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zarrothepaun -- all of that is true - especially the part about their
beliefs. Truman wrestled with the idea of a demonstration but made his fateful decision based on two founding premises. Casualty estimates derived from fighting on the satellite islands placed the predicted casualties very high and it was determined that there simply was no other way to bring the end of the war sooner. This may be the one time where I believe most of the "official" version.
posted by
gomedome
on August 31, 2005 at 8:04 AM
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The nature of war
That time, the era of the WW II was of a certain nature. We had no assurance that we were going to win. It was filled with panic. You had to have been there. It all sort of got carried away. There was probably no need to drop A bombs directly on civilians; in the ocean, off the coast would have been every bit as effective. The action was probably prompted by revenge for the Japanese bombing the harbor at Pearl. We all need to forget and forgive and, their beliefs aren’t any stranger or more self-centered than are most organized religions. Thanks for the brief nostalgic interlude. Zarrothepaun alpha
posted by
zarrothepaun
on August 31, 2005 at 7:20 AM
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WhiteJedi -- that is the saddest part, but again cannot be taken out of
historical context. Japan was not a hospitable place for foreigners until the post war re-construction. If they were not so soundly defeated, we may never have known as much as we do today about their magnificent culture.
posted by
gomedome
on August 30, 2005 at 6:17 AM
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Pat_B -- I think you are correct in saying that Hitler did not think of
himself as the Anti- Christ, the term is used here as more of a definition by extrapulation. He did however feel that he was fullfilling a biblical prophecy in sending the jews back to Palestine. People tend to forget that at the outset he was deporting Jews, the death camps came later. Where he is erroneously treated in history is that all of the major religions immediately declared him godless and therefore an athiest when in fact his religious beliefs were decidedly of a biblical nature. I do not know of an instance where he stepped outside of his ethnic cleansing mindset however to focus on a specific religion.
posted by
gomedome
on August 30, 2005 at 6:14 AM
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I feel that religion is based
in human nature. There's a saying: man creates god in his image. Beyond that, we build into religious practice the quirks of our own flawed character. Same now as in ancient times. Hitler, if memory serves didn't think of himself as the anti-Christ -- he thought he was cleaning the world of non-Christians.
posted by
Pat_B
on August 30, 2005 at 5:34 AM
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The mindset of being divinely descended is what led to attrocities against the Chinese. As a culture the Japanese were often brutal to their enemies. What is sad is that this mistaken history often shadows the admirable parts of Japanese culture. During World War 2 it waas hard for people to look beyond the callous exterior.
posted by
WhiteJedi
on August 30, 2005 at 5:26 AM
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Hirohito was something of a pawn.
Bushido cn't be practiced with a battleship.
By the way, give Cynthia's latest a read:
http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/flotsamandjetsam/291595
posted by
majroj
on August 29, 2005 at 7:07 PM
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Xeno-x - thank you - I was going to take a stab at debunking the folly of
biblical prophecy but chose to not waste the effort. I've had comments left on this posting recently that stated in absolute terms that biblical prophecies have proven to be 100% accurate. And have been verified to be this accurate by the world's top scientists.....what do you say to someone who is capable of believing this to be true? All one can do is relate a story with numerous parralells and hope that they catch on.
posted by
gomedome
on August 29, 2005 at 9:10 AM
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very good
each religion has its own history, to be sure
and the Hebrew Scriptures are no exception.
from the beginning . . .
if we read the Adam and Eve and the Cain stories correctly, without assuming that these were the FIRST PEOPLE, we can see that they lived in a world already populated by other peoples, hence the warning for others not to harm Cain and Cain taking a wife from other peoples --
this is a history of a people and a people's religion.
their encounters with what they perceived and perceive as god.
posted by
Xeno-x
on August 29, 2005 at 8:35 AM
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