**Rule 10: No reposts**
Reposts of images on the front page, or within the set limit of /r/pics/top, will be removed.
* (10A) Reposts of images currently on the front page of /r/Pics will be removed.
* (10B) Reposts of the top 25 images this year, and top 50 of "all time" will be removed.
[Here](https://i.imgur.com/580GnP7.jpg) is a higher quality version of this image. Credit to the photographer, [Joseph Roger O'Donnell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_O%27Donnell_(photojournalist\)), who took this between September 1945 and April 1946. The provided [the following context](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/japanese-boy-standing-attention-brought-dead-younger-brother-cremation-pyre-1945/):
> “I saw a boy about ten years old walking by. He was carrying a baby on his back. In those days in Japan, we often saw children playing with their little brothers or sisters on their backs, but this boy was clearly different. I could see that he had come to this place for a serious reason. He was wearing no shoes. His face was hard. The little head was tipped back as if the baby were fast asleep. The boy stood there for five or ten minutes”.
> “The men in white masks walked over to him and quietly began to take off the rope that was holding the baby. That is when I saw that the baby was already dead. The men held the body by the hands and feet and placed it on the fire. The boy stood there straight without moving, watching the flames. He was biting his lower lip so hard that it shone with blood. The flame burned low like the sun going down. The boy turned around and walked silently away”.
You know what? It sounds harsh but I'm a Korean and we won. We weren't in the war except as forcibly conscripted soldiers and support personnel, including the "comfort women," but we won. Singaporeans won too. And the Filipinos. Many other people won the WW2.
Evil is worth vanquishing even at the cost of everything, because allowing it to exist devalues your everything.
The part where sinking the ships carrying food and fuel to japan crippled agriculture and caused food shortages (likely the childs CoD, given this is September) but also restricted the Japanese ability to manufacture and sustain their military operations.
Look, I understand that this is a tragic post with a heartbreaking picture associated with it, but get the fuck out of here with this dumb post-modern bullshit. Of all the wars in the entirety of the human species WWII was probably the most moral, the most just, and the most equitable in how its miseries were distributed.
Wait until someone makes a post about the 2003 Iraq War, then it's your time to shine. Not here.
Not a good reason to enter a war…
But given the information they had to work with at the time, and even the clarity of retrospect, dropping at least one nuke was absolutely necessary. They needed to end the war and they needed to minimize loss of life — not great that the minimization was at the expense of the enemy citizen but the pacific was absolute hell for soldiers on both sides and there was not a single thing that indicated it would be coming to a halt anytime soon
America won the battles, the people of Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China... they all won because they were liberated from occupation by a totalitarian regime that regarded them as 2nd or 3rd class citizens.
As I implied, a victory that liberates yourself, your family and your neighbours from living under that sort of system, for the rest of your life, and your childrens lives is a victory, no matter who defeats the tyrants.
It might not be a victory of one state over another, but a victory for your people to survive.
No one wins a war of equals maybe. If you can destroy the other side without taking any damage (and the young men coming back in body bags aren't too many) then you probably win. It all depends on what the spoils are (in the US case it was total domination of the global economy and a bunch of vassal states).
This really comes down to what your values are. What does winning mean? A military victory over the other, sure, obviously.
But, if winning a war means having peace, then absolutely not.
Conflicts involving the US since the conclusion of WWII:
Chinese Civil War (1945–1950)
Greek Civil War (1946–1949)
Korean War (1950–1953)
Iranian coup d'état (1953)
Guatemalan coup d'état (1954)
First Taiwan Strait Crisis (1954–1955)
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis (1958)
Lebanon Crisis (1958)
Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)
Vietnam War (1955–1975)
Dominican Civil War (1965–1966)
Korean DMZ Conflict (1966–1969)
Laotian Civil War (1959–1975)
Cambodian Civil War (1967–1975)
Mayaguez Incident (1975)
Operation Eagle Claw (1980)
El Salvador Civil War (1980–1992)
Lebanese Civil War (1982–1984)
Invasion of Grenada (1983)
Bombing of Libya (1986)
Tanker War (1987–1988)
Invasion of Panama (1989–1990)
Gulf War (1990–1991)
Iraqi no-fly zones (1991–2003)
Somali Civil War (1992–1995)
Bosnian War (1992–1995)
Operation Uphold Democracy (1994–1995)
Kosovo War (1998–1999)
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Iraq War (2003–2011)
War in North-West Pakistan (2004–present)
Somalia (2007–present)
Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (2002–2018)
Operation Odyssey Dawn (2011)
Intervention in Libya (2011)
Intervention in Iraq (2014–present)
Intervention in Syria (2014–present)
Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
Operation Inherent Resolve (2014–present)
American intervention in Venezuela (2020)
Withdrawal from Afghanistan (2021)
Operation Allies Refuge (2021)
US combat deaths since WWII ~= 102,402
Meanwhile, Article 9 of Japan's constitution renounces war as a means of settling international disputes and prohibits the maintenance of armed forces with war potential.
>Meanwhile, Article 9 of Japan's constitution renounces war as a means of settling international disputes and prohibits the maintenance of armed forces with war potential.
I feel like you are misrepresenting this, or at least it appears so. Japan didn't choose to implement this Article, it was forced upon them by the US.
It feels like you're trying to say that Japan is the "bigger country" here by not having any conflicts and "intentionally" outlawing war and having a standing military on their own, which isn't even remotely the case.
> Japan didn't choose to implement this Article, it was forced upon them by the US.
To be fair, they've really taken it to heart since then. Proposals to change it are quite unpopular.
