Pat Buchanan: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Christian Morality

RealClearPolitics.com ^ | August 10, 2005 | Pat Buchanan

[atomicpossum]

Pat is overlooking the toll that refusal to surrender would have produced for the Japanese population itself...by all accounts, each and every Japanese citizen, man, woman, or child, was expected by their military leaders to fight to the death. The death toll may have been half a million to the US, but it would have been far more vast for the Japanese themselves, and far greater than the numbers killed by the bombs. To defeat the monumentally brutal Japanese military machine completely was absolutely crucial, or it could arise again in time and endanger the entire region as it had in the past.

[rcocean]

A little disappointed in this article by Pat. Had we invaded Japan we would killed more civilians than ever died by the A-bombs.

Even after the A-bombs and Russia's entry into the war, the military in Japan still wanted to fight. Its only because of the unheard of intervention of Hirohito that Japan surrendered.

BTW, If we could dropped a couple A-bombs on Nazi Germany in September 1944, it was ended the war and saved hundreds of thousands of Allied, Russian, and German lives.

[sharkhawk]

Pat is getting close to finally becoming so far right, he has reached the left.

[rcocean]

A little disappointed in this article by Pat. Had we invaded Japan we would killed more civilians than ever died by the A-bombs.

Even after the A-bombs and Russia's entry into the war, the military in Japan still wanted to fight. Its only because of the unheard of intervention of Hirohito that Japan surrendered.

BTW, If we could dropped a couple A-bombs on Nazi Germany in September 1944, it was ended the war and saved hundreds of thousands of Allied, Russian, and German lives.

[Pharmboy]

That happened a while ago. Here's the evidence:

[Firefigher NC]

"Pat is getting close to finally becoming so far right, he has reached the left."

I didn't think that was possible, but I believe you're right.

[LRS]

But with Japan naked to our B-29s, her surface navy at the bottom of the Pacific, the home islands blockaded, what was the need to invade at all? On his island-hopping campaign back to the Philippines, MacArthur routinely bypassed Japanese strongholds like Rabaul, cut them off and left them to "rot on the vine."

So, what is Pat suggesting? That we should have let the citizens of Japan "rot on the vine"? Would a slow death been nicer than the quick they got?????

[bayourod]

He probably thinks he's coming to the aid of his Presidential candidate Tancredo.

[Pittsburg Phil]

Pat's gone.

[magslinger]

But if terrorism is the massacre of innocents to break the will of rulers, were not Hiroshima and Nagasaki terrorism on a colossal scale?

Someone blowing up your house is terrorism. Blowing up someone who wants to blow up your house isn't. His hiding behind his wife and kids does not change anything. If I sound hard hearted, so be it, but I choose us over them every time, today as well as 60 years ago.

And I won't even get into his casualty estimates being off by a couple of orders of magnitude.

[LRS]

Would a slow death been nicer than the quick ONE they got?????

[investigateworld]

Truman did many things wrong IMHO, but this is not one of them. By his "coddling" of the Japanese war criminals, he set the stage for future mistreatment of American POW's in Asian wars.

[spanalot]

Surprised to see that more were killed in Dresden than with the nuke.

There were many that said that a demonstration of the nukes on non populated areas would have had the same effect.

Lemay was Goldwater's running mate - he was made to be a neanderthal and surprising to see his thoughts on Truman.

[T'wit]

Morality depends on what you do to people, not the weapons you use. There is nothing mystical about nukes, they are just one more weapon. Firebombing killed more people in Tokyo and in several German cities than the A-Bombs. For that matter, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in Cambodia battered or stabbed more people to death with sticks and bayonets.

[COEXERJ145]

Go Pat, Go Straight to Hell!

[Once-Ler]

Go Pat, Go Straight to Hell!

Speaking of raving nutters, I heard Michael Savage call himself the "Last American Prophet" tonight. If you haven't listened to him lately you should try and catch his show. His dementia and martyr complex are consuming the whole program. You can even hear the spittle dripping of the microphone at times.

[359Henrie]

I'm alive because my dad is alive

[Finalapproach29er]

If we had waited, the Russians would have taken even more of Japan just like we let em take too much of Germany.

We did Japan a backhanded favor. The Ruskies would have never give Japan the land back. IMO

[Finalapproach29er]

As we are seeing now, Christianity and war don't mix.