Nuclear Links:
Trinity and Beyond the Atomic Bomb Movie
We are experienceing a small t-shirt problem. We'll get them back up as soon as we can.
April 25th, 2008 
Have you ever wondered how the world would end? Well it wasn’t that long ago we knew. Nukes.
15 Comments
Meandering
I like that scorched earth game. Anyone remember that one?
steph
another awesome video. in history class when we were talking about the cuban missile crisis in our text book all they talked about was how the fall out would kill us and they totally over exagerated it. its always nice to hear the fact that i didnt think it was right doesnt make me crazy =]
AnotherSqueezedRadish(orTurnip?)
Andrea_cro,
All due respect, you may have missed the point Mr Curly Hair (Winn) was trying to make here, which is that, although Nukes are terrible and deadly, there are a lot of misconceptions about them and their effects. Their effects are most definitely terrible, but the media has for years tended to hype up peoples fear of nuclear disaster through reporting that is big on sensation but short on facts, and sensational movies that are even shorter on facts. No surprise there, as sensational programming and movies get good ratings, whereas non-sensational fact based programming and movies tend to be less sellable (more boring?). One fine example of this is the mass hysteria over “Global Warming”, but that’s one for another thread.
Again, I respond with all due respect here Andrea_cro, but it seemed it may be important to say something here about your remarks about Hiroshima and Nagaski and comparissons with Iraq. First I will start by saying my wife is Japanese, born and raised in Japan, so I do know a bit about this. My father-in-law was born in Manchuria during Japans occupation of Manchuria. His father was a scientist (a chemist I believe) stationed in Manchuria. I have no idea what his father was doing for the Japanese government in Manchuria, it’s never been spoken about in my wife’s family, though my father-in-law may know, he’s never spoken of it. After having done a lot of study about Japan’s occupation of Manchuria (and the rest of Southeast Asia) and the many very terrible things done in the name of expanding the Japanese Empire, and coupling that with what a very bitter, angry and unhappy man my grandfather-in-law was, I can draw my own conclusions about what he may have been doing there, but of course I don’t know for sure and will probably never ask my father-in-law about it.
At any rate, before comparing Iraq to Japan, or assuming that Mr. Curly Hair was suggesting it would be a good idea to nuke Baghdad, study up on the history of the Japanese Empire from the early 1900’s until the end of WWII, what their purposes and plans for all of Asia were (taken in context with their partnership with Nazi Germany), with special emphasis on their methods for implementing the expansion of their empire throughout all of Asia and the Pacific Rim. Start with Manchuria and what was done there to the Manchurian people. Look up “Japanese Flea Bombs” and “Plague In Manchuria”, as well as “Japanese Testing Of Chemical and Biological Agents On Manchurian People”. Look up “The Nanking Massacre” in China, (it has another much more unpleasant name, but I will not list it here). What happened there is very difficult to read about, but it puts things into perspective as to why the Japanese Empire needed to be stopped at all costs, just as the Nazi Regime needed to be stopped at all costs.
Manchuria is just one example, many other horrors were committed by the Empire Of The Rising Sun throughout Asia in the first 45 years of the 20th century, like the mass abductions of Korean women and others Asian women to serve on squalid brothel ships and other miserable places as “Comfort Women” for Japanese soldiers. The list of such things goes on and on.
This is all pretty depressing stuff, and I don’t mean to be depressing, just realistic. The reality is, the Japanese people were not fighting for freedom in WWII, they were fighting to fulfill the megalomaniac dreams of certain powerful and very ruthless men. I should stop here and make it clear, I am not Anti-Japanese, quite the contrary. I love Japan, Japanese people, and Japanese culture. Many Japanese nationals are very ashamed of what was done in the name expanding the Japanese Empire, ashamed of the Japanese governments aggressive and ruthless behavior during the first 45 years of the 20th century. Still many more of the younger generations are not even aware of the facts in regard to the Japanese Empires behavior. When my Japanese friends who are aware express feelings of shame I have to honestly tell them, “I don’t believe you have anything to be ashamed of, you weren’t alive then, you had nothing to do with what the Japanese government and military did before you were born”.
If there’s one thing we can all say about ourselves, no matter where we come from, we have some ancestors who did terrible things, guaranteed. But that really has nothing to do with who we are as individuals.
