I like planes and airshows, but...

[Elmo T]

this does seem in poor taste. :rolleyes:

Dayton Air Show Cancels Fake Hiroshima Blast After Outcry (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/dayton-air-show_n_3107944.html)


A popular southwest Ohio air show has canceled plans to stage a re-enactment of the devastating World War II atomic bomb attack on Japan after protests, officials said Thursday.

Dayton Air Show spokeswoman Brenda Kerfoot said the June 22-23 event at Dayton International Airport will keep a planned "Great Wall of Fire" pyrotechnic show but not as an event meant to re-enact the Aug. 6, 1945, bombing of Hiroshima.

[datachicane]

:saywhat: x 100

[Gnam]

Yeah, it's not a live fire exercise. Celebrate the B-29 for the awesome machine that it is: built without calculators or computers by a bunch of angry women with rivet guns. ;)

One high speed, low altitude pass would be way more exciting than some fake fireball 200 yards away.

[dando]

this does seem in poor taste. :rolleyes:

Dayton Air Show Cancels Fake Hiroshima Blast After Outcry (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/dayton-air-show_n_3107944.html)

:saywhat:

-Kevin

[cameraman]

this does seem in poor taste. :rolleyes:

And then some :shakehead

[datachicane]

My great-grandmother kept a meticulous diary from the time she was ten or so until her death at 93. I read nearly all of it a few years back.

She was not what you'd call an emotional woman- thousands of pages describing precisely who she spoke to and the gist of the conversation day by day, what she purchased at the market, what chores she did, her engagement and marriage, a synopsis of my great-grandfather's sermon every Sunday along with his hymn selections, etc., etc., etc., all in the same dry tone.

When her only child, my grandfather, lobbied the Presbytery to send him to Manchuria in the 1930s :saywhat:, she dutifully recorded the fact without comment, as she did his later bout with malaria and the disappearance and eventual recovery of her only grandson (my father) during the Bogotazo.

It was an interesting but numbing experience, reading that diary. There was only one break in the tone, wedged between a description of hanging laundry to dry and some other domestic task early in August. She mentioned hearing of the news of Hiroshima, and in all caps, underlined several times, she wrote THIS IS AN ABOMINATION. Reading that line in her handwriting, after thousands of pages of implacable detachment, made immediate in a way that's difficult to describe the unprecedented nature of the horror that happened that day.

[devilmaster]

Honestly, if you still have it, that should be archived somewhere...

[Gnam]

I think you are lucky to have shared a connection with your great-grandma through her writing. I love it when history grabs you by the heart or throat and squeezes just a little.

I was recently given a photograph of a friend standing on Iwo Jima with his P-51 squadron. The lanky kid in the photograph looks just like the man dying in hospice, but they bear no resemblance.

[Elmo T]

Honestly, if you still have it, that should be archived somewhere...

I'd call the Smithsonian. Seriously. If they didn't have a place for it, they'd know who would.

[datachicane]

I have several similar family diaries, been thinking I should probably scan them all. My daughter will be the last to carry the family name beyond any possible descendents of some great-great uncles we lost touch with generations ago. From a Darwinian standpoint, my people are an abject failure :gomer:. She's already got her eyes on large swaths of her father's book collection, which couldn't make me prouder.

[SteveH]

To continue down this OT path... I have come into possession of a Family Record book, handwritten, showing marriages, births and deaths for many generations. Back to the early 1800s. This would be invaluable for anyone in my extended family if they are interested in genealogy. I would like to publish this as an eBook or something similar so that it can be shared via email and be archived for generations to come. Is there anyway I can do this myself?

[Andrew Longman]

Data, my grandfather was head of the art history department first at Iowa then UCLA. He and a circle of friends barely left the house after Hiroshima on the depression that man had that ability. The holocost had something to do with it too.

Seriously, prior to that time people didn't even think about how easily they could kill each other.

[Napoleon]

Data, my grandfather was head of the art history department first at Iowa then UCLA. He and a circle of friends barely left the house after Hiroshima on the depression that man had that ability.

My dad recieved his draft notice on VJ Day, so his and our families take on it likely differ from you and your families. Instead of dying on some God forsaken Japanesse beach he got to hit the Ginza Strip in Tokyo as a GI.

(PS, after induction and training he was sent to Japan as one of the early part of the post war occupation)

[G.]

I wonder what would have happened in our history if people actually knew what we were doing to the Japanese mainland up to the point of the A-bomb.

The systematic firebombing of the cities killed so many more people than FM&LB.

Would public horror over firebombing have stopped Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

[nrc]

I wonder what would have happened in our history if people actually knew what we were doing to the Japanese mainland up to the point of the A-bomb.

The systematic firebombing of the cities killed so many more people than FM&LB.

Would public horror over firebombing have stopped Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Given the public sentiment at the time I doubt that it would have made any difference. People had an idea of the cost of invading Japanese territory and they were tired of war. Gift them with perfect knowledge of the circumstances in Japanese prison camps and occupied territories and there's no question.

[Don Quixote]

Given the public sentiment at the time I doubt that it would have made any difference. People had an idea of the cost of invading Japanese territory and they were tired of war. Gift them with perfect knowledge of the circumstances in Japanese prison camps and occupied territories and there's no question.I was just going to say this. My dad was a WW2 vet, and he unfortunately took some of those feelings to his grave.

[Gnam]

Agreed. I had a great uncle in the Airborne, who after fighting in Europe, was put a on troop transport headed to Japan. He said they knew they were dead meat. News of the surrender reached them enroute and the ship was turned around. Saved his life.

[RTKar]

Agreed. I had a great uncle in the Airborne, who after fighting in Europe, was put a on troop transport headed to Japan. He said they knew they were dead meat. News of the surrender reached them enroute and the ship was turned around. Saved his life.

Same here, a great uncle, a 19 year old marine training for the invasion. Ended up living a long life.

[TravelGal]

To continue down this OT path... I have come into possession of a Family Record book, handwritten, showing marriages, births and deaths for many generations. Back to the early 1800s. This would be invaluable for anyone in my extended family if they are interested in genealogy. I would like to publish this as an eBook or something similar so that it can be shared via email and be archived for generations to come. Is there anyway I can do this myself?

If this was the US, I think the DAR would be very interested. They keep meticulous records. It is for "general research" and to decide how they can keep you out, I mean how you can trace your ancestors.

[SteveH]

If this was the US, I think the DAR would be very interested. They keep meticulous records. It is for "general research" and to decide how they can keep you out, I mean how you can trace your ancestors.

Thanks, will check that out.

[NismoZ]

Saw a bumper sticker at about the time the atom bomb revisionists were ramping up the rhetoric..."If there hadn't been a Pearl Harbor, there wouldn't have been a Hiroshima!" Makes me think of the fantastic color night pictures of a thriving, vibrant Hiroshima I recently saw...beside photos of Detroit.:shakehead

[Andrew Longman]

My dad recieved his draft notice on VJ Day, so his and our families take on it likely differ from you and your families.Odd thing is I didn't know this about my grandfather until I was an adult and he was dead. It was not something he/we talked about.

My other grandfather was a flight surgeon for a B24 squadron. That he/we did talk about. Not sure what to make of that.

[JohnHKart]

The CAF first did this in 76 and the US actually apologized! :shakehead