]]]]]]]]]]]]]] NO MORE HIROSHIMAS? [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ With "Hiroshima Day" (Aug. 8) approaching, let me remind you of J. Oberg's suggestion for a bumpersticker: NO MORE HIROSHIMAS? EASY: NO MORE PEARL HARBORS! And here is a letter from Australian AtE subscriber Dr J.A. Poutsma, dated 2/28/88, that you might wish to send to the editor of your local paper in early August: "...When they dropped the bomb, I was close to death. My weight was about 100 lbs for a height of 6 ft, and I could encircle my thigh just above the knee with one hand (thumb to middle finger). 3,300 men went into the POW camp in Makassas Celebes Island (now called Sula- wesi) and a bare 1,100 came out of there ate the end of the war. Dur- ing the last year of our POW period (of 3 years and 9 months), POWs were dying increasingly rapidly, mainly from malaria and various dysenteries superimposed on various malnutritional states and those following on the severe beatings that the Japs meted out with ironwood clubs (like baseball bats) on the backside. During the last few months on average we buried 40-50 guys PER DAY. Three of my close friends were beheaded for trying to escape -- you know the story. Those num- bers would have increased with time and can be multiplied many times for all the POW and civilian internment camps all over the occupied territories. I believe estimates of allied losses to be expected on invasion of the Japanese main island were: 1 million allies and some 5 million Japanese. Compare that to the the 140,000 dead at Hiroshima and Naga- saki, and it is not hard to conclude which measure saved the most lives... Dr J.A. Poutsma Goonengerry Rd., Mullumbimby, NSW 2482, Australia
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