[fwdude]

Without using the bomb, Japan would just be another Iraq and Afghanistan.

[nascarnation]

For sure.
Just finished Gen Curtis LeMay’s book about the B-29s.
Highly recommended.

[dirtboy]

My grandfather survived the kamikaze attack on the Bunker Hill during Okinawa. Hundreds of his shipmates did not. Because of the A-bomb, the Bunker Hill never had to return to combat duty for the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. In other words, he quite possibly could have been killed otherwise.

Screw the peacenik revisionists.

[AzSteven]

but as we know from his past works, facts seem to get in the way of his agenda.

Incorrect - Oliver Stone has never let a mere fact stand in the way of his agenda. He sidesteps them or bulls them over, ignoring them completely.

[Resolute Conservative]

You win wars by not only destroying your opponents war machine but also its will to fight. That will to fight is just not in its armies but also it population that backs that machine. Too bad we don’t have any leaders that are willing to take that will from our current enemies but wants to take that will from their own people.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

My dad served with Patton’s Third Army. Upon the surrender of the Germans, he was sent back to the US for more training.

Next stop, the INVASION OF JAPAN! He was Not looking forward to it.

When word of the nukes came everyone in his army base were relieved as they knew the war was over and there would be no need for an invasion.

How many US Army personel would have to die in an invasion of Japan to make a Leftist feel good about not using the bombs?

[campaignPete R-CT]

the American way: we were not attempting to militarily defeat Japan, but rather, occupation and overthrow.

I dissent.

[bubbacluck]

If I remember my history correctly, the firebombings of Japanese cities killed more people and did more destruction than the A bombs. I could be wrong, though.

War is hell.

[anoldafvet]

I notice Yahoo has made no mention of this event.

[buffaloguy]

Before he made the decision to drop the bombs he was handed a note with the expected casualties for an invasion of Japan:

6,000,000 Japanese
2,000,000 American

The decision was good.

[faucetman]

Japan isn’t mad at us, in fact they are a strong ally.

[thesharkboy]

Those bombs saved hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides. The Japanese are at fault, first for starting the war, and second, for not surrendering after the first bomb. The scientists and engineers who built the bombs are heroes. Germany and Japan wouldn’t have hesitated to use atomic bombs, and they would have developed them if the war had gone on many more years.

[puppypusher]

Operations Olympic and Coronet,the invasion of the Japanese Mainland would have cost the lives of Hundreads of thousands of. American Troops and many more. Wounded.

Thank God those bombs were developed at that time and thank Boeing for. building the only plane that could have carried it,the B-29 Superfortress.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation." -
Para 81, Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

[dfwgator]

Thank God for the Bomb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYko9DsluBE

[LS]

Col. Paul Tibbets lived up the road in Columbus, OH until his death a few years ago. In 1985 he was asked to do an interview with Time. He said, quote, "My crew didn't have the slightest emotional or psychological problem with what we did. If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to drop that bomb."

Commander Fuchida, who led the Pearl Harbor attack, later converted to Christianity and visited Tibbets. He told Tibbets he did the right thing, and that the Japanese were fanatical and an invasion would have cost millions of lives.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Having had the honor of meeting the late General Paul Tibbets, the man was a straight-up hero.

Numerous and multiple sources on the Japanese side have indicated that without the atomic weapon, they would not, and possibly could not, have stopped fighting until the country was completely conquered.

[faucetman]

A nuclear bomb is NOT the end of the world. The bombs SAVED something like 8,000,000 lives. It was a GOOD thing. Remember, we didn’t start that fight, but we sure finished it.

http://www.timepass69.com/start4-s1113/hiroshima-and-nagasaki-today

[BluH2o]

Paul Tibbits, who was commander of the Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima to his dying day (at age 92) never had any regrets about his mission. His response was always the point made by many here, dropping the atomic bomb shortened the war with Japan considerably, saving hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides.
Had the privilege of meeting and speaking briefly with Paul Tibbits at a book signing at an air show @ Lunken Field in Cincinnati. Back in the 1930's Tibbits took flying lessons (as a civilian) at this same airport. He later joined the Army Air Corps.

[Terry L Smith]

Throughout military history, it seems the Romans came up with a foolproof idea:
1. Conquer your opponents.
2. Dissemble the city, stone by stone.
3. Salt the fields arounds the dissembled city.
4. Disperse the conquered survivors throughout the realm.
5. Label it, “Pax Carthagia”.