[Porsche-O-Phile]

War is hell. For real - reading the accounts and hearing a few of them from people that survived is shocking. The ones near ground zero for both were the lucky ones, here one instant and vaporized in a few milliseconds before their brains could process what happened. The not-so-lucky were the ones that got incinerated by the fires, had their eardrums ruptured by the shock wave, were blinded by the flash or who died horribly over weeks or months from radiation poisoning. Reading the story of the people who drank the "black rain" and how it utterly ravaged their organs and systems is gut-wrenching. Most of those who died this way were civilians. They weren't military brass. They loved their country and got caught up in wanting to see victory just like we and everyone else did. Probably many thought Pearl Harbor was a tragedy and a mistake, likely didn't know much about the brutal hand-to-hand fighting by the Imperial Army or things like the Rape of Nanking. If they did, it was probably dismissed as propaganda lies.

The bombs were terrible but I support their use knowing that the alternative would've been so much worse - grievous losses on all sides with months of bloody fighting. No question it was the right decision from a body count perspective, but still horrible as war always is.

If we take anything away from Hiroshima and Nagasaki it should be that we should NEVER be quick to go to war and it should only ever be an absolute last resort. We are far too quick to go to our fists and believe we can have wars that are somehow "clean" or neat. The reality is they can get out of hand quickly and they always are about who is capable of doing the worse things to the other people. It'd be nice if our so-called "leaders" remembered that on occasion instead of glorifying it. It's hell in every sense of the word.