‘It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing’ --- Why dropping the A-Bombs was wrong

Washington Examiner ^ | 08/10/2013 | Timothy Carney

[SeekAndFind]

Tim Carney also wrote a first part to this article on the 68th anniversary of the dropping of the bomb:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/it-was-wrong-to-bomb-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/article/2533978

It was wrong to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Ending a war is a good thing. Killing civilians a bad thing.

Deliberately targeting civilians is murder, and is never morally licit, even in pursuit of a good thing such as ending a war.

The tens of thousands of Japanese non-combatants we killed 68 years ago this week with two nuclear bombs were not “collateral damage” of military strikes. They were the intended targets.

We hoped that mass murder would bring the Japanese emperor to surrender. It worked, and American and Japanese soldiers’ lives were probably saved by it — which is why most people disagree with me on the ethics of the A-Bomb.

But what if we could have ended the war without the A-Bomb? John Denson at Mises.org argues that we could have:

Japanese leaders, both military and civilian, including the Emperor, were willing to surrender in May of 1945 if the Emperor could remain in place and not be subjected to a war crimes trial after the war. This fact became known to President Truman as early as May of 1945.

I’m no historian, and if anyone can refute the facts in this piece, please do — because the article seems to make the clear argument that the atomic bomb was inexcusable.

[deadrock]

Harry Kari.

[KC_Lion]

I give you Operation: Downfall...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall

[Larry Lucido]

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I have a WW II Imperial Japanese war bond with all the coupons still attached.
The final cash out was the fall of 1957.

[Chode]

it wasn't necessary to BOMB Pearl Harbor!!! feh...

[JoeProBono]

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/sites/core/files/pages/Paul%20Fussel-Thank%20God%20for%20the%20Atom%20Bomb-August%201981.pdf

I mean, after all, it was only other people who were going to die, very few of them were even Ivy Leaguers.

[Bratch]

As later conflicts have shown, ending a war is impossible without killing civilians; the enemy will simply use their own people as human shields.

[Ditter]

Some of my earliest memories are hearing talk about the war, I was born in 1940. No one has ever been able to answer this question for me, why did the Japanese attack us?

[Larry Lucido]

With a principle as strong as “don’t murder kids” I think you’d need a lot more certainty than Truman could have had.

Every time a 21 year old gang banger gets shot, it is counted by the mass media as an instance of a "youthful victim of 'gun violence.'"

So by the mass media's standards, we saved a million "kids" by dropping the bomb.

End of discussion.

[latina4dubya]

you play, you pay... Japan cowardly bombed Pearl Harbor... why should the US be concerned at all with Japan’s saving face in eventual defeat?

[darkwing104]

History revisionism...The hallmark of a mindless progressive

[mountainlion]

I think you are rewriting history in the tradition of hate America first. The times were different and the methods were different. Was it right for the Japanese to kill so may civilians in Pearl Harbor? Was it right for Hitler to send rockets into England? The Japanese were known for fighting to the last man and not surrendering. Don’t rewrite history and expect me to believe you. Don’t rewrite the American Revolution and expect me to believe that either.

[Caipirabob]

In times of extreme duress, men of conscience will do exactly what they need to do.

Totalitarian socialists have nightmares over this fact.

As they should.

[Mad Dawgg]

The facts are undeniable Japan had not surrendered before the Bombs were dropped.

After the second bomb was dropped there was a failed coup d'état by factions in the Military who STILL DID NOT WANT TO SURRENDER.

This is not speculation this is fact backed up by direct testimony of those involved in the coup as well as documentation from that era.

7 days later Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan in a radio address to the nation of Japan.

Anyone who sez that Japan was about to surrender is full of sh!t!

[Yorlik803]

There were Japanese military hard liners that didn’t want to give up after the 2nd A bomb.
These were people willing to fight to the last body. A full scale assault on the home islands would have killed more people than all the battles combined.

[saganite]

What if Longstreet had managed to launch a morning attack on the second day instead of late in the afternoon on the Federal left wing at Gettysburg?

What if Hitler had not delayed Barbarossa to assist in the Balkans?

What if the Japanese had launched a second attack at Pearl Harbor and destroyed the fuel supplies?

What if, what if, what if. Despite the misgivings of Eisenhower and others Truman obviously had advice from many that it was necessary to use the bomb to force Japan into a quick surrender. As for killing innocents, the fire bombings in Japan and Germany had been doing that already for some time.

Armchair Generals armed with 20/20 hindsight are a dime a dozen.

[EternalVigilance]

I’ll go with the opinions of the Americans who were lined up to take part in the invasion of Japan. I never knew of one who didn’t believe that the dropping of the bombs probably saved their lives.