should the u s of a have dropped the nuclear bombs on japan

[Don Quixote]

i say yes - for more than it brought the end of the war in the pacific

it has given the world an example of just what a nuclear bomb can do

one bomb, one destroyed city with nuclear residue as a bonus

at that time we did not know enough about nuclear weapons and their effect - it is well for the world that we all found out - so as to be very reluctant to use another nuclear bomb

with the bonus of ending the pacific war

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an act of terrorism.

 

[Cancel 2018. 3]

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an act of terrorism.

and the bombing of pearl harbor was an act of freedom....

 

[Onceler]

Civilians should always be off limits during a war.

 

[Don Quixote]

Civilians should always be off limits during a war.

the key word is 'should', somehow it just does not happen

however, i agree, civilians should not be part of the war even though their government is - is this a contradiction?

 

[Don Quixote]

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an act of terrorism.

precisely, an act of pure terror, look at what we can do to you if you do not stop fighting...actually, we only had the two bombs and it would have taken a while until we could have built any more...fortunately, they surrendered

ps there was an element that almost took over the government (and the emperor) that wanted to continue the war even if we had attacked with more nuclear bombs - their attitude was it would be better to die fighting than surrender and be disgraced

 

[christiefan915]

i say yes - for more than it brought the end of the war in the pacific

it has given the world an example of just what a nuclear bomb can do

one bomb, one destroyed city with nuclear residue as a bonus

at that time we did not know enough about nuclear weapons and their effect - it is well for the world that we all found out - so as to be very reluctant to use another nuclear bomb

with the bonus of ending the pacific war

The power of a nuclear bomb was demonstrated at Alamogordo. I think people could have extrapolated that to what would occur if it was dropped on a population.

Two bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man. Nagasaki wasn't as damaged as Hiroshima but damage was still extensive.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an act of terrorism.

No, it was a ruthless act of terrorism. It also ended the war.

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

No, it was a ruthless act of terrorism. It also ended the war.

Ask the Chinese at Nanking to describe terrorism for you.

I suppose the bombs dropping could be labeled as terrorism as it sure as hell scared them into surrendering. But I think you are stretching to call it such. There is a difference between using terror to try and take over a country (see Nanking) and using a terrifying weapon in order to end a war. Especially when the use of said weapon likely saved millions of lives on both sides.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Ask the Chinese at Nanking to describe terrorism for you.

I suppose the bombs dropping could be labeled as terrorism as it sure as hell scared them into surrendering. But I think you are stretching to call it such. There is a difference between using terror to try and take over a country (see Nanking) and using a terrifying weapon in order to end a war. Especially when the use of said weapon likely saved millions of lives on both sides.

I wasn't being critical of the decision to drop the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Lot's of ruthless decisions were made in that war that involved killing civilians. The fire bombings of Dresdan, Hamburg and Tokyo come to mind (more people died in the fire bombings of Tokyo then in Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined). I in fact support that decision. A friend of my family (now deceased) was a Marine on a ship off the coast of Okinawa when the bombings were announced. He had considered himself a dead man at that time knowing he was going to be on the intial Japanease invasion force. There's no telling how many American servicemen would have died invading Japan but given the Japanese history, it would have been a huge number.

 

[Don Quixote]

The power of a nuclear bomb was demonstrated at Alamogordo. I think people could have extrapolated that to what would occur if it was dropped on a population.

Two bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man. Nagasaki wasn't as damaged as Hiroshima but damage was still extensive.

my point was that regardless of whether we used one or two bombs, the power of a nuclear weapon was demonstrated for all time

hopefully the world will never forget

also, i hope that some fanatic does not get their hands on a nuclear weapon and use it...or maybe we need another lesson...

ps you forgot to mention the radiological aftermath and its effect on the survivors

 

[Minister of Truth]

The power of a nuclear bomb was demonstrated at Alamogordo. I think people could have extrapolated that to what would occur if it was dropped on a population.

Two bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man. Nagasaki wasn't as damaged as Hiroshima but damage was still extensive.

