Was it “justified” the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
When a soldier or warrior goes to war, they are fully aware of the risks involved yet most of the time it is their choice. Most of the non-combatants in both Japanese cities did not make the concious choice to be involved. Just look at how our governments go to war despite gross public objection in these days. I would feel that in a similiar manner the innocents who died in those bombings to save a few more soldiers on either side got the muddy end of the stick, most of them not wanting to be part of the war in the first place. Do you really think that the bombs would have stopped the war had they been deployed in 1941? It was not in my opinion justified by any means. Saddly a lot of things man does aren’t even when they think they are. We can be so easily brainwashed to thinking that murder is justified, weather it is to blow ourselves up in the name of religion or dropping the largest bomb known to mankind at the time into a civilian populated area to end a already ending war. The on
In my mind and heart such a thing can never be justified and I mean NEVER! Major General “Colonel” Billy Mitchell warned the Armed Forces, during his detestable Court Martial that we would one day be attacked at Pearl Harbor…and by air! They laughed and actually called this learned man a fool for having the foresight they didn’t! We got caught with our pants down around our ankles on that fateful Sunday morning in 1941. It incensed the powers that were to such a degree that the U.S.A. finally declared war on Japan. Prior to that, despite the cries of Jews, refugees from other nations and the information the U.S. had on Germany, F.D.R. wanted nothing to do with the war in Europe. In the end, and because they could not defeat the Japanese by any usual means in war-time, the U.S.A. dropped the bombs that would “GO DOWN IN INFAMY” as the most perverted and cowardly act this nation has ever perpetrated on people of another country. Not only did they murder and grotesquely disfigure the pe
well I agree with you that dropping an atomic bomb on a city is flat out irresponsible. Buuut the atomic bombs weren’t nearly as bad as the firebombing campaign we did there. People don’t remember that… look how many people died. One of the most horrific events in the history of mankind (est. 500,000 deaths and 5 million homeless…. that’s 9/11 x 150) that’s not including the atom bombs. Then on top of that we dropped a couple atom bombs… Actually if you look at history the Japanese were ready to surrender when we dropped the second one and we dropped it anyway. Pretty barbaric. Also to everyone that said oh we warned them… listen look at the link I provided… we destroyed 67 japanese cities… we leveled tokyo. Imagine if a foreign county leveled NYC. We’re not talking losing the WTC we’re talking the entire city. Would you care if they had warned you before they did it? Just look at Katrina the residents of New Orleans new that was coming a few days before and many couldn’t l
One lesson in history says we must not measure the past using the yardstick of the present. The American military authorities who ordered the atomic bombing on both Hiroshima and the Japanese militarists who insisted on fighting on until death did what they thought was best. To understand both sides of the equation, we need to read the prevailing mood of the time and this can be done by archival research. The Americans were both tired of war and convinced they had to carry on till the end. The Japanese thought it the most honorable thing to do resist till the end, in fact they created the kamikaze at the time and trained both women and children in hand to hand combat and – to give them concrete examples – reminding them what thousands of their their brave countrymen did when the Allies captured Saipan and Okinawa -jump off cliffs in mass suicides. Even if the Americans did not bomb to oblivion 150,000 people in two Japanese cities and the war dragged on until 1946, the Japanese people
