How My Grandpa Survived The HIROSHIMA ATOMIC BOMB

Really thought this was the grandpa that was saved by wolverine... Nonetheless good story

Eye opening video. Personally, I don't agree with the bomb being used as a means to have ended the war as I find it very difficult to justify the killing of innocent civilians, especially in such a brutal manner. Sadly, it's useless to even question whether or not America could have used another tactic. I think I read somewhere that they even planned an invasion, somewhat like D-Day, but that there were simply too many resources that went into the development of the bomb and so much momentum built up into using it that even the president at the time, Harry S. Truman, couldn't stop it. It was inevitable. Sad.

This was at once a very fascinating, exciting, heartwarming and sad story. Thank you very much for sharing the story, Nina and Kento. It touched me deeply. I find it interesting how the small details in life can make such a big difference.

You guys should really stop comparing different war crimes in this topic. That is not what this story and topic is about. It is more about the survival, charity and love of a truly unique human being and his memory. I find it sad that mud-slinging is starting to be a part of it...

ok. the ditzy part that saved his life was very cute. pretty amazing that it caused him to go exactly where he needed to be.

Japanese-Americans were also mistreated during WWII because they were afraid they would defect and support Japan. This song gives a good glimpse of what it was like for them.

This is the thing that puzzles a lot of people too. German and Japanese cultures have produce so many beautiful things throughout history, art, literature, music, etc. If you ever have encountered the people, they are all very polite and well mannered. This makes the atrocities committed during WWII even more shocking. I think human beings are inherently capable of performing despicable acts, and when in the right settings, these behaviours will emerge.

patches wrote: i have a question and i don't even know how to ask it without sounding rude...where did all that madness in Japan come from? (the catching babies with samurai swords and all.) do they have a culture of superiority where it is the norm to feed upon that kind of aggression? i really want to know. in the US, wolves run in packs (slave owners, the KKK). it's a terrible culture. i know of many horrible people that only like hanging around other horrible people. i just can't believe it could get so bad that Japan would do those things to China and Korea. i know it happened, i'm just shocked even though my own country is horrible.

i can only think of simple answers such as bad things happening to them when they couldn't cope, and they allow themselves to get worse. they are full of themselves and don't even want to get better, which is obvious, but they have to go looking for answers/help and be ready for it to take years. maybe they hate themselves and want others to be the ones to pay. last spring i confronted a family member who thinks she's a bully, and she couldn't stand to be insulted the way she insults others. she couldn't take it even though that's all she does to other people. there may be many a thousand reasons why people get so bad.

7iron wrote: and when in the right settings, these behaviours will emerge.

i understand now what you're saying to me. i read the word settings as war being the setting, not setting as any environment that will bring that behavior out in people. i read it wrong. i understand now.

I actually truly admire Japanese culture and I'm adding to the fire with this post...
But it's interesting to find how the Filipinos on this thread share a similar perspective.

When I was a child I was crawling around and I noticed my grandfather had two missing toes. Being a child, it scared me; but being inquisitive I asked him why. And he told me that one day Japanese soldiers overran his village and he was crawling around - just like me - under the hut trying to escape, and they proceeded to spray the soil with bullets....but, luckily, only took off his toes.

On top of that my grandmother out of 5 sisters, is unusually light-skinned. I used to think we were mixed with Chinese, until one day my cousins told me (in secret) that something happened during the war...and that's why my grandmother looked different to her sisters. Over time, I found, that both my grandparents refused to use Japanese products, and dismissed any Japanese related topic I spoke about.

I never asked them any more, I never thought of it any further. They never spoke about it, it just was what it was.
All I know, is that the truth is....

I'm not completely Jungle Asian.

=O
-cri-

Your grandpa was a lucky person. Standard OP (Operating Procedure) for a soldier/combatant would've been to keep going or if your TL (Team leader)...or in your grandpa's case, your PL (Platoon leader...by the way Kento, it's Platoon Leader, not head, heh heh just a fun fact to add) felt generous enough to halt the whole fireteam/platoon/unit for you to tie your laces. If it was a platoon or bigger formation, then chances are that the leader/commander of the unit wouldn't give a crap about you and your lace and would've had the unit's Senior Enlisted kick your ass (both verbally...and perhaps physically in some cases) till you got to your destination. But alas, it is a good thing your grandpa did what he did, from what you tell me, he's a good guy. The Japanese military did a lot of d***ed up stuff, but your grandpa sounds like an alright man.

Now...onto the other comments. Although many resources had been put into the Manhattan Project, the main reason why Truman gave the green light for the bombings was because no matter how he or anyone else could calculate it, every one of his general officers and military advisors told him that there was no way in a snowball's chance in hell that the U.S. would be able to invade Japan without a TREMENDOUS amount of casualties, many had without a doubt estimate that it would've soared into the millions as this was the enemy's home territory and Japan was a well-terrained country and region with all (if not most) of the odds in favor of the Japanese defenders. Taking Okinawa was a f***ing b**** in itself, imagine re-doing that but on a scale a hundred times larger.

Onto another point, yes, the Japanese have done horrors beyond imagination during the Second Great War, but alas, every other nation has their own skeletons in their closets as well. My folks still hold onto the bitterness against the Japanese still, even though the only experience they had with that were of oral passings from my grandparents who indeed fought with the Imperial Japanese military. As for covering up the history of it by the Japanese, it is a fleeting effort (so to speak). Today, many Japanese millennials - the first of their nation - acknowledge what has happened, they may not teach it much in history class (some Japanese schools do however, it's a bit of a 50/50 thing with that), but they somehow learn about it, whether through their own volition through some form of media, or tales told by the older generation, they are acknowledging the facts and what was done in their nation's name as is shown in their entertainment (i.e. watched an episode of an anime where a Chinese guy blatantly told a Japanese girl the reason why he didn't like her or the Japanese as a whole was cause of what they did to his people back then, and the Japanese girl in turn acknowledged that her home country did a lot of horrible things). My deduction is that eventually, accepting the facts of WW2 history will become a mainstream thing in Japan.