Posted on 08/03/2020 7:06:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
It is August, 2020, now seventy-five years since the end of America's World War II hostilities with the nation then known as the Empire of Japan. August 6 and 9 are the historic anniversary dates of the first and only use of nuclear weapons in warfare. In the ensuing three quarters of a century, the attacks of 1945 on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — their usefulness and their rectitude — have been the subject of vigorous debate over their military, scientific, political, historic, and moral significance.
Schools of thought regarding yes-or-no justification generally break down as follows:
Yes. The European and Pacific wars were already too costly in lives and property. A quick end was mandatory.
No. The European war was already over, and the Pacific conflict was winding down. The Soviet Union, free from battling Germany, was soon to engage in hostile action against Japan.
Yes. There were no good options. This was the least bad alternative.
No. Regardless of military considerations, the attacks were a crime against humanity for the massive carnage of Japan's innocent civilian population, and Japan was presumably about to capitulate. America should apologize to Japan.
Yes. Western notions of chivalry, honor, and humane treatment of vanquished opponents were alien to Japan's ruthless, barbarous, and sadistic military culture. A powerful checkmate was required, and Japan should apologize to the world.
The atomic attacks by the United States Army Air Force on the two Japanese cities undeniably were horrific tragedies. Abstracted from historical context, by themselves, they do suggest extravagant cruelty in a purely vengeful act by this nation. And they provide ready ammunition for the "Shame America" movement, now in high gear over America's history of slavery, accusations of endemic racism, and other assorted offenses.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
It is my view, that President Truman accepted conditional surrender
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I also think that we used the TWO we had on hand at the time.
Not so sure how much then but in ‘modern’ times it has been said the President Truman was racist for allowing the bomb.
(Back when racist wasn’t being thrown around as often as ‘the’)
I also believe that MacArthur wanted nothing to do with the European ‘higher command’ in Asia and also that Russia was preparing to get ‘involved’ which we were seeing the problems starting with ‘sharing’ the spoils with Russia.
While the devastation of the nukes was very widespread, the fire bombing of Dresden (in particular) was considered ‘ok’ or at least not as barbaric as the ABombs.
Like ‘they’ say WAR IS HELL, and never poke a sleeping giant with a sharp stick —no telling how much will eventually happen to the poker or whether it will end up where the sun don’t shine...
WADR....I can’t believe that question is still being asked. It’s been proven beyond doubt, by statements from Japanese military figgers (A little Downton Abbey lingo there) that they, with their wild eyed Bushido bull feces, were prepared to continue the bloodshed until there was no man standing. So HARRY S. did the right thing and brought it to a screeching halt. After MacArthur knocked that Bushido crap out of them, and made Hirohito confess that he was NOT a divine figger, and gave them an elective represent-ative gubmint, the Japanese are a great people. I spent 3 beautiful years there in the late 50s-early 60s.
After Pearl Harbor the Japanese would have fought to the death on their home islands. This would have meant millions of Japanese civilians and another half million American troops dead.
It was necessary to drop those bombs to end the war.
The other side of the coin is that the American people did need their pound of flesh.
I lost three uncles in that way that I never even got to meet. I heard their names and saw their pictures while growing up in the 50’s as they were remembered and honored at every family event. The Japanese took much from my family.
Now, for those not involved or touched by that conflict to try and sit in judgement is just wrong.
Playing politics with our dead heroes is almost fighting wrong.
There were legitimate military/industrial targets at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night.
Japan was run by a bunch of sociopaths and racial supremacists that horrified the Nazi's with their excesses. And it had been doing this for some SIXTY years.
Anyone who thought that they were just going to stop or that leaving them to carry on in a slightly limited manner for a bit before they decide to terrorize the world again was acceptable is simply insane.
Justified.
My uncles didn’t have to invade the main land.
Saved Japanese lives. My uncles were really pissed off after Tarawa and Saipan.
5.56mm
75 years later, we are still drawing from that supply.
At the time the invasion of Japan was estimated to cause between 400÷800k American deaths with somewhere between 1.7m and 4m casualties. The Japanese were expected to have 10mor so deaths since surrender wasn’t an acceptable decision for the Japanese since it would have been dishonorable. My dad was scheduled for the 8nvasion of the Japanese homeland with the SeaBees and he told me that he hadn’t expected to survive. Result would be that neither my brother or I would have been born
True and why is that forgotten? And what about the “morality” of that as opposed to the nuclear attack?
I think it is also important to note that Japan refused to surrender both before and after we dropped the first atomic bomb. Japan only agreed to surrender after we dropped the second atomic bomb and convinced Japan that we would keep on dropping them until they surrendered. In fact, at the time we only had two atomic bombs left (we had three, but test fired one) and had no way of knowing for sure if either would actually work.
I used to believe all that nonsense, but no longer.
The Japanese would have surrendered in June or July if we would have agreed to let them keep the emperor. But, no, we had to demand unconditional surrender, until we could drop the bombs, and then decided to let them keep their emperor.
Read McArthur and LeMay on the topic.
Prolonging the war allowed the Russians to send troops to North Korea and China. This permitted the communist takeover of both countries, thanks to the US State Department.
“Kept the Soviets out of any Japanese territories”. Exactly what do you call the islands that Russia took and still keep, their manifest destiny?
Forrestal might not have “committed suicide” if he had enough support.
Yep
Why didn’t we tell them they could keep their emperor?
As much as the raid on Pearl was.
‘cause it’s too cold in December?
The SECOND one finally got their attention!
Ya poke the bull; ya get the horn!
Post of the day!
As much as Manifest Destiny.
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