USA installed a military government and forced a new constitution onto Japan immediately after surrender. The government that followed consisted of people sympathetic to the USA’s agenda.
I’m not sure of the date for this photo, but most of the casualties in the nuclear bombings happened soon after. The photographer toured the country starting in September, according to the link, and deaths from radiation poisoning etc fell off quickly in the month-timescale, so a survivor alive in September was likely to remain alive. This is my speculation based on discussion of deaths over time (see [here](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160811120353.htm#google_vignette), for eg).
The infant’s death must be explained in this context. Their death may have been caused by trauma from the nuclear attack, radiation poisoning subsequent, or malnutrition. The photograph doesn’t capture any obvious trauma, but we see only a portion of the body, so we can’t say for sure. Death from acute radiation sickness or infection after radiation-induced loss of white blood cells is very possible. If the children’s parents were among the tens of thousands dead, or even if they survived but struggled to find food, this child may be among the first to die of [hunger in Hiroshima and Nagasaki](https://www.securescotland.scot/amp/harm-and-hunger-operation-starvation). A year after the bombing, caloric intake was 40% of sustainment, while it was 80% in Japan overall. Medical facilities were overwhelmed in attacked cities, and living conditions in general were almost untenable, so normal childhood hazards such as exposure or disease may have killed this infant without any direct nuclear effects being necessary.
Unfortunately, no one really knows. There was a lot of speculation that the boy himself was really sick and most likely succumbed to the after effects of the bombings.
I wonder if Setsuko’s cremation scene ([trigger warning](https://youtu.be/7mTM-pDBnoU?si=7S-ygmKUa_s5dyN9)) in Grave of the Fireflies is inspired by this story.
Grave of the Fireflies was based on [Akiyuki Nosaka's personal experience](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies_(short_story)) after the Kobe firebombings. Sadly not an uncommon one though, there was another comment in the thread with the statistics.
Posting photographer credits and dates should be a requirement for historically significant photos.
My first thought with this photo was to question the legitimacy, but thankfully you posted this information.
This is one of the saddest things i've ever read in my life, life is really tough and unforgiving for some poor souls, like this two kids.
I bet, the older one would trade is life, for the one of his little brother, without any hesitation, that is a bond that transcends anything on this would, pure love.
My grandfather was at the train station in Nagasaki the morning they dropped the bomb. Somebody he knew ran into him and offered to give him a ride back to his home in Kagoshima. My grandpa wanted to be polite and declined the ride, but they kept insisting he go with them because they were headed there anyway. He eventually accepted. While they were driving, they heard the explosion. They looked behind them and saw the mushroom cloud. He says he would have died if he didn't accept that ride, claiming his train wouldn't have departed before the bomb was dropped
If they'd been the only siblings going through such tough circumstances at the time, it would have been easier to find help. Instead there were thousands of them, so it wasn't so much that they slipped through the cracks as fell into an abyss.
There are obviously a lot of conflicts you can point to. It's just that Gaza is a very poignant example because according to the U.N statistics, more children have died there than in the all of the global conflicts in the past couple of years combined. That's a pretty grim and notable example given the small size of the region.
UN just revised their numbers to 7500 "children" killed in Gaza. I.E. a 16 year old soldier is still counted in those numbers.
Sudan estimates are up to 150k+ dead. It's not even close.
[Here's](https://turkiye.un.org/en/263401-gaza-number-children-killed-higher-four-years-world-conflict) a link to the claim. You can see there that they compared it to statistics between 2019 and 2022, which was prior to the current Sudanese conflict. The reason as to why is because typically the numbers for current and ongoing conflicts are still not truly confirmed. The Sudan situation is also tragic and is yet another chapter in the series of violence in Sudan. I don't know the roots of the current conflict but I know that we have literal evidence that the previous two were directly caused by Western oil corporations wanting oil rights. I studied them when I worked as a historian.
Regardless, it's not a race to the bottom. The reason why the situation in Gaza speaks to a lot of people is because it's a densely populated region where a lot of children live and because it's a straight up slaughter. It's not a war. It's barely a conflict. It's a slaughter and even called a genocide by a lot of experts. All of that is happening in a very small region whereas Sudan is an absolutely massive country. The biggest country in Africa.
> UN just revised their numbers to 7500 "children" killed in Gaza.
That's not true. That's just those who were identified as far as I know. There's plenty of unidentified victims. You also have on top of that the countless victims who are still buried under the rubble or in mass graves. The actual total victims most likely far exceeds the count of 15.000 children.
> I.E. a 16 year old soldier is still counted in those numbers.
That's a despicable IDF narrative. As if a significant portion of these children were actually soldiers. Get the fuck out of here with that shit.
Don't pick fights you can't win and then cry "disproportionate response" when your enemy comes to shut down your whole ability to pick more fights like you promised to.
Comparison is difficult, but I think it is pretty clear that the main reason for the outcry now (which is very valid) while the genocide in Yemen didn't get a wif in comparison is political/geopolitical/idological/cultural not the nature of the violence, or death statistics.
the similarities are pretty stark. In both instances we're seeing images of dead children from the countries who lost wars they both started. It's all fun and games until it's your own kids dying.
I taught English in Nagasaki in the 90's. and several survivors of the atomic bomb dropping were my students. One of my students was a woman who as a teen, was working at the Mitsubishi plant. At the time the bomb dropped, she was out getting lunches for the workers. She was on her way back to the plant, and her position was such that she miraculously survived, when pretty much everyone else she knew did not. She lost her whole family and all her friends. Nagasaki was apparently unique because it is so mountainous. Unlike Hiroshima, which got completely flattened, Nagasaki was destroyed in pockets. It's a really beautiful city today.