At any rate, the point here was to point out to Andrea_cro that there are some things “you ought to know” before drawing the conclusions that you did.
A bit more of what you ought to know is that during and before WWII the Japanese people had been heavily propagandized for decades with very extreme political and religious ideology. The Japanese were taught that they were of divine origin, were a pure race that was superior to all others, and that their emperor was a divine being (Arahitogami; literally “a god who is a human being”), descended directly from the Sun goddess Amaterasu. The majority of Japanese people did believe these things, strongly, and acted accordingly. They made tremendous sacrifices so that the “divinely founded” Empire of The Sun could be expanded. By the time of the end of WWII many Japanese people were close to starvation, food and commodities of all kinds were terribly scarce because the government was directing everything toward the war effort, a war not to protect their homeland from invaders, but a war to maintain their hold on all of the countries they had invaded and colonized, which included most of Southeast Asia and many South Pacific islands. They also had their sites on Australia, and many, many other territories. The fact is, Japan and Nazi Germany’s master plan was to conquer the world together and split it between them. Of course after that they probably would have fought between themselves for control. Thank God they didn’t succeed. Japan would be a much less pleasant place than it is today, as would the rest of the world most likely.
It is true Andrea, that in the end, after the Japanese Imperial government realized that they were going to lose, they were fighting to keep from being invaded. The Japanese government convinced their people that America and the Allies would destroy their country, rape and torture their women and subjugate and enslave everyone. The Japanese people, for the most part, strongly believed that it would be better to die, down to the last person, than to be shamed by losing the war, or worse, to be enslaved and subjugated. Of course not everyone in Japan was this extreme, but enough were that if the war had continued, it would have been a horrible slaughter that lasted for many, many more years and took the lives of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions more in the end, until Japan was simply a shell of its former self (which it was already getting to be, due simply to the Japanese governments willingness to put all the countries resources into winning no matter what). They believed they were under Divine Mandate to succeed at all costs, to maintain their Empire at all cost, and to fail would be unthinkable. The world knew this, the US knew this.
What happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki is horrible. It brings tears to my eyes every time I think of it, most especially so because the Japanese citizens were duped and deeply manipulated by their totalitarian government, and suffered in so many ways for it, including being bombed mercilessly. There has often been talk that factions in Japanese government were actually already considering surrender, and that the US government was aware of this. That may be true, or it may be a conspiracy theory. At any rate, I personally have always felt that it was most likely not necessary for nukes to be dropped directly on populated areas. A demonstration nuclear airburst a few miles out in Tokyo Bay, or offshore of any major Japanese city, away from people but in clear view (along with a stern warning that the US had many more such bombs) may well have been enough to convince the Japanese Imperial government to surrender straightaway. Sadly, it didn’t happen that way.
At any rate Andrea, one thing is sure, there can be very little, if any, comparison between Japan in WWII and Iraq today, except perhaps that there are bullets and bombs involved, and some pretty extreme ideologies that leave no room for anyone else to have any other ideology, of any kind. One other thing you should be aware of Andrea, is that most of the fighting going on in Iraq is not Iraqis fighting against US troops, it’s foreigners from many other Middle Eastern countries who have slipped into Iraq, formed militias, and are doing everything possible to disrupt the stabilization of Iraq. The only reason US troops are still there is to help keep the country as stable as possible until the Iraqis themselves can get a handle on their own security, stabilize their government and infrastructure, and oust the foreign and extremist religious militias who seek to take control of Iraq if at all possible. In fact, the Iraqi military is fighting side by side with US troops against these foreign militias. Sadly, these militias exploit differences that Iraqis have among themselves, such as Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims, pitting them against one another, and using these differences to recruit embittered and disillusioned Iraqis to fight for them. If you want to know more about what’s going on in Iraq, and what the real Iraqi people are like, go to this website and watch the videos they make about themselves and their lives:
http://chattheplanet.com/index.php?page=about
Check these interesting Iraqis out to, they are Iraq’s only active Heavy Metal band, Acrassicauda, you can also find videos about them on youtube:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrassicauda
http://heavymetalinbaghdad.com/
There’s a couple of different documentary movies coming out about them.
