Even if the first bomb might have been necessary to put a quick end to the war and save countless more lives, a sane person does not take delight in seeing the results of that destruction.
My father fought against the Japanese in World War II combat. He was up close and personal on a naval landing craft which brought supplies into the combat zones and took the dead and wounded out.
He could have chosen to hate the Japanese. Instead, during the brief few months when he served in the occupation after the war ended, he gained a deep respect for them,
My uncle flew past Nagasaki a day or two after the bombing there and said he immediately knew the war would be over very soon as there was “nothing left”. He also spent time in Shanghai before his ETS. He did not have a favorable opinion of the Japanese war machine.
He bought his first foreign made car in the early 80s, a Japanese model. I said to him, I am surprised you bought an enemy made car. He said, well, the war has been over for almost 40 years, time to move on, besides I hate the UAW more.
My dad fought too! I don’t care about what they experienced. It ended the war. Any current handwringing over the ‘tragedy’ is just that. That entire country was for the Emporer lock-stock-and-barrel and willing to die, even with bamboo swords if need be ———CHILDREN!
Take that tripe somewhere else.
A very good book on the subject of whether we should have dropped the bombs is Richard Frank’s “Downfall; The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire.” He leaves no doubt that not only was dropping the bombs necessary to end the war, but that it was necessary to drop two of them to prove to the Japanese that we could drop as many as we wanted. This finally convinced their military leadership to end the war. Also, as you noted, the bombs saved lives. Japanese lives, and probably millions of them. Not from combat death, but from starvation. The air and naval blockade, along with the destruction of the internal trade links, meant that not only was there not enough food for the population, there was no means of distributing it. The Japanese were already on starvation rations in the summer of 1945. The winter would have been far worse, and would have claimed the old, the very young, and those in poor health. Think of Leningrad, but on a national scale.
No one should take joy in nuclear destruction. But it was war, and as General Sherman said: “War is hell.”
Final comment. Google February 13, 1945.....
Tell the men on the Arizona how sick it made you, but you’re gonna have to talk kinda loud. They can’t hear to good under all that water.
The Japanese were our Grandparents “Muslims”. The entire Country stood behind their Emperor, and would have loved to have “killed” America.
My great Uncle was a Pearl, and the Japanese will get no sympathy from me for being bombed.