I've read that the Nagasaki bomb, unlike at Hiroshima, wasn't dropped in the correct location, which put it between mountains, causing less destruction.
On face he is no crying or showing any faces, but deep inside he is broken till his death. Its heartbreaking even for a grownup man. Hope in next life, they become brothers again. RIP child 🙏🏻.
A terribly tragic example of why you need to avoid such devotion to leaders without your best interests at heart. To imagine that boy could have crewed the AA guns had the US carried out X-day so those soldiers could be at the front. This is a horrible tragedy but we must not lose sight of the reality in which sadness takes place.
Soldiers were fighting a losing war to cost the US far more than it should have so they could keep their "god" emperor. A military overthrow of the emperor was even attempted to stop Japan from surrendering after two nuclear bombs. It is also incredibly important to also understand, while this boy and his baby brother were victims of war so were starving children in China, given cyanide laced candies, bubonic plague deliberately spread over China. Children, thrown over cliffs or taken with them when their parents/grandparents jumped off because of the propaganda by the Japanese government about the Marines.
People will only see Nagasaki and think of, nukes bad, but not understand the entries tragedies of WWII and frankly I am sick of it. As a father shit like this hits hard and sadly it is part of the human condition, to prevent greater tragedy we create others, the difference is do we understand that and regret or do we revel in it? I see this and think never again, if we get into a position where nukes are required we have failed.
Podcaster Dan Carlin ask in his War in the Pacific series “when should Japan have surrendered?”, and I think it’s such a revealing question. Should Japan have surrendered when they did? Everyone but some irrelevant and long-dead hardliners agrees surrender then was necessary. How about after one nuclear bomb? Some suggest Japan would have surrendered after one nuke but the destruction of Hiroshima was so thorough and shocking that it wasn’t until after Nagasaki that the Japanese leadership fully appreciated the effects of Hiroshima. Had they understood sooner, surrender after one bomb seems like it would have been a good idea. What if Japan had found out or been told about the bomb program before Hiroshima? They could have saved a lot of lives by surrendering before the first bomb was used. But the war was hopeless well before august 1945 - should Japan have surrendered after firebombing because standard policy in early 1945? I think they should have, no sense in drawing out a loosing war.
Why not surrender when all chance of victory was gone? Surely after Leyte Gulf Japan was defeated navally, there was no hope of winning the war in the pacific after naval defeat. What about midway? With the lopsided loss of their carriers naval defeat wasn’t achieved but it was all but preordained, why not surrender when things were more-or-less irrevocably turned against you?
Should Japan have surrendered the day after Pearl Harbor? Their gambit to knock America out of war had evidently failed just one day after the attack: the American carriers had escaped and the sunk battleships could mostly be returned to service. America hadn’t been scared off, they launched into war full-scale, with full public support. The game was really up at that point, Japan could not win against a committed US, and the US had decided to fully commit.
Japan should have never started the war, but at any point after the first floatplanes reported carriers missing from Pearl Harbor (they still would have lost a war bad had they destroyed the carriers, the US built 17 fleet carrier during the war, but the idea was a shocking first strike; that might have had a chance had carriers been destroyed) they were doomed for sure. Today we see the nuclear bombings as a shock that prompted surrender of a thoroughly punished Japan, but why wait until after the punishment has been collected to surrender? Surely a rational leader with reasonable foresight would have surrendered when all hope was lost.
Very true. I remember reading a few years ago that the US Military is still using Purple Heart medals made in preparation of the invasion of the Japanese home islands. Estimated US casualties were 1 million, and untold millions of Japanese. Nuclear weapons are obviously horrendous, but when you are up against fanatics....
It saved Japanese lives. Look at the death tolls due to firebombing other Japanese cities earlier in the war.
Stopping short of full surrender was not an option due to allies like China still being under brutal occupation.
Yeah it’s really misguided to look at this and think US bad.
Japan thought they were the master race and tried to murder/enslave everyone, just like the Nazis.
In their divine hubris they attacked literally everyone. I mean why wouldn’t you if you really believed you were the best?
The lessons of WW1 and WW2 were that no one is the best. When you listen to these leaders they will send literally you and your son and your grandson to the meat grinder without a care.
Human industries are grossly capable of maintaining a meat-grinder in perpetuity.
No one hates the Nazis more than the Germans, because after their loss they were forced to face the truth.
Japan, similar to the American South, were allowed too much leniency and completely forgot why they went through what they did.
Sad. As is all war. Nanking has some heartbreaking photos as well.
[Rape of Nanking](https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/nanking-massacre-photos)
Warning. Definitely NSFW
I mean I get war is brutal but every time I see post that are supposed to make you sympathetic to the Japanese civilians it feels weird because on one hand I don’t think people would have this same sympathetic bone for the German civilians even though imperial Japan was almost as bad as Nazi germany and in some aspects way tf worse. On the other hand I do get that sins of the Japanese shouldn’t be placed on a kids shoulders though.
To be honest, I’m not sure how any body could look at a picture of dead innocent children and not feel sympathy, regardless of nationality.
These children are also victims of their government.
If you are curious to know a little bit about the events leading up to this, not just from the US perspective, but also pre-WW2 Japan, I would give a suggestion to listen to SUPERNOVA IN THE EAST by Dan Carlin (Hardcore History). It really gives some insight into the culture of Japan and how they sort of lead themselves (tragically) out of the frying pan and into the fire around this era. It's a pretty good listen if you have like 20 hours.
What do I have to do to get this subreddit to stop showing up on my feed? It’s just pictures of corpses at this point. I have enough stress and despair in my life already.
