Posted on 08/03/2005 10:49:43 PM PDT by manny613
So who, besides the America-hating liberal left, feels guilty about it?
Would they feel better if we just firebombed them the old fashioned way?
The japanese where moving divisions into the invasion area at such a high rate attacking to defensive troops would have been 1 to 1.
Plus all the little buggies they were experimenting with in Manchuria.
No demonstration, hell after the first bomb they were still willing to fight.
For further proof read the battle history of Okinawa, and imagine what would have happened on a scale of about ten times as grand.
I wonder how you would think if it was Los Angeles that was bombed with the big one and if it were American civilians dying because the Japanese simply had to make the US surrender...
With that reminder, I don´t challenge the necessity of dropping Little Boy. I just want to make sure that your position is no double-standard.
So it would have been more moral to continue the carnage while waiting for the Japanese "leaders" to decide whether they wanted to surrender or not? Sheesh, Japanese soldiers continued to hide and resist, even into the 1960's in some highly isolated cases, and some folks think there may be one or two more still hiding in the Phillipine Islands...
Hiroshima? No... Christian Nagasaki? Yes.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/Printable.asp?ID=3993
Sure, because we had a stockpile of nukes sitting out there for endless demonstrations of our capabilities.
We had two. It took two to end the war. Now we should have giving one or more 'demonstrations' to a country full of fanatics ready to die for their 'God'?
Doubtful at best. We "Tested" the MOAB in an area of Florida and it's destructive force prior to using it; and yet, the haji's still wanted to resist.
We dropped a couple MOAB's and still they(haji's) resist.
Bottom line, IMO, leaflet the target area: "leave now, in 2 hours hell comes in" and disengage with "rules of engagement" and let our guys go to work. Ugly? yes. Will we take casulties? Yes. Will they? They'll be crushed by our professional forces.
Word will spread quick.
< / armchair general mode off.>
Note: I mean such use for the area's that we continue to take resistance in; mostly the outlying area's and especially along the borders.
Mike
You raise a good point. I have asked myself this several times, and I never found a satisfying answer. Fact is, that Japan didn´t surrender after Hiroshima, and that the Japanese military was ready to cut the throats of all allied POWs. They were just like the most desperate Nazis willing to let all their people die, because they realized they had lost anyway. While the bombing of Dresden really didn´t help to end the war, nor did it help to save allied lives, Hiroshima without a doubt did so.
I have come to the point to say that I can´t answer the question whether Little Boy should have exploded over the sea or an uninhabited island. It didn´t happen, Little Boy killed dozens of thousands. So it´s useless to answer this question. We know enough to avoid a 3rd use of nuclear weapons if ever possible, and that should be fine.
They had 3 days to declare unconditional surrender. They didn't, and they knew that's what was demanded. They brought the Nagasaki deaths on themselves. I was around at the time and I've never felt one bit of guilt...regret it was necessary, yes, but guilt never. If they hadn't surrendered after Nagasaki I'd have dropped another bomb on Tokyo or Kyoto if I'd been in charge and if we'd had one.
I regret we had only two bombs and that we didn't have them sooner. Sure would have come in handy at Tarawa and Iwo Jima. And we could have dropped one right on the emperor too.
I'm sure Truman, like most of his advisors, simply assumed the atomic bombs would be used as soon they were ready. The only moral issue was ending the war by any means possible.
If the Japanese had the bomb they would have used it. They were attempting to find a way to drop bubonic plague on San Fransisco
It should be further noted that the Japanese had their own nascent nuclear program with a working reactor located on the Korean peninsula under the direction of a certain Dr. Suzuki. The plan was to hopefully produce enough fissionable material to produce one bomb and place it in the hold of a scuttled Japanese warship at the spot that Allied forces would invade the souhternmost island, with the view of inflicting suchy horrid casualties as to literelly bring the war to a halt. Had Truman waited several months and let Operation Olympic go ahead and the Japanese carried out their plan, Trumkan would very likely have been impeached, if not shot. once it became known that we possessed the bomb and didnt use it to force a quicker Japananese surrencder. Macropolitical consierations aside, my own reason for affirming Truman's decision is more personal. My father was with a USN pacification team on Okinawa at the time and they were planning the invasion of the home islands. His survival of that action would have been problematic at best and my ouwn existence a mere probability.
Even strictly from the standpoint of the Japanese, the atomic bombings did them the enormous favor of forcing the war's rapid end with vastly fewer casualties. Such comparisons sound ghastly, but all the people who rave against the casualties at Hiroshima and Nagasaki need to understand that the alternative was a MINIMUM of 1-2 million Japanese fatalities.
Gotta agree with ya on a 3rd. However, we did "test" out our latest MOAB and it had little effect on the hard core's.
We could nuke them and obliterate everything; it still wouldn't have an effect on the mind set overall. The "ROP" and their likes are in a "holy war" against anything that is not "them". The quicker we come to calling this "war" what it is, the quicker we can get it over with.
Amen.
An excellent series on the history channel, 'The Last Days of WW2'shows how fanatical the Japs were.
Not only willing to kill us but themselves!
The militaristic mindset that controlled them was not unlike that of terrorist today.
Moreover, they had perfected biological warfare (using our POW's as guina pigs) and were planning on using it against our cities.
The Japanese should be thankful the Americans were not as vengful as the Russians, after what they did to the people they controlled (Nanking, Manila) and our POW's.
Excellent post.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.