The Nuking of Nagasaki: Even More Immoral and Unnecessary than Hiroshima

[LA RAM FAN]

We were in a no holds barred war. The invasion of Okinawa showed us that the coming invasion of homeland Japan would cause a half a million GI deaths and million or more wounded not counting the deaths of Japanese. The use of the two bombs to stop the war was the right thing for the time. Your Monday morning quarterbacking 74yrs after the fact shows your lack of knowledge of the war.

I take it you didn't bother to read any of the posts herein where I document Japan's prostrate condition? There was no need to invade Japan, nor to nuke Japan, to end the war.

We know from internal memos that even the War Department knew that the "half a million" estimate was a wild exaggeration. Even most of the few scholars who still defend Truman's nuking of Japan have admitted that the half-a-million figure was baseless.

Kyushu, with its open plains and much larger area, would have provided much greater room for maneuver than did Okinawa. On Okinawa, geography forced us to fight in narrow corridors and small areas. Of course, another major reason for our high casualties on Okinawa, as in the Philippines, was that we were foolish enough to attack entrenched positions in those narrow and small areas, instead of just cutting them off, hemming them in, and letting them die on the vine.

No, nuking two cites was not "the right thing to do." It was a war crime of gigantic proportions.

It is not "Monday morning quarterbacking" to point out that Truman did not need to nuke Japan. Dozens of people inside the government and in the Manhattan Project voiced opposition to nuking Japan before Truman did it. And within months of the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, voices from both conservative and liberal camps began to raise doubts about the necessity and morality of Truman's action. That's why Conant and other Truman-nuke defenders pressured Stimson into signing his name to the famous (infamous) defense of Truman's decision that they wrote for the February 1947 edition of Harper's Magazine.

Finally, many people don't realize that many of the first critics of Truman's nuking of Japan were conservatives:

American Conservatives Are the Forgotten Critics of the Atomic Bombing of Japan | Barton J. Bernstein

All these revision apologists never do take the time to read your op,they just go by what their corrupt school system taught them.

 

[Markle]

It is not "America hating" to realize the end of the war could have been much better handled.

 

[Unkotare]

... What are you some bleeding heart or just hate America?

If this is your response to any discussion of history, what the hell are you doing in the History forum?

 

[RetiredGySgt]

... What are you some bleeding heart or just hate America?

If this is your response to any discussion of history, what the hell are you doing in the History forum?

You are not discussing History, You are creating out of nothing a fake surrender. The Japanese Government never offered to surrender, they wanted a ceasefire and return to 41 start lines.

 

[gipper]

... What are you some bleeding heart or just hate America?

If this is your response to any discussion of history, what the hell are you doing in the History forum?

You are not discussing History, You are creating out of nothing a fake surrender. The Japanese Government never offered to surrender, they wanted a ceasefire and return to 41 start lines.

Wrong. Proven wrong a thousand times.

 

[Turtlesoup]

It is not "America hating" to realize the end of the war could have been much better handled.

Handled better?

Seriously you have no clue.

To have not bombed Japan would have meant a land war with our troops (the europeans after we saved them from Hitler mostly had no stomach for fighting the japanese after) having to go into their country where they were all ordered and willing to commit suicide and kill their own kids in order to kill our troops.

To have not dropped the bombs, would have meant a massive land war where millions more people would have died on both sides dear.

I am so sorry that so many don't understand this basic...........Dropping the bombs was the BEST CHOICE and the MOST HUMANE CHOICE for everyone.

 

[Englewood]

Our infantry division was scheduled to land below Tokyo when we invaded Japan. We believed it would be the worst slaughter of the war. The Japanese would fight for their homeland and we would fight to go home alive. By that time we had little compassion for the Japanese or their form of warfare, nor the way they used our prisoners.

 

[Silver Cat]

It is not "America hating" to realize the end of the war could have been much better handled.

Yes. For example, we could use three bombs instead of two.

 

[Silver Cat]

It is not "America hating" to realize the end of the war could have been much better handled.

Handled better?

Seriously you have no clue.

To have not bombed Japan would have meant a land war with our troops (the europeans after we saved them from Hitler mostly had no stomach for fighting the japanese after) having to go into their country where they were all ordered and willing to commit suicide and kill their own kids in order to kill our troops.

To have not dropped the bombs, would have meant a massive land war where millions more people would have died on both sides dear.

I am so sorry that so many don't understand this basic...........Dropping the bombs was the BEST CHOICE and the MOST HUMANE CHOICE for everyone.

Yes. And don't forget about the Soviets. They were fighting the Japans, they captured Sakhalin and Kuril islands. To have not dropped the bombs would have meant Hokkaido and Northern Honshu captured by Soviets, too.
And this would meant absolutely different scenarios of the further wars in Korea and Vietnam.

 

[the other mike]

Douchebag Wallace says it was necessary of course. His Lockheed and Raytheon Christmas bonuses just went up 6 figures .

 

[Unkotare]

...

To have not bombed Japan would have meant a land war with our troops (the europeans after we saved them from Hitler mostly had no stomach for fighting the japanese after) having to go into their country where they were all ordered and willing to commit suicide and kill their own kids in order to kill our troops.
...