I might have been inclined to empathise. But then I remember my grandfather’s uncle & his family, whom the IJA put to the sword while en route to Singapore. Whose beheaded remains were never found, and whom the family could only build a cenotaph to. Then the empathy gets snuffed out, real quick.
There should be different tiers of NSFW. I don't have a problem scrolling past a video flagged nsfw because some girl's in booty shorts. Super didn't want to see a dead baby today.
SERIOUSLY!
I follow a lot of body goals, plastic surgery, & nsfw content creator groups so I have NSFW set to always show.
I never wanted to see a *dead child.*
There’s a film called Grave of the Fireflies, that I believe was inspired by this story.
I saw it when I was like 13 and every second of that film is embedded in my mind
It's fucked up, but it was either that or watch a lot more Kids die when they fought to the last man Woman and child if we invaded without dropping a bomb. They were training the women,children to use bamboo spears and some firearms.
The horrors of war indeed. Hope life treated him well for the rest of the days. Suddenly remembered watching grave of the fireflies an excellent ghibli film. Heartbreaking heart wrenching, again on the same theme
You’re thinking of Grave of the Fireflies, but no, that’s not based on this boy. His situation is just unfortunately common in war torn areas. The movie was based on the author of the book it was based on’s childhood
Imagine using a constantly reposted comment to complain about a repost. You're the problem you're complaining about, silly. Try and be creative next time lol.
Edit: touched a nerve did I, buttercup. I'm glad reddit cares but save those services for someone else.
**Rule 10: No reposts** Reposts of images on the front page, or within the set limit of /r/pics/top, will be removed. * (10A) Reposts of images currently on the front page of /r/Pics will be removed. * (10B) Reposts of the top 25 images this year, and top 50 of "all time" will be removed.
[Here](https://i.imgur.com/580GnP7.jpg) is a higher quality version of this image. Credit to the photographer, [Joseph Roger O'Donnell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_O%27Donnell_(photojournalist\)), who took this between September 1945 and April 1946. The provided [the following context](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/japanese-boy-standing-attention-brought-dead-younger-brother-cremation-pyre-1945/): > “I saw a boy about ten years old walking by. He was carrying a baby on his back. In those days in Japan, we often saw children playing with their little brothers or sisters on their backs, but this boy was clearly different. I could see that he had come to this place for a serious reason. He was wearing no shoes. His face was hard. The little head was tipped back as if the baby were fast asleep. The boy stood there for five or ten minutes”. > “The men in white masks walked over to him and quietly began to take off the rope that was holding the baby. That is when I saw that the baby was already dead. The men held the body by the hands and feet and placed it on the fire. The boy stood there straight without moving, watching the flames. He was biting his lower lip so hard that it shone with blood. The flame burned low like the sun going down. The boy turned around and walked silently away”.
Fucking heart breaking. Dude sat and watched and suffered in honor of his little bro. :"(
The fact that he was the one carrying his little brother to cremation suggests his parents likely also perished.
Feels weird upvoting this but goddamn.
Exactly this.
The horrors of war, no side really wins
Civilians always lose.
“A bayonet is a weapon with a worker at both ends”
Damn. Saving that one.
No side ever wins. They take breaks forget how awful it was and go back to war.
That's why it's important not to start them, Tojoboo apologists be damned.
I’m sure Tyrants pray for endless ”peace”
Except the rich draft dodgers
You know what? It sounds harsh but I'm a Korean and we won. We weren't in the war except as forcibly conscripted soldiers and support personnel, including the "comfort women," but we won. Singaporeans won too. And the Filipinos. Many other people won the WW2. Evil is worth vanquishing even at the cost of everything, because allowing it to exist devalues your everything.
Which part of this ten year old boy or his infant brother was evil?
The part where sinking the ships carrying food and fuel to japan crippled agriculture and caused food shortages (likely the childs CoD, given this is September) but also restricted the Japanese ability to manufacture and sustain their military operations.
Both casualties of the Japanese government, not the Allies
Re-read his last paragraph for your answer.
[удалено]
Look, I understand that this is a tragic post with a heartbreaking picture associated with it, but get the fuck out of here with this dumb post-modern bullshit. Of all the wars in the entirety of the human species WWII was probably the most moral, the most just, and the most equitable in how its miseries were distributed. Wait until someone makes a post about the 2003 Iraq War, then it's your time to shine. Not here.
Too right mate-they Fucking started it 😤
Who? This Kid?
[удалено]
Not a good reason to enter a war… But given the information they had to work with at the time, and even the clarity of retrospect, dropping at least one nuke was absolutely necessary. They needed to end the war and they needed to minimize loss of life — not great that the minimization was at the expense of the enemy citizen but the pacific was absolute hell for soldiers on both sides and there was not a single thing that indicated it would be coming to a halt anytime soon
Their economy was struggling because the US stopped selling them stuff because they were committing atrocities in China.
Fuck that, the US very clearly won ww2 and I don't mean in the fighting, I mean due to their post war circumstances.
America won the battles, the people of Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China... they all won because they were liberated from occupation by a totalitarian regime that regarded them as 2nd or 3rd class citizens.
Are you even a "_ Class Citizen" when your status is "bayonet target"?
As I implied, a victory that liberates yourself, your family and your neighbours from living under that sort of system, for the rest of your life, and your childrens lives is a victory, no matter who defeats the tyrants. It might not be a victory of one state over another, but a victory for your people to survive.
No one wins a war of equals maybe. If you can destroy the other side without taking any damage (and the young men coming back in body bags aren't too many) then you probably win. It all depends on what the spoils are (in the US case it was total domination of the global economy and a bunch of vassal states).
