Using a Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut

This article is caused by my research of the Chernobyl disaster in a geography lesson and the resulting joke; Chernobyl wasn't an accident, Stalin wanted to crack some nuts. This started me thinking about events in history that seem (ah, the miracle of hindsight) to be over reactive now but obviously seemed justified at the time.

Take the two atomic bombs that ended the second-world-war for example. Little Boy and Big Daddy, infamous throughout history due to the destruction they caused when dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan. Where they worth it? Was it worth all that destruction to end the war? Lets review the situation: After years of fighting for hundreds of islands controlled by the Japanese with terrible casualties on both sides, the Allied forces in the Pacific were, by 1945 nearing the Japanese mainland. The Atomic Bomb project was drawing to a close and despite the extensive fire-bombing campaign by the U.S.A.F (US Air Force) Emperor Hirohito, ruler of Japan at the time, was determined not to give up. The Allies had entered negotiations with the USSR and the Russians were on the verge of invading Japan. President Truman, president of the US at the time, did not know that the Russians were planning the invasion of Japan, however and with the fire-bombing appearing to have little effect, Truman ordered the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Nagasaki, followed by the second on Hiroshima.

 Hindsight is a wonderful thing, because we can see, from evidence on both sides, that the Japanese, despite their bravery, were on the verge of defeat. The USSR was readying to invade, the fire-bombing campaign by the USAF was having devastating effect on morale and the Japanese navy was all but sunk. One general was quoted to say that the war in the Pacific would be over in two weeks! It is clear that the atomic bombs were useless in regards to ending the Pacific War and World-War 2 but with hindsight we can see that Japan's surrender stopped the USSR taking control of Japan like they had Eastern Europe stopping possible future repercussions. Either way, the dropping of the two atomic bombs is a good example of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, therefore ending this rant, for now at least...

Lethargy: A Poem

Dark clouds over an ashen wasteland
Devoid of life
A fat cat
purring to itself
slowly elongating
its limbs, stretching out to brush against
a broken chair, its legs splintered,
Helpless.
Useless for its task.
A grey sphere,
lazily spinning,
one endless face.
As Rye bread,
coarse and bitter, the stinging despair of failure.
The slow, lazy drone of classical music,
ambling along an endless lane,
struggling against the wave of helplessness.
A broken washing machine,
helpless,
unable to spin.