I notice unanimity among “conservatives” that dropping the bombs was moral.
The Allies’ demand for unconditional surrender was immoral.
Murdering civilians is immoral.
Consequentislism is also immoral. I.e., “dropping the bombs saved lives.”
“I notice unanimity among “conservatives” that dropping the bombs was moral.
The Allies’ demand for unconditional surrender was immoral.
Murdering civilians is immoral.
Consequentislism is also immoral. I.e., “dropping the bombs saved lives.””
If by “conservatives” you mean patriot Americans who fought and won WWII then you are correct.
We should thank God that someone like you was not in any command or decision making position during WWII.
If you had been, America would have been conquered by the Germans and the Japanese.
You’ll be a lonely voice here, but you’re absolutely right about that.
I wouldn’t comment on the morality of ignorance, but the Japanese were opposed to occupation of Japan, and up to moment of surrender, still hoped to hold on to Manchuria. Left to their own devices, they would have rearmed and been a lingering threat. They envisioned Japan 1970 as a new and improved version of Germany 1940. And they were working on Atomic Weapons, and most certainly would have had them by 1970.
How does just war theory work, when you're fighting an enemy who (a) doesn't give a hoot about just war theory, or even the Geneva convention; and (b) promises to turn every civilian old enough to walk into a combatant? (The Japanese were literally teaching children to put on explosive vests and roll under tanks to blow them up.)
Truman's decision was a difficult one. Having spent a billion dollars on the bomb (a decision to which he was not a party, remember), should he then send hundreds of thousands of American boys to their deaths in an invasion, and keep the bomb in his back pocket? How do you explain that to the parents of 500,000 or a million dead American boys?
I don't know the answers to these questions. Thomas Aquinas never fought the Japanese, or Al Qaeda (who also likes to turn civilians into combatants), for that matter.
One thing that some of the scientists at Los Alamos wanted to do was to invite Japanese military representatives to the Trinity test in New Mexico. But if the test is a success, and they still refuse to surrender, and refuse to evacuate potential target cities ... what then?
And recall that, even after the bombs were dropped, even after the Russians had entered the war, and even after it became clear that the Emperor could stay, there was almost a coup d'etat in Tokyo to prevent the surrender from taking place. A considerable faction of the Japanese military was truly demonic and insane.
What would you have done, in Truman's place?
“I notice unanimity among “conservatives” that dropping the bombs was moral.”
Didn’t both Eisenhower and MacArthur criticize the A-bomb drop in their memoirs?