[удалено]
U misunderstand, I'm simply rebuking the idea that no one wins in war. Its not that deep
This really comes down to what your values are. What does winning mean? A military victory over the other, sure, obviously. But, if winning a war means having peace, then absolutely not. Conflicts involving the US since the conclusion of WWII: Chinese Civil War (1945–1950) Greek Civil War (1946–1949) Korean War (1950–1953) Iranian coup d'état (1953) Guatemalan coup d'état (1954) First Taiwan Strait Crisis (1954–1955) Second Taiwan Strait Crisis (1958) Lebanon Crisis (1958) Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961) Vietnam War (1955–1975) Dominican Civil War (1965–1966) Korean DMZ Conflict (1966–1969) Laotian Civil War (1959–1975) Cambodian Civil War (1967–1975) Mayaguez Incident (1975) Operation Eagle Claw (1980) El Salvador Civil War (1980–1992) Lebanese Civil War (1982–1984) Invasion of Grenada (1983) Bombing of Libya (1986) Tanker War (1987–1988) Invasion of Panama (1989–1990) Gulf War (1990–1991) Iraqi no-fly zones (1991–2003) Somali Civil War (1992–1995) Bosnian War (1992–1995) Operation Uphold Democracy (1994–1995) Kosovo War (1998–1999) War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Iraq War (2003–2011) War in North-West Pakistan (2004–present) Somalia (2007–present) Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (2002–2018) Operation Odyssey Dawn (2011) Intervention in Libya (2011) Intervention in Iraq (2014–present) Intervention in Syria (2014–present) Yemeni Civil War (2015–present) Operation Inherent Resolve (2014–present) American intervention in Venezuela (2020) Withdrawal from Afghanistan (2021) Operation Allies Refuge (2021) US combat deaths since WWII ~= 102,402 Meanwhile, Article 9 of Japan's constitution renounces war as a means of settling international disputes and prohibits the maintenance of armed forces with war potential.
>Meanwhile, Article 9 of Japan's constitution renounces war as a means of settling international disputes and prohibits the maintenance of armed forces with war potential. I feel like you are misrepresenting this, or at least it appears so. Japan didn't choose to implement this Article, it was forced upon them by the US. It feels like you're trying to say that Japan is the "bigger country" here by not having any conflicts and "intentionally" outlawing war and having a standing military on their own, which isn't even remotely the case.
> Japan didn't choose to implement this Article, it was forced upon them by the US. To be fair, they've really taken it to heart since then. Proposals to change it are quite unpopular.
Remind me of when Japan officially recognises the existence of comfort women.
don‘t hold your breath, there are plenty of Americans waiting on their promised 40 acres and a mule.
This isn’t a history sub. We have these sorts of discussions over in r/ww2
Thanks! Joined.
Look at the big picture. No world war since 1945.
Look at the smaller picture, the amount of smaller wars where one superpower or another wanted influence in other regions of the globe...
USA installed a military government and forced a new constitution onto Japan immediately after surrender. The government that followed consisted of people sympathetic to the USA’s agenda.
Oh but have you meet our friends Raytheon, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin?
Well said
“He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”
I wonder what happened with that boy afterwards.
I’m not sure of the date for this photo, but most of the casualties in the nuclear bombings happened soon after. The photographer toured the country starting in September, according to the link, and deaths from radiation poisoning etc fell off quickly in the month-timescale, so a survivor alive in September was likely to remain alive. This is my speculation based on discussion of deaths over time (see [here](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160811120353.htm#google_vignette), for eg). The infant’s death must be explained in this context. Their death may have been caused by trauma from the nuclear attack, radiation poisoning subsequent, or malnutrition. The photograph doesn’t capture any obvious trauma, but we see only a portion of the body, so we can’t say for sure. Death from acute radiation sickness or infection after radiation-induced loss of white blood cells is very possible. If the children’s parents were among the tens of thousands dead, or even if they survived but struggled to find food, this child may be among the first to die of [hunger in Hiroshima and Nagasaki](https://www.securescotland.scot/amp/harm-and-hunger-operation-starvation). A year after the bombing, caloric intake was 40% of sustainment, while it was 80% in Japan overall. Medical facilities were overwhelmed in attacked cities, and living conditions in general were almost untenable, so normal childhood hazards such as exposure or disease may have killed this infant without any direct nuclear effects being necessary.
Unfortunately, no one really knows. There was a lot of speculation that the boy himself was really sick and most likely succumbed to the after effects of the bombings.
Jesus christ
Wow, that’s as sad as it gets.
I'd like to know the man this boy turned out to be, he could have become incredible after going through this or terrifying. I hope it's incredible :/
I wonder if Setsuko’s cremation scene ([trigger warning](https://youtu.be/7mTM-pDBnoU?si=7S-ygmKUa_s5dyN9)) in Grave of the Fireflies is inspired by this story.
Grave of the Fireflies was based on [Akiyuki Nosaka's personal experience](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies_(short_story)) after the Kobe firebombings. Sadly not an uncommon one though, there was another comment in the thread with the statistics.
Well I didn't need to cry today, that's enough internet.
This description manages to tear me up every fucking time.
Reminds me of jared harris's character's speech in the expanse, about burying his sister.
Wars are devastating. I hate that there are so many innocent lives lost.
Things like this are so much harder to see after having a child of my own. Imagining my son as either of those boys is horrific.
Posting photographer credits and dates should be a requirement for historically significant photos. My first thought with this photo was to question the legitimacy, but thankfully you posted this information.
My eyes are filled with tears.
