Posted on 08/08/2005 5:04:27 AM PDT by hildy123
And the Bomb was the most overall humane play possible in that situation. When the Japanese discovered that we were NOT out to massacre them back for massacring us, once they had surrendered, they said that Bomb had been sent from heaven. They were so right.
You don't know what you're talking about. We demonstrated we could defeat the Japanese on their own soil at Okinawa and Iwo, but only at an incredible cost in American lives, and even greater loss of Japanese lives, both military and civilian. So, "them" bombs saved hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives, mostly Japanese.
You are more than mistaken. You as simply wrong.
Why not then drop one on an island at sea with no inhabitants and invite the Japanese military to witness the power of it? Then say, surrender or we drop this on you?
You might as well have expected rational behavior from Hitler and asked why he didn't sue for peace when he saw the Allies pouring across the borders and most of Germany's cities destroyed. Why did he ride it out only to commit suicide in the bunker? Perhaps because he was a megalomaniacal nutburger??? And you think a rational "demonstration" would have an impact on people who think like this???
They saw a demonstration with the first bomb. They didn't surrender.
That was proposed, but we weren't exactly bristling with nukes at the time and nobody was totally sure they'd even work. There were two ready to go and one which could have been brought on line within a few weeks. The U-bomb (Hiroshima) wasn't even tested. Exactly one of the Pu-bomb (Nagasaki) had been tested. The cities had been leafleted with warnings that they were likely to be bombed in the near future... and Japanese, taking this seriously, had sent many children off to board well away from the war area... I mean, you want fair warning?
And even when Hirohito capitulated, he almost suffered a coup d'etat from a couple holdout generals who still didn't buy into the idea. (Fortunately they were foiled.)
I really get tired of this pious crap from the left and Japanese nationalists around the Hiroshima anniversary. It's the same people who argue that China, the U.S., the U.K. and the Netherlands "forced" Japan to invade China, Southeast Asia and attack Pearl Harbor, killing millions, because we were just so darn mean.
Official Catholic doctrine has gotten caught up in the Just War stuff. I respect those folks even though I think their theology has gotten really askew over the ages. Seems to me like they have overswung their pendulum from the time when the Crusades were in full bloom and their practices were only slightly less cruel than those of the pagan/Islamic world around them.
None-I do not question the rightness of the decision.
I do not care what info has been subsequently developed. The decision was made, it was right, period.
I made my statement in the format I did because liberals seem to want to inject subsequent info into a decision making process, they want to see a mealy mouthed re-thinking of the decision, an admission of fallibility.
"At the time", as far as I am concerned makes the decision infallible. As much as the left wants to go in the past and re-make decisions, they cannot change the conditions
We are on the same page, just different ways of saying it
This thread should be renamed: "Why didn't we get the bomb sooner" or "Did Roosevelt's bomb delay cost American lives?"
For the right sort of question, war is the answer.
And just what in the blazes did Asimov expect the civilized world to do, once such an "incompetent" chooses to wage a war against it (as al-Qaeda has now). Just sit there and take it on the chin?
Whoda thunk it?
There is no doubt in my ex-military mind that Truman did the right thing. Truman, according to one documentary, was concerned that he would be impeached if he had not used the A-bombs. The preponderance of evidence suggests that the Japanese would have fought to the very bitter end, with unthinkable carnage and loss of life on both sides.
My mother has told me many stories of her memories during WWII, of the sacrifices that our country made. It was time to end that war. Truman did the right thing.
I am proud to be an American, the country that was the predominant force in ending the rule of Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini.
It was my good fortune to serve my country during peacetime. I was afforded the opportunity to visit numerous historical sites, the most memorable being my visits to Flossenburg and Dachau. The evils that were committed there, and elsewhere, cannot and must not, be forgotten.
I wonder how you would feel had you been me, having already been through two invasions having already spent two years out in the far Pacific, and was being prepared for invading the Japanese homeland! Bet you would have been as happy as I was that it ended the DAMN WAR!
I will take the word of a Sailor, Marine, Airman, or Soldier, over the word of any arm-chair general or REMF any day of the week.
Thanks again, Sinbad.
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.