Peter posted the following on the WWII+70 years thread the other day. Regarding the idea that Japan was almost ready to give in, the steady B-29 bombings (much more destructive than the A-bombs) did not seem to be swaying their military. Even the Japs realized the A-bombs were a saving grace.
http://www.mconway.net/page1/page15/files/Shock%20of%20Atomic%20Bomb.pdf
After the war Suzuki recalled: “The atomic bomb provided an additional reason for surrender as well as an extremely favorable opportunity to commence peace talks. I believed such an opportunity could not be afforded by B-29 bombings alone.”
The hitherto vacillating and sphinx-like Suzuki had finally made up his mind. It is important to note that Suzuki did so before he was informed of the Soviet entry into the war early on the following day. Sakomizu also felt that “the army will admit that now that the atomic bomb has come into existence, it precludes war between a nation that possesses the atomic bomb and one that does not.” However, the army was not to be so easily swayed.
t My point is that to intentionally target civilians for indiscriminate slaughter, to force a response from their government, is murder. It's what the Chechens did at Beslan. It is what terrorists do.
A true Warrior Ethic is to smash the enemy and spare the innocent. One cannot always do this perfectly - and in the stress, terror and press or war, how to do it is not so obvious or so east - but to try to do that, to intend to do that, pertains to the difference between good warfare, and murder; and that is akin to the difference between the forces of Men of Middle Earth and the Orcs, if you want to put it that way; or the host of heaven and the demons of hell.
Tagline. It's from Psalm 72:4.