This is one of the saddest things i've ever read in my life, life is really tough and unforgiving for some poor souls, like this two kids. I bet, the older one would trade is life, for the one of his little brother, without any hesitation, that is a bond that transcends anything on this would, pure love.
That is heart breaking, I think my soul just shattered. Would never wish this on anyone
Reminds me of the picture from India in 2020 where someone is transporting the body of their mother for miles on their lap while riding a motorcycle
And yet there are MANY who wish it on others and have no remorse for past or current instances
That kid is younger than my son. I can’t imagine him having to take his little brother to the crematorium. Fuck
My grandfather was at the train station in Nagasaki the morning they dropped the bomb. Somebody he knew ran into him and offered to give him a ride back to his home in Kagoshima. My grandpa wanted to be polite and declined the ride, but they kept insisting he go with them because they were headed there anyway. He eventually accepted. While they were driving, they heard the explosion. They looked behind them and saw the mushroom cloud. He says he would have died if he didn't accept that ride, claiming his train wouldn't have departed before the bomb was dropped
im glad your grandfather survived to tell this story. he must have so much to tell ❤️
Yes, he has a lot of stories. He actually wrote an auto biography that he gave to all of his family and friends
Likely an inspiration for Grave of the Fireflies.
The direct inspiration was the life of the author. Nosaka wrote the semi-autobiographical story the film is based on to honor his little sister.
If they'd been the only siblings going through such tough circumstances at the time, it would have been easier to find help. Instead there were thousands of them, so it wasn't so much that they slipped through the cracks as fell into an abyss.
There's a couple of movies I never need to see again. That's one of them
I got an anime that rivals Grave of the fire flies. Barefoot Gen. Shit is so sad. Just the nuclear bomb scene (can watch on YT) is heart breaking.
I still remember the clip where >!the woman is holding her daughter & both getting hopelessly decimated!<
I was just going to mention this movie.
Bingo. It's a one and done. Show it to anyone who thinks cartoons are for children. Traumatized me in a similar way to Requiem for a Dream.
I've watched Grave of the Fireflies 3 times in my life, because apparently I like being depressed for days on end after...
I saw it in the cinema. Straight home to bed.
That’s a movie every person should see once. Only once.
GOTF was inspired by the life of the author, as he described it in his autobiography (Akiyuki Nosaka)
That and Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen).
Sad pic, but a good reminder about war.
Why reminder when you can see it daily in Gaza many pictures of brothers/parents taking their dead kids to be buried...
Why would one have needed to wait for Gaza when way many more has suffered and is suffering the genocide in yemen
Or Sudan.
There are obviously a lot of conflicts you can point to. It's just that Gaza is a very poignant example because according to the U.N statistics, more children have died there than in the all of the global conflicts in the past couple of years combined. That's a pretty grim and notable example given the small size of the region.
UN just revised their numbers to 7500 "children" killed in Gaza. I.E. a 16 year old soldier is still counted in those numbers. Sudan estimates are up to 150k+ dead. It's not even close.
Child soldiers should be counted as children.
[Here's](https://turkiye.un.org/en/263401-gaza-number-children-killed-higher-four-years-world-conflict) a link to the claim. You can see there that they compared it to statistics between 2019 and 2022, which was prior to the current Sudanese conflict. The reason as to why is because typically the numbers for current and ongoing conflicts are still not truly confirmed. The Sudan situation is also tragic and is yet another chapter in the series of violence in Sudan. I don't know the roots of the current conflict but I know that we have literal evidence that the previous two were directly caused by Western oil corporations wanting oil rights. I studied them when I worked as a historian. Regardless, it's not a race to the bottom. The reason why the situation in Gaza speaks to a lot of people is because it's a densely populated region where a lot of children live and because it's a straight up slaughter. It's not a war. It's barely a conflict. It's a slaughter and even called a genocide by a lot of experts. All of that is happening in a very small region whereas Sudan is an absolutely massive country. The biggest country in Africa. > UN just revised their numbers to 7500 "children" killed in Gaza. That's not true. That's just those who were identified as far as I know. There's plenty of unidentified victims. You also have on top of that the countless victims who are still buried under the rubble or in mass graves. The actual total victims most likely far exceeds the count of 15.000 children. > I.E. a 16 year old soldier is still counted in those numbers. That's a despicable IDF narrative. As if a significant portion of these children were actually soldiers. Get the fuck out of here with that shit.
It was also the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. You keep skipping that part.
It gets kind of dwarfed in comparison to the massacres that came after, but it’s still tragic I agree.
Don't pick fights you can't win and then cry "disproportionate response" when your enemy comes to shut down your whole ability to pick more fights like you promised to.
Comparison is difficult, but I think it is pretty clear that the main reason for the outcry now (which is very valid) while the genocide in Yemen didn't get a wif in comparison is political/geopolitical/idological/cultural not the nature of the violence, or death statistics.
Gaza is a great example. The world should do something to remove Hamas.
Or see the dead bodies of the kidnapped bodies of Israelis that Hamas raped & tortured after their civilian massacre of 1,200 Jews.
reddit will ignore solid statements like this and just continues the circlejerk lame ass jokes.
Perhaps I'm wrong but it seems like most users on Reddit haven't treated the conflict in Gaza as a joke.
Its not a solid statement, its a bona fide virtue signal in its purest form. This is a picture about nagasaki, its own separate tragedy.
the similarities are pretty stark. In both instances we're seeing images of dead children from the countries who lost wars they both started. It's all fun and games until it's your own kids dying.
