The "I Just Watched..." Thread

[gamevet]

I've watched Oliver Stone's documentary "The Untold History of the United States" on Netflix. I did not go beyond WWII in this documentary, but seeing the real purpose of the dropping of the Atomic bombs on Japan was a rude awakening. The dropping of those bombs on Japan were not meant to send a message to Japan, they were dropped to send a message to the juggernaut that was Russia. It was interesting to see how the UK and the United States screwed over Russia, and how Stalin's Russia was the real reason why Germany was defeated.

[bbobb]

I would caution to take most things that Oliver Stone has to say with a grain of salt, although he’s right on the Russia/WW2 stuff you mention there. There’s significantly more nuance to the use of the bomb though.

[gamevet]

I believe his source for the reason we dropped the A bomb is this book. It seems to say pretty much what he had said in the film. Truman used it as a tool to keep Russia in line, and those events led to the Cold War.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/1995/07/3...o-drop-it.html

[bbobb]

Using it as a statement to the soviets was part of the reason for dropping the bomb, yes. But as I said it is more nuanced than that. Part of the reasoning was to actually end the war sooner as well plus they also wanted to just see what their new toy would do in live tests.

[gamevet]

That was Truman’s reasoning behind dropping the bomb. He only needed to drop 1, if they wanted to see just how powerful their weapon was. They had already carpet bombed many of Japan’s cities to rubble and had killed 100,000 people in Tokyo.

They could have just air bombed the country out of existence, if they were so worried about saving the lives of their American troops. Japan’s Air Force and naval fleet was pretty much destroyed.

[Satsuki]

I would caution to take most things that Oliver Stone has to say with a grain of salt, although he’s right on the Russia/WW2 stuff you mention there. There’s significantly more nuance to the use of the bomb though.

Yeah, the series had some interesting points but by the last episode was so awful it was bordering on satire. His interviews with Putin were similar - its not that anything was 100% wrong, it was just like, what?

[arjue]

I watched the whole series of Manhunt: Unabomber. I started watching it ages ago but my Netflix was stuffing up so I never got around to finishing it. It's really good! I think its above average TV elevated further by the pure strength of the case.

I wish there was a really good streaming service for old movies.

[Doc Holliday]

Watched Dead Poets Society. The B story is shit. Do women enjoy the inept socially awkward boy wins over the popular girl through brute force fantasy writers shoe horn in to relive their socially failed high school experience?

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

I gotta do something about this damn deja vu.

[Error]

That was Truman’s reasoning behind dropping the bomb. He only needed to drop 1, if they wanted to see just how powerful their weapon was. They had already carpet bombed many of Japan’s cities to rubble and had killed 100,000 people in Tokyo.

They could have just air bombed the country out of existence, if they were so worried about saving the lives of their American troops. Japan’s Air Force and naval fleet was pretty much destroyed.

No they needed to drop more than one to prove it wasnt just some fluke.