Invasion was not the only other option, and the entire country was not about to commit suicide.

 

[eagle1462010]

Social Justice Warrior thread is still going ..........LOL

My father, Father n law, and many uncles fought against the Japs.................they were all ok with the atom bomb to end the War...............

Moral of the story..........don't start a fight with a country that will kick your ass after..............and then don't demand conditions when you lose.............

They could have unconditionally surrendered anytime..............they could have stopped executing prisoners.........and having contests of cutting off heads of prisoners before the atom bombs hit.

NO SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL.

 

[Turtlesoup]

...

To have not bombed Japan would have meant a land war with our troops (the europeans after we saved them from Hitler mostly had no stomach for fighting the japanese after) having to go into their country where they were all ordered and willing to commit suicide and kill their own kids in order to kill our troops.
...

Invasion was not the only other option, and the entire country was not about to commit suicide.

GROW UP and stop with the stupid spin....INVASION was the only other option. Unless you wanted a cease fire that would have certainly only meant that Japan would again pick up arms later on and go on the attack to seize more countries while continuing to abuse the ones that they already had.

Did you just really just claim that they wouldn't have been mass suicide to kill americans and the allies with a land war on Japans homeland? Did you really say this nonsense? You need to go pick up a history book about what the Japanese were doing at the time. They certainly were already committing suicides to wipe out americans and allies and would have certainly continued on killing millions more in a land war with japan on their homeland. HINT: the kamikazi weren't the only japanese committing suicide to kill others.

The Japanese saw their evil emperor as a god-----------and done anything that he wanted. And he wanted suicide killers and to defeat the rest of the world at any cost to everyone else including his own people---------dropping the bombs sent a clear message, that we would bomb Japan into submission and that the emperor who before the bombs felt perfectly safe had to come a sudden abrupt realization that the US would being dropping a bomb on him next...thusly giving him an incentative to end the war.

 

[Unkotare]

.......INVASION was the only other option. ....

No, it was not.

 

[Turtlesoup]

.......INVASION was the only other option. ....

No, it was not.

Oh I couldn't help but notice that you haven't listed any other options so I have to ask What in the world do you think the other choices were?

 

[Unkotare]

... They certainly were already committing suicides to wipe out americans and allies and would have certainly continued on killing millions more in a land war with japan on their homeland. ...

Again, invasion was not the only other option, and you seem to be another comic book anthropologist.

 

[Unkotare]

.......INVASION was the only other option. ....

No, it was not.

Oh I couldn't help but notice that you haven't listed any other options so I have to ask What in the world do you think the other choices were?

The Japanese military was already decimated by 1945. Tokkotai attacks increased in direct proportion to the rapid decline in trained, skilled pilots like the ones the air force had at the outset of the war. The population had become disgruntled and was facing mass starvation. This whole "not one person in the whole country would ever surrender!" is childishly simplistic comic book nonsense and demonstrates a cultural ignorance that is only relied upon to support a preconceived narrative. A naval blockade of Honshu would have forced the surrender that elements within the government had been trying to negotiate since long before.

 

[Unkotare]

... And he wanted suicide killers and to defeat the rest of the world at any cost to everyone else including his own people---------dropping the bombs sent a clear message, that we would bomb Japan into submission and that the emperor who before the bombs felt perfectly safe had to come a sudden abrupt realization that the US would being dropping a bomb on him next...thusly giving him an incentative to end the war.

This kind of nonsense demonstrates very clearly how ignorant you really are of the time and the people involved on all sides.

 

[Turtlesoup]

... They certainly were already committing suicides to wipe out americans and allies and would have certainly continued on killing millions more in a land war with japan on their homeland. ...

Again, invasion was not the only other option, and you seem to be another comic book anthropologist.

Ahhhh....an insult in hopes of misdirecting? This is your response?

I asked a point blank question---what other options do you think that there were after you have repeatedly have claimed that there were and several have told you that there weren't.

Your response has failed to mislead---it clearly shows that you know of no other options for the US because simply there was none. The US's bombing of the evil Japanese then was necessarily and the most humane thing to do for everyone despite the anti americans so desperately wanting to spin it as somehow evil of the US to end the war concisely saving millions more lives after we were attacked.

My grandfather and his brothers were also in this war--------- they all made it back alive although haunted by nightmares of what they had seen. My poor grandfather was a point for the army-------in Germany and surrounding areas. To have done a land war with Japan would have certainly meant that they would not have made it home alive. My grandfather was a wonderful man as were his brothers---they all did good their entire lives. Dropping the bombs saved them from being sent to Japan to die--------the US did the right thing and dropped the bombs on the evil Japanese saving millions of lives on both sides, but yet we keep having these goofy american haters trying to spin nonsense about how evil the US was. The US wasn't the bad guys---they were definately the GOOD guys by far and away------------idiots hating on the US for doing the right thing is what is bad.

 

[Unkotare]

...

NO SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL.

Be careful about casting that stone.

Trophies of War: U.S. Troops and the Mutilation of Japanese War Dead, 1941-1945 on JSTOR

James J. Weingartner, Trophies of War: U.S. Troops and the Mutilation of Japanese War Dead, 1941-1945, Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Feb., 1992), pp. 53-67

www.jstor.org