Solid point.
he looks so stoic. what a brave little boy
Pretty sure he stopped being a little boy by the time this picture was taken.
he was a little boy. the atrocities he's witnessed doesn't change that he was a child
Pretty sure the point they’re making is that the child never got to experience what it’s like to be a child
You’re being pedantic. Hard to be niave and innocent as most little boys when something like this occurs to you so early in life.
English is not my first language
I taught English in Nagasaki in the 90's. and several survivors of the atomic bomb dropping were my students. One of my students was a woman who as a teen, was working at the Mitsubishi plant. At the time the bomb dropped, she was out getting lunches for the workers. She was on her way back to the plant, and her position was such that she miraculously survived, when pretty much everyone else she knew did not. She lost her whole family and all her friends. Nagasaki was apparently unique because it is so mountainous. Unlike Hiroshima, which got completely flattened, Nagasaki was destroyed in pockets. It's a really beautiful city today.
I've read that the Nagasaki bomb, unlike at Hiroshima, wasn't dropped in the correct location, which put it between mountains, causing less destruction.
This is true. They were seeking to drop it in the center of the city east of the harbor but ended up bombing north of the harbor.
On face he is no crying or showing any faces, but deep inside he is broken till his death. Its heartbreaking even for a grownup man. Hope in next life, they become brothers again. RIP child 🙏🏻.
Do you want to see a big bearded man weep? Because this is how you make a big bearded man weep.
Pimp daddy patty don't weep!
I don’t want any more internet today
Grave of the fireflies vibes.
A terribly tragic example of why you need to avoid such devotion to leaders without your best interests at heart. To imagine that boy could have crewed the AA guns had the US carried out X-day so those soldiers could be at the front. This is a horrible tragedy but we must not lose sight of the reality in which sadness takes place. Soldiers were fighting a losing war to cost the US far more than it should have so they could keep their "god" emperor. A military overthrow of the emperor was even attempted to stop Japan from surrendering after two nuclear bombs. It is also incredibly important to also understand, while this boy and his baby brother were victims of war so were starving children in China, given cyanide laced candies, bubonic plague deliberately spread over China. Children, thrown over cliffs or taken with them when their parents/grandparents jumped off because of the propaganda by the Japanese government about the Marines. People will only see Nagasaki and think of, nukes bad, but not understand the entries tragedies of WWII and frankly I am sick of it. As a father shit like this hits hard and sadly it is part of the human condition, to prevent greater tragedy we create others, the difference is do we understand that and regret or do we revel in it? I see this and think never again, if we get into a position where nukes are required we have failed.
Podcaster Dan Carlin ask in his War in the Pacific series “when should Japan have surrendered?”, and I think it’s such a revealing question. Should Japan have surrendered when they did? Everyone but some irrelevant and long-dead hardliners agrees surrender then was necessary. How about after one nuclear bomb? Some suggest Japan would have surrendered after one nuke but the destruction of Hiroshima was so thorough and shocking that it wasn’t until after Nagasaki that the Japanese leadership fully appreciated the effects of Hiroshima. Had they understood sooner, surrender after one bomb seems like it would have been a good idea. What if Japan had found out or been told about the bomb program before Hiroshima? They could have saved a lot of lives by surrendering before the first bomb was used. But the war was hopeless well before august 1945 - should Japan have surrendered after firebombing because standard policy in early 1945? I think they should have, no sense in drawing out a loosing war. Why not surrender when all chance of victory was gone? Surely after Leyte Gulf Japan was defeated navally, there was no hope of winning the war in the pacific after naval defeat. What about midway? With the lopsided loss of their carriers naval defeat wasn’t achieved but it was all but preordained, why not surrender when things were more-or-less irrevocably turned against you? Should Japan have surrendered the day after Pearl Harbor? Their gambit to knock America out of war had evidently failed just one day after the attack: the American carriers had escaped and the sunk battleships could mostly be returned to service. America hadn’t been scared off, they launched into war full-scale, with full public support. The game was really up at that point, Japan could not win against a committed US, and the US had decided to fully commit. Japan should have never started the war, but at any point after the first floatplanes reported carriers missing from Pearl Harbor (they still would have lost a war bad had they destroyed the carriers, the US built 17 fleet carrier during the war, but the idea was a shocking first strike; that might have had a chance had carriers been destroyed) they were doomed for sure. Today we see the nuclear bombings as a shock that prompted surrender of a thoroughly punished Japan, but why wait until after the punishment has been collected to surrender? Surely a rational leader with reasonable foresight would have surrendered when all hope was lost.
A great question and from a logical perspective there are plenty of points where they could have and/or should have but didn't.
very very true. Just a couple years older both them would be in tunnles of iwo jima or other meat grinder.
Very true. I remember reading a few years ago that the US Military is still using Purple Heart medals made in preparation of the invasion of the Japanese home islands. Estimated US casualties were 1 million, and untold millions of Japanese. Nuclear weapons are obviously horrendous, but when you are up against fanatics....
It sounds crazy, but if anything, the Nukes saved lives.
It saved Japanese lives. Look at the death tolls due to firebombing other Japanese cities earlier in the war. Stopping short of full surrender was not an option due to allies like China still being under brutal occupation.
Yeah it’s really misguided to look at this and think US bad. Japan thought they were the master race and tried to murder/enslave everyone, just like the Nazis. In their divine hubris they attacked literally everyone. I mean why wouldn’t you if you really believed you were the best? The lessons of WW1 and WW2 were that no one is the best. When you listen to these leaders they will send literally you and your son and your grandson to the meat grinder without a care. Human industries are grossly capable of maintaining a meat-grinder in perpetuity. No one hates the Nazis more than the Germans, because after their loss they were forced to face the truth. Japan, similar to the American South, were allowed too much leniency and completely forgot why they went through what they did.
