Originally posted by: dexvx
A lot of you guys need to take some history courses...
Its true that there were 57 million killed in WWII (primarily Soviet Union/China), I guess that the reason the a-bomb was so blown up in porportion was because a lot of people died instantly to one bomb. It also brought the end to large scale conventional warfare, because with nations all having a-bombs, war will be totally different. That is why it is different. The reason Japanese people dont acknowledge their atrocities is because of this pacifist attitude that they carry (responsible by the US's Japan restructuring) by forgetting about their military past. Conveniantly, they also forget about their military atrocities.
How are they "Innocent"?? did the japanese civilians NOT support the war? Were the Japanese civilians COMPLETELY OBLIVIOUS to the ATROCITIES commited by Japanese soldiers during and Just before the war??
Yes most of them ere oblivious until post war, just like Nazi Germany's holocaust. What you are saying basically says that its OK to kill people as long as they belong to the enemy government.
JL, I wouldn't support killing a couple of hunderdd civilians let alone a couple of hundered thousand enemy civilians unless it would save American lives. They attacked us and they didn't indicate they were going to surrender. In fact they indicated just the oppossite.
While everyone wants to save Allied lives, I dont think you should take it to the far extreme. I dont think its right to kill thousands of enemy civilians in order to save a few dozen Allied lives (I know it'll be far more difficult if I knew I was had the chance to be one of those Allied lives). Go read any proper history book and you'll find that Japan's war council was talking surrender (secretly) starting early 1945 when it was obvious they were going to lose. Their only clause for surrender would be that the emperor remain in tact. The US refused to grant that ammendment, and Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally only after the a-bombs. The irony is that the US kept the emperor in tact anyways post war.
Frankly, I dont think how anyone can justify Nagasaki. It was 3 days after Hiroshima, basically not enough time to even know what was going on. It would take more than 3 days for senior government officials to go to Hiroshima and look at the wreckage and report back. The original plan called for dropping one every 2-3 weeks until surrender, but I believe the 2nd one was sped up due to bad weather. 2-3 weeks is breathing room to repond, 3 days is not.
And technically Japan didnt surrender until... I think 1988, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was like that because the a-bomb differed the Soviet Union and the United states so much that Stalin refused to accept any peace accords. Instead of making Stalin cowering in a little corner of Siberia, Stalin was more ruthless in dealing with the Western Allies after the a-bomb.