Posted on 08/08/2015 4:27:51 AM PDT by Kaslin
This week was the 70th anniversary of the United States nuking Hiroshima and as expected, there has been plenty of second guessing, attacks on America, and claims that nuking the Japanese wasn’t necessary.
Understandably perhaps, that’s how the Japanese feel. I can tell you that with certainty because back in 2008, the Japanese equivalent of PBS flew me out to New York to be part of an online discussion between a crowd of Americans and a group of people from Hiroshima. Again, perhaps understandably, the tone from the people of Hiroshima was very self-pitying. They asked us to look at pictures of Hiroshima as if we hadn’t seen them before. They talked about how devastating the attack was for them. It was like they wanted a big apology from all of America because we hit them so hard after their sneak attack.
Let me say something that a lot of people think, but don’t want to say because we’re friendly with Japan now: Japan deserved to be nuked and it deserved it ten times over.
Japan was allied with the Nazis in a war of world conquest that would have exterminated freedom and democracy across the globe if they were successful. The Japanese deliberately starved and slaughtered millions of civilians, they raped children and pregnant women, they forced families to have sex with each other for the fun of it, they tortured and experimented on prisoners of war -- and then there was Pearl Harbor.
Today, we think of the Japanese as polite people who are good at making electronics, cars and monster movies, but during WWII they were just as fanatical and evil as ISIS or Al-Qaeda. Unfortunately, they also had the military, intelligence and organization to inflict their evil on a much wider swath of the planet. They needed to be stopped by any means necessary, that’s exactly what we did and the world, INCLUDING JAPAN, is a much better place for it.
Strategically, it also made sense.
First off, Pearl Harbor needed to be avenged in a manner so terrible that it made our enemies think twice about striking our homeland again. In fact, some might argue that Japan got off light.
“When this war is over, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell!” — Admiral Bill Halsey on December 7, 1941
Happily, it didn’t have to come to that and yet Japan was punished for what it did in a way so terrible that it will live on until the end of human history. That’s no small matter because after what we did to Japan, nobody tried going after us again on our home turf until 9/11. What’s 50+ years of going without a strike on America as devastating as Pearl Harbor or 9/11 worth? Actually, quite a lot.
Additionally, since it had become clear that Stalin might be almost as dangerous after the war as Hitler was during it, it was also important for the United States to deal with Japan instead of leaving another strategic, potentially dangerous nation to be conquered by the Soviets. Ultimately, we ended up fighting a cold war instead of a hot war against the Soviets and it’s entirely possible that our willingness to do what it took to subdue Japan scared them enough to play a significant role in that.
Most importantly, we saved hundreds of thousands of American lives. By 1945, the Japanese had essentially been defeated, but they refused to unconditionally surrender. Allowing a nation as dangerous and evil as Japan to rearm, especially after the world’s post-WWI experience with Germany, seemed like little more than an invitation to an even more brutal war in another 20 years.
Initially, America prepared for a ground invasion, but after seeing the ferocity with which Japan defended Okinawa, we realized taking Japan would cost the lives of millions of Japanese and much more importantly, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers would die in the process.
When people moan about the use of nuclear weapons in Japan, what they’re really saying is that they’d rather hundreds of thousands of American families had grown up without husbands, fathers and sons than see us use nuclear weapons on a genocidal nation bent on world conquest.
Like most people who second guess the hard choices that are made in war, critics of nuking Japan insist that everything would have just magically worked out. Japan would have just surrendered and everything would have ended without bloodshed.
Of course, back in the real world, Japan was putting all of its resources into fending off an invasion and refused to surrender even AFTER the first nuclear weapon was dropped. After the second nuclear weapon hit Nagasaki, there was an attempted coup designed to prevent that nation’s leaders from giving in. Happily it failed, but it gives you a sense of how determined the Japanese were to keep fighting.
The Japanese weren’t the victims in WWII; they were the bad guys. They were perfectly willing to create a Hell on earth as long as their Emperor got to share time with Hitler in the infernal palace and they were allowed to be his little worker demons torturing the rest of the planet. Don’t feel sorry for Japan because it got nuked; feel sorry for the all the innocent lives that were lost because of that nation’s murderous lust for power.
Wow, so you’re justifying a sneak attack on the U.S. when war had not been declared by either nation? Are you sure you’re on the right web site?