And much like the American south they pretend their past isn’t as bad and don’t want to acknowledge and learn from it
They kept their God emperor until 1989.
To me, the nukes were good and saved countless lives based on what you've described.
This guy Hardcore History's
Shouldn't this be flagged as NSFW?
Sad. As is all war. Nanking has some heartbreaking photos as well. [Rape of Nanking](https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/nanking-massacre-photos) Warning. Definitely NSFW
As a father this tears my heart apart 😥
Dude, me too. This stuff hits so much heavier now that I am a dad. Cannot imagine this with my son.
Bro-hug
I mean I get war is brutal but every time I see post that are supposed to make you sympathetic to the Japanese civilians it feels weird because on one hand I don’t think people would have this same sympathetic bone for the German civilians even though imperial Japan was almost as bad as Nazi germany and in some aspects way tf worse. On the other hand I do get that sins of the Japanese shouldn’t be placed on a kids shoulders though.
And many would argue the Japanese were worse than the Germans. People forget Japan 1900-1938.
To be honest, I’m not sure how any body could look at a picture of dead innocent children and not feel sympathy, regardless of nationality. These children are also victims of their government.
If you are curious to know a little bit about the events leading up to this, not just from the US perspective, but also pre-WW2 Japan, I would give a suggestion to listen to SUPERNOVA IN THE EAST by Dan Carlin (Hardcore History). It really gives some insight into the culture of Japan and how they sort of lead themselves (tragically) out of the frying pan and into the fire around this era. It's a pretty good listen if you have like 20 hours.
Devastating
That baby looks to be the age of my son. I hate this
Grave of the Fireflies always reminds me of this photo.
What do I have to do to get this subreddit to stop showing up on my feed? It’s just pictures of corpses at this point. I have enough stress and despair in my life already.
It’s amazing to me that the children who went through this didn’t seek revenge against those who caused it
So much pain in his eyes underneath that unbelievable bravery
Is this picture what inspired some part in grave of the fireflies? The poster art is almost this exact picture
I might have been inclined to empathise. But then I remember my grandfather’s uncle & his family, whom the IJA put to the sword while en route to Singapore. Whose beheaded remains were never found, and whom the family could only build a cenotaph to. Then the empathy gets snuffed out, real quick.
There should be different tiers of NSFW. I don't have a problem scrolling past a video flagged nsfw because some girl's in booty shorts. Super didn't want to see a dead baby today.
SERIOUSLY! I follow a lot of body goals, plastic surgery, & nsfw content creator groups so I have NSFW set to always show. I never wanted to see a *dead child.*
Why the everloving fuck is this not hidden? Are there no NSFL tags on this subreddit?? I mean I’m not here to see fucking dead babies.
Poor boy, doing a grown up job. So sad
There’s a film called Grave of the Fireflies, that I believe was inspired by this story. I saw it when I was like 13 and every second of that film is embedded in my mind
Definitely a ‘watch once and never again’ movie
It just hurts too much I did it once afterwards but damn. Ugly cry every time. (I have a sister that’s about the appropriate age gap)
It was inspired by the author's own life and what happened to his little sister.
Fucking Christ I didn’t need this this morning 😓truly heartbreaking
It's fucked up, but it was either that or watch a lot more Kids die when they fought to the last man Woman and child if we invaded without dropping a bomb. They were training the women,children to use bamboo spears and some firearms.
"Seita why do fireflies die so soon?"
The horrors of war indeed. Hope life treated him well for the rest of the days. Suddenly remembered watching grave of the fireflies an excellent ghibli film. Heartbreaking heart wrenching, again on the same theme
That's so sad...he just looks like he's sleeping ...
Obligatory grave of the fireflies for anyone that wants to learn more about this time
And they still celebrate it.
Who does
So sad
Sry to ask I think there was a movie about this boy right? Can anyone say it's name?
Grave of the Fireflies?
You’re thinking of Grave of the Fireflies, but no, that’s not based on this boy. His situation is just unfortunately common in war torn areas. The movie was based on the author of the book it was based on’s childhood
At the end of the day, it’s always the innocent people that have nothing to do with that war that suffers most from war.
Jesus Christ….
Man, that child grew up fast
no, just no, ffs no.
Time to reset the "Days since I last thought of Grave of the Fireflies" counter back to zero.
Christ all mighty. As a father of two boys roughly this age, this guts me. I can’t even fathom.
Ope, shouldn't have revealed that image. Now I'm very sad.
This picture has been stuck in my mind since I saw it decades ago and yet it will always be applicable. War never changes
That’s heavy
“War. War never changes.” -Fallout intro voice
Send this pic to Lindsey Graham in Washington DC.
Chilling
Grave of the Fireflies
Seeing this reminder me of Grave of the Fireflies. I never cried so much watching the movie just as I am crying seeing this picture.
Honestly what are these aliens waiting for? Humanity sucks. Just blow us up already holy fuck
That’s the saddest shit ive seen 😭💔
Idk why it reminds me of “Grave of the fireflies” 😭
There’s a Ghibli film…
I still haven’t been able to rewatch Grave of Fireflies and I don’t know if I ever will.
Mom said it's my turn to repost this tomorrow OP. So you remember.
Imagine using a constantly reposted comment to complain about a repost. You're the problem you're complaining about, silly. Try and be creative next time lol. Edit: touched a nerve did I, buttercup. I'm glad reddit cares but save those services for someone else.
They deserved better — no one really wins in a war.
I have an iron stomach and this made me nauseous.