Lest we forget - Hiroshima & Nagasaki

[mosdef]

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WTF is with all this turn the other cheek stuff.

"Yeah they killed your family but the lord says turn the other cheek" Screw that.

We should seriously make a worldwidestatement.

DON'T ATTACK US ANYMORE

And if they do we go micheal masden resiovoir dogs on them.

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But that's not going to happen. I personally NEVER forsee the cycle of violence ending. Ever

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I don't either, with people like you in control of military power.

[Copernicus]

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[ QUOTE ]
WTF is with all this turn the other cheek stuff.

"Yeah they killed your family but the lord says turn the other cheek" Screw that.

We should seriously make a worldwidestatement.

DON'T ATTACK US ANYMORE

And if they do we go micheal masden resiovoir dogs on them.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
But that's not going to happen. I personally NEVER forsee the cycle of violence ending. Ever

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't either, with people like you in control of military power.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, you just confirmed that you are French depite the Toronto address. With people like YOU in control of military power we can just surrender.

[mosdef]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
WTF is with all this turn the other cheek stuff.

"Yeah they killed your family but the lord says turn the other cheek" Screw that.

We should seriously make a worldwidestatement.

DON'T ATTACK US ANYMORE

And if they do we go micheal masden resiovoir dogs on them.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
But that's not going to happen. I personally NEVER forsee the cycle of violence ending. Ever

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't either, with people like you in control of military power.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, you just confirmed that you are French depite the Toronto address. With people like YOU in control of military power we can just surrender.

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I thought you were going to lay off the senseless personal attacks when you didn't have anything worthwhile to say?

[ikestoys]

yeah the Japanese were really innocent in WWII...

Just ask the Chinese!!!

[Brann]

My father was combat infantry during the war and was in the Pacific preparing to invade Japan when the bombs were dropped.

Aside from the fact that I might never have been born had the invasion taken place, there are many sound military reasons why the bombs were preferable.

First and foremost was the absolute zealotry of Japanese defenders. US military analysts estimated 1 million dead (not 1 million wounded, missing and dead) just to gain a foothold on the home islands. This may have been a gross overestimate, but it was based on the fanatical defense Japanese soldiers displayed in places such as Tarawa and Iwo Jima. Keep in mind, these soldiers believed they were defending a god, their emperor.

As a military leader, the thought of a million dead American soldiers just to establish a decent foothold vs no American dead but a few hundred thousand Japanese (civilian and military alike) being dead was basically a no-brainer.

Please recall, as well, the difficulties the allies faced when they staged forced landings. Anzio was very nearly a major defeat. Bloody Omaha on D-Day also comes to mind. Couple that with the monstrous losses on just Iwo Jima and there were, in fact, some military leaders who wondered if Japan's home islands could be taken at all. (I wish I could cite specific sources but I remember reading about this aspect a few years ago.)

What happened at Nagasaki and Hiroshima was horrible...absolutely stupifying.

But if I try to put myself into the shoes of the decision-makers at the time...with what they knew and what they expected as alternatives...I have to say I think they made the right choice.

True, there's been some information presented since the war that shows the Japanese had nowhere near the trained military left to actually put up the kind of fight we expected. They were arming civilians with axes and pitchforks. Air defenses were way weaker than estimated. All true. And all unknown to the US at the time to my knowledge. So, using the bombs was massive overkill...but we didn't know it.

I've been in combat and I've seen men die. I imagine even hardened veterans were quaking at making this landing. And our leadership HAD to be thinking about 1 million dead.

Given what we knew, or thought we knew, it was the right choice imo.

[Nonfiction]

The Japanese would have suffered far worse in terms of casualties, living conditions, and their postwar economy if America had not dropped the bomb.

[AlexM]

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Why would Japan, out of the clear blue sky attack the most powerful nation in the world?

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Misplaced arrogance? Why would the Visigoths attack the most powerful nation in the world?

[Phil153]

I'll remember the day too - as one when good men had the courage, sense and morality to do what was needed. The instigators of war and the perpetrators of sickening depravity (Unit 731 - wikipedia) deserve to burn in the fires of nuclear bombs.

The children are unfortunate casualties of war, but put the blame where it lies - with their parents.

[revots33]

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Yeah when America does anything it's the most horrible thing every committed. When others do it, you and other American bashers just look the other way.

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No it's equally horrible regardless of who does it. Although the replies on this thread seem to argue otherwise. Evidently dropping nuclear bombs on an overwhelmingly civilian population is ok, as long as your country has the initials U-S-A.

Watch The Fog of War. Even Defense Secretary McNamara argues that the attacks were out of proportion to the objectives, and that US military leaders would have been tried as war criminals had we lost the war.

[Nonfiction]

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Watch The Fog of War. Even Defense Secretary McNamara argues that the attacks were out of proportion to the objectives, and that US military leaders would have been tried as war criminals had we lost the war.

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Obviously. We did the same terror bombing to the axis as the axis did to us. They are war criminals because we won, etc. Also, I'm sure everyone involved in the internment of the Japanese would have been prosecuted as war criminals as well. That doesn't change the fact that dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki not only saved millions of lives, Japanese, Korean, American, and Soviet, but arguably pervented WW3 from happening, saving billions of lives.