The human cost of atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was worth paying

The Telegraph ^ | 08-09-2015 | Christopher Booker

[roadcat]

and patton was right, they should have been.

Yup. Japan was rightfully ours to invade; the Soviets didn't declare war on Japan until the last moment (Aug 8th, 1945?). But they wanted to carve Japan up for themselves. When we dropped the bomb on Japan, the Soviets moved into Manchuria and Korea (and took the Kurile Islands), taking them away from Japan. Roosevelt gave all that and eastern Europe to the Soviets in the Yalta Conference without getting much from the Soviets in return. To bad Patton wasn't listened to, as we could have held the Soviets back by dangling the nuclear option.

[logitech]

What’s sad is, in another generation, when all of the soldiers who fought in WWII are dead, these are the only things that will be taught about WWII:

-The Soviets defeated Nazi Germany single-handedly.

-We were evil for nuking Japan.

That comment will go into my time capsule

[gaijin]

Hiroshima - flat so there was a tight correspondence between radius from ground-zero and survivorship rates; the further away from the center the more you found people who lived.

Nagasaki - hilly, though perhaps only 40% as much as, say, San Francisco. This meant that there were weird anomalies; you might get people very close to ground-zero who survived while others much further away were badly injured or died.

[MarvinStinson]

How did that help end the war?

It ended it. That's how.

[MarvinStinson]

And NOW ? What would MacArthur and Truman say?

"http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2156489!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_400/obama-japan.jpg"

[MarvinStinson]

And NOW ? What would MacArthur and Truman say?

"http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2156489!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_400/obama-japan.jpghttp://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2156489!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_400/obama-japan.jpg"

[Secret Agent Man]

they had always wanted the contested sahkalin islands.

[Twinkie]

Yes; it would have if carriers had been present at Pearl. It was bad enough at Pearl as it was. Horrible! Many American men trapped in sunken ships, tapping on the inside bottoms of the ships for days - with no hope of rescue! - Daddy (a combat veteran) stated more than once that there were times when they thought they were going to lose that war . . but knew they just dare not! - I have a German SIL who to this day is somewhat living “the American dream” with a bit of arrogance. - I just have to avoid that situation as much as I can, & it ain’t easy with my husband worshipping the ground she & BIL walk on!

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

“and make it as quick and as unfair as possible.”

As Trump says, PC is what’s wrong with this country. I say PC has no place in the military or how we fight a war. Fight to win! Then win! PC is decimating our military...give us a CIC! Not the chicken$hit islamo-facist half-breed usurping squatter in the White Hut, where he has effectively converted it into the White Mosque...

[submarinerswife]

The article refers to Laurens VanDer Post, the British Colonel who, as a prisoner in a Jap internment camp in Java for 3 yrs, accepted the surrender of the camp commander and all other Japenese soldiers on the island after the second bomb.

The movie Merry Christmas, Mr Lawence was based on his novel about his time as a prisoner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRIQrdYZic4

[houeto]

They drew first blood.

EXACTLY what I was going to post but was going to add, "In the most chickensh!t fashion known to nations."

[1010RD]

Excellent analysis and spot on. The combined mixture of what isn’t taught and what history has been forgotten will cost the Millenials dearly.