100,000 People Perished, but Who Remembers?

The New York Times ^ | March 14, 2002 | HOWARD W. FRENCH

[Sci Fi Guy]

Do you consider fighting to the death at the Alamo an honorable thing, or a fanatical thing?

It depends on why you are fighting. At the Alamo, their efforts allowed the Texan Army time to prepare for war. Their deaths served a purpose. Likewise if you are facing an enemy which tortures / kills their pows, like the japs did in WW2. I could see fighting to the death, because you would weaken the enemy, and your fate most likely would not be changed by the continued fighting.

By the end of WW2, there was no purpose to keep fighting. The Military leaders of Japan were willing to see millions killed, just to delay surrender. The Japanese Leaders could see how we treated the germans and our own POWs. Yet they preferred to keep fighting and many wanted to even after we dropped the nukes.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

A blockade wouldn't have worked. Having lived in country for ten years and as a student of Asian affairs, I can tell you the Japanese would have put up with it for fifty years and might have grown stronger as a result. And, how would a blockade deal with several million Japanese Army troops who controlled the Asian land mass from Burma to Korea ?

[Paleo Conservative]

We firebombed every major Japanese city and still they refused to surrender. It was only after we had dropped our SECOND atomic bomb with the threat of endless more that they finally surrendered.

Actually we deliberately did not fire bomb a handfull of cities so that the effects of an atomic bomb could be more accurately documented.

[pt17]

Aside form reading history books and accounts, I had the opportunity to talk directly to my father and others who went thru the Pacific theatre and ended up in the early occupation forces. Based on their investigative work and interrogations, they were of the opinion that the bomb stopped that nation from committing suicide at the hands of the Japanese army. Also, check into (1) what Stalin was planning just prior to the bomb and (2) what Japan had been doing in the area of chemical/biological warfare. IMHO and in the opinion of everyone I knew who was there, the bomb saved a lot of time and lives, probably millions.

By the way, how would you have blockaded Japan's armies in Japan, China, Korea, etc. with Stalin ready to attack Japan from the North?

[NativeNewYorker]

Given how militarily docile the Japanese have been since WW II, I'd have to say our strategies and tactics were a total success.

A modern parallel action in the Middle East would likely be similarly successful. Which is why the Times so wants to deter it.

[Amor Vincit Omnia?]

This is to everyone here. I'm not trying to be offensive here, but you all seriously need to get a grip on reality! The fact is that these bombings happened over 50 years ago. Can't we all just forgive each other and our ancestors for the events of World War II (that includes incidents on every country's part) and move on with the future?! For us newer generations at least, there is nothing we could have done or can do to change whats happened; but we can accept the past and move on. Lets forgive, but NOT forget, and make the future a better place by learning from those events whether they have turned out in the end to be "right" or "wrong". Come on, the future is waiting on us, lets face it head-on instead of shrinking from it because of our past!!

[dfwgator]

Can't we all just forgive each other and our ancestors for the events of World War II (that includes incidents on every country's part) and move on with the future?!

Ironic you should say that on a thread that's been dormant for over three years.

[Bubba_Leroy]

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana, Life of Reason, 'Reason in Common Sense,' ch. 12 (1905-6).

[RightWhale]

Little was left standing in many homes except the drill presses that were used to produce weapons for the military. Cottage industry.

[Psycho_Bunny]

The Japanese were much like the muslim fanatics that we are at war with today. Now Japan is an ally. There is a lot to be said for bombing a fanatic culture into oblivion.

It's the difference between bombing someone "back the stone-age", or bombing them "into the present."

[Doe Eyes]

By the end of WW2, there was no purpose to keep fighting.

Suppose things had turned out different.

Germany and Japan win in Europe/Asia and attack the US.

Facing overwhelming odds, do we fight to the death, or meekly surrender?