And to answer your last question - it ended the war and saved many, many more lives than it cost, including Japanese lives. If you don’t think that’s the case, you need a history lesson.
That would echo through the mountains but otherwise accomplished nothing. Nuking Mecca however, is another story.
We should have celebrated 08 August by flying a formation of B-52s from the US, over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and back, just to remind the entire world that we not only don’t owe the Japanese an apology but that we are ready to repeat the treatment whenever and wherever it is needed...
We really need to nuke someone again.
Nobody believes that we’d ever use a nuke gain, sonukes are not a threat.
Nuke ISIS just once and I’d bet that we have 50 years without having to worry about muzzie terroists.
I'm sure this is why al-Qaeda had no qualms about the death toll on 9/11.
And your belief that there was no state of war between the U.S. and Japan before Pearl Harbor is delusional at best, and deceptive at worst. Do some research on a guy by the name of Claire Lee Chennault. The U.S. military had drafted plans to bomb Japanese cities from mainland China before December of 1941, and began shipping the aircraft and munitions there in October of that year.
war sucks, the point is to win, the Germans bombed civilians in England in an attempt to demoralize them, the japanese took out Pearl Harbor in an attempt to castrate our navy and demoralize us, the United states fire bombed Germany and Japan in an attempt to demoralize the people. I don’t think you can play the justification game with war, if you’re in it you have to do your best to win. It is apparent in korea and Vietnam what happens when you go half assed.
War is hell.
Exactly what are the proper limitations in war?
Compared to the firestorms in other Japanese cities from incendiary bombs, the Atomic Bombs were simply more efficient, although their production more or less negated that efficiency.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were valid military targets. Fact.
Any reservations about the use of our Atomic Bombs is absurd. In the end, their use finally pushed the Japanese to capitulate. Millions of lives on both sides of the war were thus spared. Fact.
Are you suggesting there aren't any?
Really? By that rationale, would New York City be a valid military target today?
Any reservations about the use of our Atomic Bombs is absurd.
No, it's not. It's based on sound moral principles, in fact.
As for NYC, possibly, but that is a typically ridiculous semantic.
Moral principles? Nonsense.
What was the ultimate difference between the results of Hiroshima being bombed and Tokyo being bombed?
From what I understand, the two cities on which the bombs were dropped were where their factories of war equipment and ammunition were produced. Also, the US dropped leaflets for days before the bombs were dropped, warning them to evacuate those cities. The blame rests solely on the back of the emperor, who did not order the evacuation. At least warning was given. There was no warning for the sailors at Pearl Harbor.
I have a hypothetical question. Let’s say the Imperial War Council after the bombs had fallen refused to surrender. It was a close vote so it could easily have happened. No more bombs immediately available for at least a while. What should have the US done then? Wait for more bombs meanwhile continuing conventional bombing or set about to invade with conventional land forces as well or something else?
Nothing. I've never suggested that there was a difference.
As for NYC, possibly, but that is a typically ridiculous semantic.
Certainly not to Osama bin Laden.
That goes right to the heart of one of my primary objections to what the author of this article has stated. If the Japanese "deserved to be nuked," then why did the emperor live out his days in peace and die a natural death?
If the emperor was solely to blame, then wouldn't it logically follow that any military action -- with weapons designed for mass destruction, mind you -- that didn't involve the destruction of the emperor's palace was clearly misguided and (ultimately) unjustified?
Again, a distinctly different motive and rationale, along with an undeniably incomparable “setting”.
The Japanese surrendered after the two atomic bombs were dropped. Therefore, these two massive strikes on civilian populations were justified.
It doesn't work that way. Everything I've read indicates that the U.S. only had two atomic bombs at the time, so there must have been a scenario in place to deal with a situation where the Japanese did not surrender after the second one was dropped. If the Japanese didn't surrender after the firebombing of Tokyo in March of 1945, then surely there couldn't have been any certainty that the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have different results.
Such as? Under the circumstances, the use of two atomic bombs was morally sound. The alternative (your alternative) is stalemate and a militarized Japan that remains a threat until they develop nuclear weapons. Then, if we are lucky, a Cold War in which we hope Japan does not ally with the Soviets.
Your other question is what are the limits to war? There are none and destruction of the world is possible. But it would not be the USA destroying the world.
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