Andrea, the real Iraq is not a country of people who want to blow themselves up, or even have any reason to. Most of the suicide bombings that take place in Iraq are due to strife between Sunni and Shia and other dissenting groups. The real Iraq is a country of people who don’t want to live in fear under a ruthless dictator, or live under the harsh Sharia law the foreign militias want to implement, (with insane rules like not mixing tomatoes and cucumbers because tomatoes are feminine and cucumbers are masculine, I’m not joking, look it up). The real Iraqis want to go to work everyday, advance in life and take care of their families, are going to school, becoming doctors, teachers, lawyers and musicians, that’s what the real Iraqis do for freedom. Anyway Andrea, that’s what I thought you ought to know, and anyone else that cares to read this extra long post. I hope you know, I wrote this, not to flame you, but with all respect. Hope Mr Curly hair and that mystery grey-t-shirt-head guy behind the camera don’t mind the insanely extra long post.
Regards,
Radish (or Turnip, I’m not sure which one I am…)
Bob
Some viewers still don’t get it. This is a show about basic principles, targeted at a public that was taught NOT to think by the educational system of its culture. Finally, someone is trying to help us to do the critical thinking we should have been encouraged to do in school, not discouraged to do by brainwashing and indoctrination. Your viewers need to see the movie “Expelled,” the DVD “Indoctrinate U,” and maybe read “The Shack,” which would really shake up the Southern Baptists. Keep up the good work, even if viewers don’t get it. One day the light may dawn for them. Oh, I might add, “Pagan Christianity” is a good read, too. It not only shakes up the Baptists but the Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and nearly everybody else . . .
Perhaps we need to be shaken up so that we can undo the brainwashing and indoctrination that “higher education,” especially, has done to us, and learn to do genuine critical thinking and bring objective analysis to bear on culture, history, science, and everything else we’ve ever been taught by those who have a hidden or invisible agenda. So, keep doing what you’re doing.
James
“Colorful metaphors” - can you do a video on that? Whatcha thoughts on the words we use? or our kids use? or our leaders? Are some words just “bad”? Or can we use those colorful words for good? Who the %#$@@ knows… help us with a video on the $#^’ing topic! :)
Mike
Agreed: Nukes are big, nasty, horrible things but there is one thing that scares and disturbs me more. The dude in these videos actually believes he is funny. I mean, he makes these clips whilst fantasizing about random chicks asking him to sign their [insert expletive here] on the red carpet of the captain [more profanity] awards! Just because your mom laughs at your jokes doesn’t mean you’re a [pick you favorite swear word] comedian! You were bullied a [...] load in school huh? It shows.
[Dear Mike: We choose to edit the more colorful metaphors you placed in your post.]
Andrea_cro
I dont like (nor agree) your remark about hiroshima and nagasaki. Do you see what are people prepared to do for the freedom in iraq? They blow themselvs up. How does make them different from japnese? Kamikaze & human-bomb both end up the same.
Lets throw a nuclear bomb on Bagdad. NOT!
Im not either pro or anti american, i just belive that there are two sides of the word freedom.
If you want to continue this debate mail me.
PS Sorry for my bad english.
Stefan
On the question of fall-out the case is not entirely as simple as it’s put here. While an air-burst such as over Hiroshima and Nagasaki (i.e. one where the fireball doesn’t touch the ground) doesn’t produce much fall-out, a ground burst is a completely different matter, where much of the casualties from a small device will result from fall-out. See e.g.the first scenario in:
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/nationalsecurity/earlywarning/NationalPlanningScenariosApril2005.pdf
For a more general introduction to nuclear war Stuart Slade lays out the land in:
http://homepage.mac.com/msb/163x/faqs/nuclear_warfare_101.html
http://homepage.mac.com/msb/163x/faqs/nuclear_warfare_102.html
http://homepage.mac.com/msb/163x/faqs/nuclear_warfare_103.html
Ingrid
This kind of reminds me of the series Jericho. Love that serie, I hate CBS for canceling…
Lilmissgeek
ok thanks for clearing that up ^.^
The Brothers Winn
MIRV: Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle. It is a missle that can house and devliever multiple warheads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIRV
Lilmissgeek
merv? Never heard of the word before… I looked it up and didn’t find a meaning that makes sense in the context of the sentence.
Rabble of Redheads
The use of the word “merv” dates the fact that you are guilty of playing “SCORCHED EARTH”. We should have a nostalgia show about things that were popular in the eighties and ninties (early ninties).
Jamie
Godzilla?
John from NIU
Duck and cover!