Ralph – Thank you. Very interesting especially being a Michigan Grad and having spent 4 years in Ann Arbor with first hand experience of Detroit and then subsequently 4 years in Japan (1987-1991) – Japan is an amazingly dynamic and robust environment…if only we could foster the same.
Best,
Randy
Subject: Hiroshima before and after
Dear Karen and Ethel,
As I mentioned to you this evening after choir rehearsal, I recently received pictures of Hiroshima after its destruction and as it appears today. There were also similarly temporal pictures of Detroit. My friend who knew that I had been at Los Alamos for a time during WW ll was in effect asking, "If Japan could come back so beautifully, why haven't we done better in Detroit?". That is a separate economic or political question that is probably only tangential to my postulate that follows.
Please observe the pictures and then suffer the lengthy answer I gave her. --- Ralph
Subject: before, after and after - Hiroshima, Detroit HIROSHIMA - 64 YEARS LATER......... THE AFTER PICTURES ARE VISUALLY EXTRAORDINARY 1945 |
We all know that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed in August 1945 after being hit by the first atomic bombs. However we know little about the progress made by the people of that land during the past 64 years. Now |
NEXT......................... DETROIT - 64 YEARS AFTER NOT BEING HIT BY THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMBS.... |
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Who the hell won the war ?? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Bright and thanks for the e-mail. I think it is also worth looking at both Japan and Germany after WW ll and today and realize that we destroyed their systems of government when we totally defeated them, forcing acceptance of unconditional surrender. They had little choice but to change, to escape from an autocratic dictatorship and with our help, to develop a democracy. Perhaps it was necessary that we do that to them while assuring our own survival. Is there a parallel today in our struggle against the dictatorship of the Supreme Religious Leaders in the Muslim world? Or the dictatorship in North Korea? -- all of whom seem to wish us harm or threaten us. It is a frightening thought but will more preemptive action of some sort be necessary before it is too late? We are no longer protected by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans or MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). I hope our leaders will be able to do better than in the past when we waited until destruction was upon us. Destruction this time would likely be far worse. I have been accused of scaring people but I don't think I am totally paranoid. A "reformation" in parts of the Muslim world that would demote the supreme political authority of the religious leaders may be coming and should be positive. Given below is something I wrote three years or so ago which may still be appropriate today, at least in my mind.-- Ralph ------------------------------------------------- Hitler vs President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of Iran 5/21/06 I am sorely bothered by my scenario postulating that we are repeating a disbelief today as we did in the 1930s. It has been said that we should put ourselves in the shoes of another before condemning them. If that necessarily means thinking like that other person, then I know I have limits. I cant think like a premeditating murderer, much less like an ethnic cleanser. So when I learn of statements such as Hitlers in Mein Kampf that he wanted to exterminate Jews or other non-Aryans or undesirables, my first reaction is to think that surely this is (or was) blustering. After all politicians are wont to make outlandish statements for the sake of the electorate. Even after Hitler took over the Sudetenland, it must have been Neville Chamberlains belief that Hitler couldnt really have meant all those terrible things he professed--it had just been extraordinary blustering. How many people prior to WW ll could have believed that he meant what he said and even ventured a thought about pre-emptive action? Certainly in the USA, prior to Pearl Harbor, a large majority wanted just to stay out of foreign entanglements. Are the President of Iran and certain others in the Muslim religious community just blustering when they express the wish to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and eventually to kill any one who does not accept their faith? I understand that the Shiites have their own messiah who will reappear at the end times after all the blood of non-believers, unwilling converts, has been shed. Surely, I think to myself, this time may be different. But where do I see signs that great progress has been made in the nature of man since the first WW, WW ll, Korea, Vietnam, Dar Fur, etc.? It may be a long drawn-out discussion (regarding mea culpa) as to why there are people now who would openly state horrible intentions and then carry through with them but it seems to me highly likely that it will happen again. Because of the tremendous growth in destructive capability, the next time could bring about the end times of prophesy. I am very uncomfortable, to say the least, when I think that just maybe the Islamic Terrorists would think as I do, that it is in their best interest to avoid such a catastrophe. They state to the contrary! Are they just blustering? ----------------------------------- A Strange Idea? (1/08) It occurs to me that the world may have indeed been fortunate that the leaders of the communistic Soviet Union were atheists. This permitted Mutually Assured Destruction to work in preventing atomic destruction. The cold war lasted for 50 years because there was no benefit from mutual destruction. If Stalin had felt there was a god who would reward him in Paradise for destroying his enemies, he might very well have supported suicide atomic bombing, even with his own demise. I find it difficult to believe that we can count on finding a way for a similar stalemate with Muslim terrorists. Self destruction (suicide bombing) while killing non-believers (who refuse to be converted) in a religious cause seems to be a positive in their march toward eternity. | ||
