[Alberta's Child]

Part of the problem here is that the most common arguments I've seen in favor of dropping atomic bombs are predicated on the assumption that they helped avoid the carnage (in both U.S. and Japanese lives) of a full-scale invasion of Japan.

I don't even accept that as a necessary condition at all. I have long said that it's impossible to have a rational discussion about the matter until sufficient time has passed that nobody is alive who even knows anyone who was involved in a potential invasion of Japan. You can't have an objective conversation when everything you read about it is so heavily personalized.

[rlmorel]

That argument cuts both ways, IMO.

You and I were not on in the military in the Pacific at that time (I presume). But my father was, and as my post at #108 with my father’s image illustrates, he had very strong opinions on this. As did hundreds of thousands of other men, and millions of family members.

Just going to ask the question-did you actually view Bill Whittle’s video on this?

He discusses in great detail EXACTLY why the assumptions that the Japanese people would fight to the bitter end were not based on some kind of American government or military upper command announcement that said they would.

He references SPECIFIC policy statements made by Hirohito, and senior military officers who were responsible for the policies that would be implemented when an invasion would occur. This is completely separate from some politician in Washington saying “Oh, they would fight to the end and cause tens or hundreds of thousands of casualties, so we spared our own men by dropping the bomb”...

This analysis was based on hard fact, obtained by bloody experience going from island to island, the death toll and casualty tolls increasing the closer we got to mainland Japan, and the people in charge, the people responsible for making it happen, the people responsible for shooting or hanging anyone who refused to take part made definitive, clear statements about what they had in store.

Not that anyone needed to be convinced after seeing the actions of civilians deliberately destroying themselves in Saipan and Okinawa because of both fear, and the desire to fulfill the will of the Emperor.

I honestly don’t think I or anyone else is going to convince you otherwise. You have your opinion and do not seem in any way inclined to change it based on much of anything. And I will respect your personal opinion which you feel has validity.

As I expect you to respect mine, which I feel has validity.