Happy Enola Gay Pride Day!

On August 6, 1945, with the surprise carried to its target by the B-29 Enola Gay, the United States did the biggest gender reveal in history:

It had a Little Boy.

 

At 8:15 am, the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, with an equivalent of 15 kilotons of TNT, making The Land Of The Rising Sun become The Land Of The Rising Suns.

The bombing killed approximately 70,000 military personnel and civilians in the city.

Still, Japan did not surrender even after being introduced to the nuclear age the hard way.

It would take a second atomic bombing on August 9 to finally get Japan to surrender and bring World War 2 to an end. 

The Day The Land Of The Rising Sun

Became The Land of The Rising Suns.

Today is variously known as:

"Don't Start a War if You Can't Take A Joke Day!"

"Do Not Touch The Boats Day!"

"Now Look What You Made Me Do Day!"

"Happy Enola Gay Pride Day!".

It was 79 years ago today that the Enola Gay did the best and biggest gender reveal ever when it showed Japan and the world that America had a Little Boy.

33 Killed In Mass Murder, No Firearm Involved

In a land with pretty much perfect gun control, Japan, evil people still can come up with ways to kill a lot of people.

In this case a whole lot of people, with a higher death count than Parkland or Newtown.

The Detroit News: Man screaming ‘You die!’ kills 33 at anime studio

A man screaming “You die!” burst into an animation studio in Kyoto, doused it with a flammable liquid and set it on fire Thursday, killing 33 people in an attack that shocked anime fans across Japan and beyond.

Like the 1990 Happy Land club mass murder by gasoline in the US which killed 87 people, flammable liquids are very easy for murderous criminals to obtain and use.

The Deep Blue Screen Of Death - Microsoft Co-Founder Finds The Musashi

The Detroit News: Microsoft co-founder says he found sunken WWII warship.

Musashi in 1944.  Illustration by Alexpl.

The Musashi, one of the largest and most powerful battleships ever built.  She was sunk during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea on October 24, 1944 after receiving 19 torpedo hits and 17 bomb hits from American planes in the battle. 1,023 members of her crew sank with her.

Musashi steaming on the way to her doom at the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea

The ship was found 3,000 feet below the surface and Mr. Allen's team videographed the wreckage with an ROV, and some of the video is available at the link above.

Quite an impressive find of an important battleship from the Second World War. It will be neat to see the full video of the wreck once it is released.

Probably Not The Experience He Was Seeking

The Islamic State is demanding that Japan pay $200 million to free two Japanese nationals now being held hostage.

It's been reported that one of the Japanese hostages being threatened with beheading had in fact traveled to the area to train with the "militants".

The Detroit Free Press:  Japanese hostage wanted to train with militants

Somehow, I don't think his vision of training with militants was to be used as a beheading dummy.

Deterrence Only Works If A Credible Deterrent Exists

Instapundit links to a Business Insider article that doesn't bode well for peace in our time in the Pacific.

As stated in the article, the Chinese professional in question postulated a lightning strike by the Chinese to take the disputed Senkaku/Diayou/Tiaoutai islands currently controlled by Japan before Japan could react.

The Chinese professional acknowledged that if China asserted control over the disputed islands by attacking Japan, America would have to stand with Japan. And he acknowledged that China did not want to provoke America.

The important and unasked question is, would America, under Obama, be actually willing to go to credibly threaten to go to war to defend the Japanese claims to a bunch of rocks in the Pacific?

After all the US State Department line on most provocative acts that have become fait accompli so far is to either pose the question "What difference at this point does it make?", or to waltz away from declared red lines.

This administration does not have a very credible history that demonstrates a real deterrent to aggression, now does it? It's partly due to this that Japan is looking to others for aid and boosting its military capabilities.

As Instapundit says, what could go wrong?

More Results Of That Smart Diplomacy - The Pivot To Asia Wobbles

Oh, that Obama-declared Pivot to Asia? Well Japan seems to not put much stock by it, and seeing Obama's faithfulness toward the United States' traditional allies elsewhere, is now looking to its own defense.

The Detroit News: Japan boosts its military forces over island dispute

From 2014-2019, Japan plans to buy three drones, as well as 28 F-35A fighters, 17 Osprey aircraft and five destroyers, including two with Aegis anti-ballistic-missile systems. The purchases will cost $247 billion, up 5 percent from the previous plan.

