[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

It is never right to do a wrong thing in order that good may result.
It is OK to kill an invader. Bombing the invader's mother, father, grandmother and grandfather doesn't sound like killing an invader.
Bombing munitions factories is generally seen as a normal part of a war.
Looks like it is not possible to say that "bombing saved lives".

[pabianice]

Bombing a country that started the war is not just good tactics but morally correct.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"It is never right to do a wrong thing in order that good may result."

Ends do not justify means, but I would dispute that neither the end--the total capitullation of Japan--nor the means, US military force, including use of the atomic bomb, were wrong.

It would have been wrong to NOT to drop the atomic bomb. Dropping the atomic bomb in these circumstances was the moral choice. It prevented the invasion of Japan, and the needless slaughter of 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 Japanese, civilian and military, and the death of of what? 1,000,000 to 4,000,000 American servicemen, including my aviator father, and marine uncles. It resulted in the liberation of all concurred territories.

"It is OK to kill an invader. Bombing the invader's mother, father, grandmother and grandfather doesn't sound like killing an invader."

I disagree with the careful shaping and phrasing of your assertion. What was going to make the Japanese stop invading, stop attacking, and not just us.

Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor, they attacked and invaded the Philippines. They attacked and invaded China, Korea, the Dutch East Indies, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Burma. They slaughtered millions of innocent people, they enslaved others, some they raped, some they worked to death, some they used for biological experiments. What was their objective in doing this and who did the wrong thing? Get a good answer from the Japanese before you ask this question of the Americans.

Please reread the Japanese plans for the defense of their island. Children, grandmothers, grandfathers, women all would have been enlisted in that defense. There was no distinction between civilian and military. It is starkly clear that use of the atomic bomb absolutely did, in fact, without the least question, save lives.

Consider a world in which we neither invaded Japan nor dropped the bomb. Japan would have been left in control of the bulk of its empire, the southwest Pacific, its resources and navigation lanes. How long would it have been before it rebuilt its forces started a new war? We dint just liberate the nations the Japanese conquered, we also liberated the Japanese people from their military overlords.