poacheruk's New Writeups

Hiroshima (person)

2008-04-16T22:40:55Z

I read John Hersheys book 'Hiroshima' when I was a small child in the 1960's, I was fascinated and horrified by it at the same time, especially by the vivid descriptions of various peoples experiences who survived the two bombs. I was particularly awed by the story of one man who was on the outskirts of Hiroshima when the first bomb went of, and decided to go to his mother's in Nagasaki, and was 5 miles from Nagasaki on the train when the second bomb was dropped, becoming possibly the only Japanese person on the ground to see both bombs and survive.

Then, a year or two later, I stumbled on a medical book which, when I tried to relocate it 20 years later, had vanished from the face of the earth. At the time I was doing research at a large University, and had vast library resources available to me, including access to the British Museum Library, but despite asking libraries all over the world, I never located a single copy.

The book I was searching for, which so impressed itself on me…

atomic bomb (idea)

2008-04-16T22:19:26Z

According to 'The Birth of the Bomb' by Ronald Clark, 1962, the British actually raised the possibility of a uranium bomb in a committee meeting just before Christmas 1939. A second memo in July 1941 commented that nuclear weapons might be possible 'before the end of the war'. In 1942-43, a research establishment was built next to a poison gas factory in Wales to test the equipment needed to refine Uranium. The British played a key role in encouraging the Americans to start their own nuclear program because they had the sense to realise they didn't have the resources to do it alone.

Why is the air force allowed to bomb civilians? (person)

2008-04-09T18:19:46Z

There are a couple of principles here that people need to get there heads round.

The concept that there are 'Rules of War' is complete nonsense, a delusion of gentlemen soldiers from the 19th century who had this romantic notion that war could be conducted along the lines of a cricket match, and you could roll out the stumps, play a bit, declare a winner, shake hands and all go home for tea and crumpets in the Summerhouse.

War, as I wrote elsewhere, is not the opposite of Peace. Peace has rules and morals and ethics. War cannot have such a thing, because war isn't civilised, and so lacks those facets of civilisations that make them peaceful, i.e. morals and ethics. Something as utterly uncivilised as war cannot have 'rules of conduct', because it goes contrary to the only objective of war, which is to win, and to win you hit harder, longer, and quicker than your opponent, because in the end, the only thing that actually matters about war is that you win, because very…

Firebombing of Dresden (idea)

2008-04-08T22:12:49Z

Its very easy to criticise the bombing of Dresden, but the issues are far more complex than the armchair historians who weren't even born at the time, and criticise in hindsight, can imagine.

Firstly, you have to appreciate the collective single mindedness of the English people, who fought the war alone, until joined by the Americans in 1942. The attitude of the English was simple, 'We didn't start this war, but were going to bloody well finish it'. Bomber Harris himself said 'They sowed the wind, now they will reap the whirlwind.' The English did not ask for WW2, they had it foisted on them, and so the entire nation considered any means justified the end. It is exactly this reason why, even today, we English feel we have the right to make sure the world never forgets about World War Two.

Secondly, you have appreciate that considerable investment had gone into building a bomber force of 1000 heavy bombers, considering each one took 250,000 man hours to build. For several…