BTW, Christie, I was glancing at a great conservative thinker named Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, and he personally thought the atomic bombings were wrong. He also had a huge issue with Churchill for Dresden. Interesting stuff, actually.

 

[USFREEDOM911]

The power of a nuclear bomb was demonstrated at Alamogordo. I think people could have extrapolated that to what would occur if it was dropped on a population.

Two bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man. Nagasaki wasn't as damaged as Hiroshima but damage was still extensive.

Since the knowledge was out there, then maybe the Japanese Government should have manned up and surrendered, instead of making the war continue.

 

[USFREEDOM911]

I wasn't being critical of the decision to drop the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Lot's of ruthless decisions were made in that war that involved killing civilians. The fire bombings of Dresdan, Hamburg and Tokyo come to mind (more people died in the fire bombings of Tokyo then in Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined). I in fact support that decision. A friend of my family (now deceased) was a Marine on a ship off the coast of Okinawa when the bombings were announced. He had considered himself a dead man at that time knowing he was going to be on the intial Japanease invasion force. There's no telling how many American servicemen would have died invading Japan but given the Japanese history, it would have been a huge number.

There is a high probablity that if the US had invaded Japan, to bring the war to an end, that the entire Japanese culture would have gone the way of the Mayan's and the Aztec's.
The Japanese Government was planning on having the populace fight, with rocks and sticks if necessary, to the last man.
On some of the other Japanese held islands; women through themselves off cliffs, while holding their children, because they had been told that the American soldiers would rape and slaughter them and that they would also then kill all the children.
Since this is what the Japanese did when they invaded China, I guess it wasn't such a stretch for them to think that others would act like this also.

 

[Billy the Great Khan]

It was one of the very rare cases where the lesser of two evils was to be chosen. It also had a benefit of shocking the Soviets into pacification (they intended to kick things off with Europe as soon as we finished off Japan).

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

It was one of the very rare cases where the lesser of two evils was to be chosen. It also had a benefit of shocking the Soviets into pacification (they intended to kick things off with Europe as soon as we finished off Japan).

The Communist party was actually very close to staging a coupe and taking over France. This actually probably would have been very popular; the Communists were regarded as heroes because of how they resisted the Nazi occupation. The Communist party controls a lot of towns in France to this day because they liberated them in WWII.

 

[Billy the Great Khan]

The Communist party was actually very close to staging a coupe and taking over France. This actually probably would have been very popular; the Communists were regarded as heroes because of how they resisted the Nazi occupation. The Communist party controls a lot of towns in France to this day because they liberated them in WWII.

Exactly. Also it explains why the Soviets were so hell bent on helping us with a Japanese invasion. It would both cripple us and put us in a position to do nothing when they attacked Europe.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Since the knowledge was out there, then maybe the Japanese Government should have manned up and surrendered, instead of making the war continue.

The Japanese had a ridiculous rule that required unanimous consent in cabinet to surrender (I suppose this is because Japanese culture considers surrender so humiliating). By the end of the war everyone was voting for surrender besides three military idiots.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Exactly. Also it explains why the Soviets were so hell bent on helping us with a Japanese invasion. It would both cripple us and put us in a position to do nothing when they attacked Europe.

Well the Communists were going to stage a coupe but Stalin told them not to. Since he basically staged coupes in so many eastern european nations it does seem to be a weird decision. I suppose that France simply would've been a huge psychological loss to the west and may very well have provoked a war to take it back.

 

[Billy the Great Khan]

Well the Communists were going to stage a coupe but Stalin told them not to. Since he basically staged coupes in so many eastern european nations it does seem to be a weird decision. I suppose that France simply would've been a huge psychological loss to the west and may very well have provoked a war to take it back.

It was different because they had physically pushed through all those eastern European countries. They had not pushed into France and any attempt to do so would have met heavy resistance. They wanted the most powerful Ally left (us) be be as effectively crippled as the rest of Europe. A Japanese mainland invasion would have required anywhere between 800,000-1,000,000 American troops, and equal amounts of supplies.