Broader defense program guidelines also adopted Tuesday say Japan is “gravely concerned” about China’s growing maritime and military presence in the East China Sea, and its lack of transparency and “high-handed” approach. Late last month, China said all aircraft entering a vast zone over the East China Seat must identify themselves and follow Chinese instructions.

While Japan’s alliance with the U.S. remains the cornerstone of its defense, Japan also should seek increased security cooperation with South Korea, Australia, Southeast Asia and India, the guidelines say.

“Up until now, Japan focused too much on the Japan-U.S. security alliance,” Isozaki said. “I don’t think that alone is enough to protect the peace in this region.

So we now have a former staunch ally, Japan, looking elsewhere for protection and seeking to be able to project more of its own naval and air power due to the the administration's fumbling foreign policy record.

What could possibly go wrong?

Meanwhile, the Administration managed to fumble the arrest in New York of an Indian Diplomat, kicking off protests in India and sanctions against our diplomats there.

Regardless of whether the arrest based on an alleged visa fraud, for false filing regarding employment of a nanny by the diplomat, was proper or not it sure wasn't handled very well. The administration is behind the publicity and diplomacy curve on this quite badly.

Ah, the glories of Obama's smart diplomacy.

Obama's Smart Diplomacy Pays Off...For Russia

America under Obama's leadership has been shown to no longer be a dependable ally, so is it any wonder that your allies start looking around for new friends?

The Detroit Free Press: Japan, Russia agree to expand defense ties

Japan and Russia held their first high-level defense and diplomatic talks Saturday and agreed to step up cooperation between their militaries amid regional security concerns such as North Korea and China.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, and their Russian counterparts Sergei Lavrov and Sergei Shoigu also agreed to hold joint military and anti-piracy exercises and establish a defense consultation framework.

Lavrov told a news conference after Saturday's talks that upgrading defense ties between the two countries could serve their national interests in resolving terrorism and North Korea's nuclear threats, as well as other regional disputes. He also welcomed the talks as a landmark development for Russia and Japan.

American strategic policy in the Pacific used to be about preventing Russian expansion, and Japan used to be a lynch-pin ally in that regard.

Yet more results from the smart diplomacy of the Obama administration.

There's something about disasters that brings out the stupid...

Japan suffers a massive tsunami with unbelievable destructive power (see the before and after pics at the link and be stunned). Thousands are killed or missing. There's even a volcanic eruption and a release of radioactive material from some nuclear plants.

In short Japan just got hit by everything but Godzilla and the Japanese people are hanging tough and responding impressively well to the disaster.

So of course here in the US, the weak-kneed Greenies use it to immediately attack nuclear power.

The Detroit News: Japan ignites fears about Fermi

Of course, Laura Berman of the Detroit News lines up all the anti-nuclear suspects, and gives them plenty of space in the article to spread fear, with only a tiny space for the operator of Fermi to comment.

The scare tactic is pretty overwrought and overdone:

Like its Japanese counterparts, Fermi 2 requires huge amounts of electricity to pump water to cool its core in an overheating situation. It also needs power to circulate water for the radioactive spent fuel pool that's part of the facility.

But in the event of a disaster (tsunami, bomb-drop, direct tornado hit), power blackouts can occur. Indeed, during a 2003 outage in Michigan, Fermi 2 was down for over six hours, an event complicated by the failure of a backup generator.

Methinks Berman really overexaggerates the risk here.

There have been no reported tsunamis near Fermi 2, nor are any likely, now or ever. You'll note that for all of her hand-wringing over the 2003 power outage, no event occured and it was handled.

Indeed a tornado even touched down inside the plant in 2010 and no disaster occured. I wonder why Berman didn't mention that?

Perhaps because the facts would remove some of the fear her article is trying to generate about the plant and nuclear power in general?

Thankfully, my friends who have family in Japan are reporting they are ok so far.

Given the scope of this disaster and the reality of the safety of the Fermi plant, your time is far better spent making a donation to the American Red Cross for Japanese disaster relief than worrying and fearing a tsunami at the Fermi nuclear plant.