Dropping Atomic Bombs on Japan Was Imperative

Self | August 6, 2014 | Self

[Retain Mike]

In retirement I am always motivated to study WW II history by the men I grew up around and admired. At about nine my father began taking me out golfing with him on the weekends and most everyone we played with was a veteran. I remember there was a man who used the first golf cart I ever saw, because as a brigade commander in New Guinea he was permanently debilitated by sickness. One fairly good golfer had a weird back swing, because he was crippled while serving with the Big Red One in Sicily. Later I often ended up as a dishwasher at our club. The chef noticed my puzzled look as he limped around the kitchen. He said he got the limp from a wound received when he was with the Rangers at Pointe De Hoc.

There are many other stories I overheard and could relate, but one consistently repeated theme was how their unit or ship was scheduled for the Japan invasion. They always thanked God they didn’t have to become fodder for that killing machine. Therefore I developed and now rework from suggestions I receive and from additional sources this narrative about dropping the atomic bombs. I also break it into four letters I send to papers.

The partial biography of the sources I used contains a lot of helpful insights and perspectives I didn’t emphasize. The recently published book Hell to Pay by D. M. Giangreco is especially valuable. I was able to find confirmation of so many of my other sources in his book. About 30% of the book is bibliography, appendices, and notes.

[dfwgator]

I really don’t care what a bunch of pussies with the benefit of 70 years of hindsight think.

It was the right thing to do.

[Resolute Conservative]

We need to drop a few more.

[cloudmountain]

One doesn't "go golfing." One PLAYS GOLF.

OR, you're from the Midwest. They DO say things differently.
If THAT's the case, I apologize.

[dirtboy]

One has to look at the Allied mindset after the horrific Battle of Okinawa to realize they saw the A-bomb as a way to avoid invading the Japanese home islands.

[mmichaels1970]

I believe I may well owe my existence to the bomb. My grandfather would have been in the invasion force. Unlike a lot of guys, he speaks quite freely about removing a rifle from a burning dead Japanese soldier on the battlefield.

I really need to nail down the specifics of his company and battles before he leaves us.

[bassmaner]

Damn it, we're the GOOD GUYS! Those bombs saved millions of American *AND* Japanese lives that would have been squandered with a full-scale invasion. The fact that we have to keep re-teaching this every year at this time speaks volumes about how corrupt the education system in this country (from pre-K to grad school) has become.

FAD, FUBO, and F all leftists for the anti-American crap they've been marinating impressionable young minds with for the last 50 years!!

[Gay State Conservative]

If the projections indicating that dropping the bomb could save hundreds of thousands of *our* troops or *their* soldiers/civilians then it was the right thing to do.Those projections...both regarding ours *and* theirs...seem absolutely plausible.So unless I see *very* compelling evidence to the contrary I say “well done,Mr Truman”.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I’ve heard liberals say that we should have staged a demonstration of the power of the atomic bomb at some uninhabited location. And had we done so, the Japanese would have been shocked and awed by the demonstration, and would have surrendered, without seeing Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed.

Liberal comedian/commentator Jon Stewart stated that we should have dropped the first bomb offshore, then warned Japan that the next one would be dropped on them, if they didn’t surrender.

If I recall correctly, the Japanese didn’t surrender immediately after Hiroshima. They wanted to fight on. After Nagasaki, they started to re-think things.

[dfwgator]

But what about all the poor whales?

[dfwgator]

They only surrendered because the Emperor told them to.

And they almost got to the Emperor before he managed to go on the radio.

[Fiji Hill]

And now, for a musical interlude.

• Win the War Blues--Sunny Boy Williamson (1945)

• Smoke on with Rthe Water--Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys (1945)

• When the Atom Bomb Fell--Karl & Harty (1945)

• Atomic Power--Ref Foley (with Roy Ross & His Ramblers) (1946)

• Fujiyama Mama--Annisteen Allen (with the Five Keys) (1955)

[zek157]

I've heard the same thing too. In response I always say we already firebombed so many cities that it was getting difficult to find a nuke target that had not been hit. Paper and wood construction made dozens of Dresden's possible. The entire north/south transportation system was gone along with the cities. Shipping was nonexistent. During the winter of 1945-46 the nation would have starved as the rice harvest would not have been transported to any remaining population centers.

Bottom line we burned more with “conventional” firebombs that with fusion.

As it was there was a military faction that attempted to stop Hirohito from surrendering and continue the war. It was stopped the night of Hirohito's announcement.

[zek157]

The Kyūjō Incident was an attempted military coup d'état in Japan at the end of the Second World War. It happened on the night of 14–15 August 1945, just prior to announcement of Japan's surrender to the Allies. The attempted coup was put into effect by the Staff Office of the Ministry of War of Japan and by many from the Imperial Guard of Japan in order to stop the move to surrender. The officers, in an attempt to block the decision to surrender to the Allies, killed Lieutenant General Takeshi Mori of the First Imperial Guards Division and attempted to counterfeit an order to the effect of occupying the Tokyo Imperial Palace. They attempted to place the Emperor under house arrest, using the 2nd Brigade Imperial Guard Infantry. They failed to persuade the Eastern District Army (Japan) and the high command of the Imperial Japanese Army to move forward with the action. Due to their failure to convince the remaining army to oust the Imperial House of Japan, they ultimately committed suicide. As a result, the communique of the intent for a Japanese surrender continued as planned.

[Paco]

The fact is those bombs and civilian deaths saved millions of lives. We directly attacked civilians to end the war even when we knew where Japan's military was stationed.

Israel isn't fighting a "Japan" they're fighting a terrorist organization sanctioned and voted in by their people. If they want to launch rockets from civilian locations then bombs away! They need to reap what they sow. If Israel doesn't finish off Hamas now they're only delaying the inevitable. Go Israel!!!!!

[TigersEye]

You can’t get liberal feel-gooders to care that it might have cost a half million American lives or more. For them it’s all about the poor Japanese. What the idiots can’t fathom or won’t admit is that there would barely be a Japanese people now if we had fought a ground invasion instead. One that the Soviets would have probably joined in on.

[Fiji Hill]

If “to golf” is s a verb, “golfing” would be its present participle, so one can go golfing, just as one can go fishing, bowling, skydiving, etc.

[rfreedom4u]

The wife of a man my dad used to work for was a survivor of the Hiroshima bomb. She was a child when it was dropped but said that she is glad it was done. She had scars and such and various other health issues. She said she realized afterward that it was better that it was dropped than to invade Japan. Her parents talked about what would have happened had we invaded and she said it gave her nightmares for years.

[RedMDer]

There was a good show on The Smithsonian chanel the other night about the Manhattan Project, the delivery and dropping of the bombs on Japan and the end of the war.

It justified the drops as they spared the US and Allies along with the Japanese from many more casualties had the invasion of Japan been needed.

[RedMDer]

Keep Free Republic Alive with YOUR Donations!

Make a difference.

PLEASE Contribute Today!