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From: saquigley@watdaisy.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: addendum to my flame - (nf)
Message-ID: <6464@watdaisy.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 28-Jan-84 18:10:13 EST
Article-I.D.: watdaisy.6464
Posted: Sat Jan 28 18:10:13 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 5-Feb-84 10:19:52 EST
References: <5114@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 48

Nagasaki was bombed THREE days after Hiroshima.  Even though the Japanese
bragged that they didn't believe the US had any more bombs, this seems to me
to be a bit expedient (to say the least).  I cannot believe that three days
was long enough to give them at least time to think, realise the extent of
the damage, or convince them by other means that the US did have more bombs.
I know that the US was at war with Japan, but what did they have to loose
by waiting a bit longer to give Japan a chance to recover its wits?

As far as feeling guilt is concerned, I don't believe each person should feel
guilt over something they are not responsible for, but they should feel guilt
that as a nation, they were capable of doing such a thing, or if not guilt,
then maybe wonder what it was about the collective spirit of their nation
that lead its leaders to commit such a crime as Nagasaki.  Such soul-searching
has been going on in Germany since WW2 with the result that post WW2 german
children were brought up in a less disciplined environment.  This has had the
(good-bad?) results that west german youths as a whole are more rebellious, and
much more suspicious of authority than many youngsters in other countries.

What happened in the American case was somewhat different.  A bomb was dropped
on Nagasaki killing some 80,000 people (originally).  The motives behind this
slaughter have not really been analysed.  I suspect that that bomb was dropped
both as a desire to show the world who was the most powerful, and also out of
scientific curiosity to see what it would do.  When you consider the eagerness
of American scientists to go over to Japan to study the effects of the bombs
right after the war, this hypothesis makes some sense.  What I was flaming
about in my original article is the fact that there has not been any movement
in America to go to the root of the question of why that second bomb was
dropped.  Would it uncover some dark area of the collective American psyche?
I suspect so, I suspect also that the only thing that would be uncovered is
how widespread the belief of american superiority not only as a nation, but as
a race is, something which is very ugly, but is also very common elsewhere in
the world.
As was pointed out by someone else, the problem is that the US is
a much more powerful nation, so what they do there affects the rest of the
world much more.

What I find very scarry is that instead of guilt, or whatever, americans
are collectively (again I am talking about the mood of the country, not
about individuals) very righteous about having dropped this bomb and do
find the idea of dropping others acceptable (e.g "nuke the ayatolah" sentiment).
Maybe people separately do realise the enormity of such sentiments, but their
mere expression makes them more acceptable and induce a sort of collective
numbing about the whole issue, a terrain ripe for lunatics to play on.

Does this clarify my opinions?

				Sophie Quigley
				..!watmath!watdaisy!saquigley