kerkeslager 3y agoFair enough. Given the US-centric nature of HN it was an educated guess, but I was wrong. So which perfect country do you live in?
- nvy 3y agoOh just give it up already. No country is perfect, got it. There are shades of morality. Got it. Prejudice exists. Got it. Welcome to the realizations most of us attain in our teens. The sanctimonious, smug, self-righteous tone you adopt is so tiresome and you're not revealing anything anyone here isn't already aware of.
- kerkeslager 3y agoAs opposed to the comment, "Yikes. Imagine living in a situation where the government of your own country has as much care for your life as the enemy." ...which you're defending as if it isn't smug, self-righteous, tiresome, and obvious?
- ecf 3y ago> ‘What did I do to the Americans?’ she would often say, ‘Why did they do this to me?’ Seems like they don’t blame their government all that much
- skulk 3y agoImperial Japan was something else, truly. I just finished Dan Carlin's six-part Hardcore History series called "supernova in the east" which covers a lot of context in an attempt to help people like us understand the zeitgeist in Japan at the time. I can't recommend it enough.