not an easy topic, not an easy decision for Truman but what was the option(?), for a full scale invasion would have killed far more Japanese civilians all over the islands and of course massive casulties for Allied troops going in there and subduing, I also imagine the scores of mass suicide people would have been forced into (brainwashed by their criminal Tojo govt). people have to remember many war criminals got the long rope at Sugamo Prison afterwards and justice was served in many an instance against those lousy fascists and Class-A types (war crimes). and just leave it at that. it is a new Japan and they are a great ally to the United States against bigger fish to fry out here, such as Red China and batty North Korea now.
The statistics on lives saved by the bombs is obvious, yet they ignore it.
As far as it being an ethnic choice...bombing Japan vs. Germany..well, look at the stats from the firebombings of Dresden and Hamburg. The death totals were also staggering. And MORE Japanese probably died in the multiple bombings of Tokyo than from the two nukes combined.
The two greatest examples of nation building success..Germany and Japan post WW II..both occurred after we'd totally vanquished them..and killed most of their military and political leadership. Compare that to Iraq..where we tried our best to be careful...how's that working out?..More Americans were killed there AFTER Bagdad fell, and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi have been killed in terrorist bombings since the war supposedly ended.
But even if everything they say about killing supposedly innocent Japanese civilians was to suddenly be deemed 100% true, the use of the bombs was still justified by the lives of American troops it saved.
They attacked us...they massacred our troops, and civilians..they started it..
After Pearl Harbor..Adm. Halsey was quoted as saying that "before we're through with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell."
The same needs to be said of Arabic.