Bombs dropped on Japan saved millions of lives

[Into the Night]

You might want to note the difference between genocide and a crime against humanity (although neither term applies to our use of the A-bombs).



Those were wartime strikes against military targets.



The World Trade Center was a crime against humanity. Civilians were directly targeted.

...and used civilians as the bombs.

[Into the Night]

Wouldn't it be better to bomb two military bases?

Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were military bases. Both cities were also manufacturing supplies for the Japanese war machine.

[AProudLefty]

Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were military bases.

I'll need sources for that.

[Charoite]

You might want to note the difference between genocide and a crime against humanity (although neither term applies to our use of the A-bombs).



Those were wartime strikes against military targets.



The World Trade Center was a crime against humanity. Civilians were directly targeted.

Complain to the dictionary if you don't like the definition of genocide.

A civilian city is not a military target just because it has military installations. It's like taking out Norfolk just to get the Naval yard.

A use of such a weapon was a crime against humanity as well no matter the reasoning. Flexing such destructive capability is evil despite what we suffered at Pearl Harbor. It was beyond an eye for an eye. It was more like an eye for a life. As a Christian, it's impossible not to be sickened by these ravings of an atrocity as just or even heroic. Whatever I'm done talking about it.

[Earl]

"In June 1945, after eighty days of fighting and tens of thousands of casualties, the Americans captured the island of Okinawa. The mainland of Japan was open before them. It was a viable base from which to launch a full invasion of the Japanese homeland and end the war.

Estimates varied, but given the tenacity of Japanese soldiers fighting on islands far from their home, some officials estimated that an invasion of the Japanese mainland could cost half a million American casualties and perhaps millions of Japanese civilians."
http://www.americanyawp.com/text/24-world-war-ii/

[Earl]

If Norfolk ever sneak attacks America and murders thousands of Americans, they will be treated similarly.

[cancel2 2022]

Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were military bases. Both cities were also manufacturing supplies for the Japanese war machine.

The US had already bombed 60 Japanese cities, there wasn't much left!

[ThatOwlWoman]

That's actually very debatable. I don't like what we did, but I think it's necessary. But like I said, it's debatable.

As I mentioned in another discussion about the A-bombs, my dad worked on a part of the Manhattan Project. He suffered a lot of guilt because of it, yet to the end he said that he felt it was necessary to use them, given the circumstances. I'm grateful that no one has since used one.

[Earl]

It appears that MAD has been successful.

1962
“In 1962, the concept of mutually assured destruction started to play a major part in the defence policy of the US. President Kennedy's Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, set out in a speech to the American Bar Foundation a theory of flexible nuclear response. In essence it meant stockpiling a huge nuclear arsenal.Feb 15, 2012“
Wikipedia.com

[AProudLefty]

As I mentioned in another discussion about the A-bombs, my dad worked on a part of the Manhattan Project. He suffered a lot of guilt because of it, yet to the end he said that he felt it was necessary to use them, given the circumstances. I'm grateful that no one has since used one.

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" - Oppenheimer said that once. I cannot imagine how he must have felt.

[Earl]

“In June 1945, after eighty days of fighting and tens of thousands of casualties, the Americans captured the island of Okinawa. The mainland of Japan was open before them. It was a viable base from which to launch a full invasion of the Japanese homeland and end the war.

Estimates varied, but given the tenacity of Japanese soldiers fighting on islands far from their home, some officials estimated that an invasion of the Japanese mainland could cost half a million American casualties and perhaps millions of Japanese civilians."
http://www.americanyawp.com/text/24-world-war-ii/

[Trumpet]

“In June 1945, after eighty days of fighting and tens of thousands of casualties, the Americans captured the island of Okinawa. The mainland of Japan was open before them. It was a viable base from which to launch a full invasion of the Japanese homeland and end the war.

Estimates varied, but given the tenacity of Japanese soldiers fighting on islands far from their home, some officials estimated that an invasion of the Japanese mainland could cost half a million American casualties and perhaps millions of Japanese civilians."
http://www.americanyawp.com/text/24-world-war-ii/

Earl, this was not a pleasant even for our parents generation.

[Earl]

Earl, this was not a pleasant even for our parents generation.

I don’t believe that I have posted that it was pleasant, Trumper.

Read, then post.

“Bombs dropped on Japan saved millions of lives.”

Millions of American and Japanese lives.

It was a world war, Trumper and the outcome was in doubt until the atomic bomb.

[ThatOwlWoman]

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" - Oppenheimer said that once. I cannot imagine how he must have felt.

Indeed.

[ExpressLane]

My father was in thePacific in WWII and his company was preparing for the eventual attack on Japan when the bomb was dropped. The bomb undoubtedly saved American lives. Japan could have surrendered after the first Nuke but we had to use a second. A ground fight would have cost many more lives on both sides.