[Leaplist] Paul Again

[Chris]

Fred Moore wrote:

>I just had another phone call.. It seems that Paul has had a standing
>request for years that there be no funeral, and no headstone.  His
>reasons.. He does not want any place for protesters to gather after his
>death.. Fred
>
>  
>
Amazing that people would protest a soldier doing his job -
obeying his commander-in-chief. Yes, nukes are ugly and
scary, but it seems clear, even today, that the Japanese
(at least their military leaders) had a no-surrender mentality
that would have resulted in many more casualties had they
not been impressed by the sheer futility of continuing the war.

I have a friend who collects Nambus - Japanese military
semi-auto pistols. The Nambu was never a great pistol,
but it's fascinating to track the erosion of the Japanese
production capabilities by looking at Nambus produced
through the war - those produced at the beginning of the
war were decent in terms of materials, machining and
finish - by the end of the war they looked like something
a badly motivated high-school shop class had cranked
out at the last minute. Rough machining, no finish, raw
wood grips that on some examples still had tree bark on
them. Yet the Japanese military leaders, unable to even
make a decent firearm by the end, would not surrender.

And I'd argue that Hiroshima, while horiffic, was only horrific
in terms of the means of destruction - certainly there were
many other actions that were as destructive, for example,
the Dresden fire-bombings killed, at a minimum, 35,000 and
wreaked massive destruction. I doubt the dead much cared
whether they were killed by fusion or napalm.

General Tibbets did his job. It may have been a horrific job,
but it can't possibly have been less justified than so many
of our recent military actions.

Reqiescat in Pace

Cheers,

Chris