No it wasn’t.
Is it that time of year already?
Even after the START and the new START(2010), we still have 5000 nuclear warheads. The warheads and the delivery systems can get expensive to maintain.
The myth continues.
I would have been extremely hesitant to bomb civilians even if the Japanese and Germans deserved it. If there was any other way to use the bomb, say on military targets, that is what President Yarddog would have done.
Unfortunately dropping them on cities was probably the only option.
At a Catholic University 40 years ago I had a radical Iranian scumbag professor teaching that we dropped the bomb on the Japanese because they are a yellow people and we didn’t use it on the Germans because they are white.
When I told him the bomb was built to use on Germany he said this was a viewpoint that would only be believed “By reactionaries such as rednecks living in the Southern United States ... or Henry Kissinger!”
Such is the hatred and poison of the left and other assorted scumbag enemies of freedom.
It’s sad that to anyone who cares about history, every fact in this article is common knowledge. Yet it needs to be written for the idiots who think polar bears are endangered.
The best book I’ve read on this is Richard Frank’s “Downfall: The End Of The Imperial Japanese Empire.” He wrote the book to specifically refute the revisionist theories popular among leftist academicians that it was not necessary to drop the bombs. It is a masterful work that logically destroys every argument against the use of the bombs, based not only on what we knew then but also on what we know now. An historical tragedy, but also absolutely necessary. The bombs saved lives; literally millions of them.
And don’t forget; we didn’t start this war.
He was in the Panama Canal area when the war ended. Bomb probably saved his life.
A couple of years ago, liberal comedian/commentator Jon Stewart discussed this on his show. And he said we should not have bombed Japan.
He said we should have provided the Japanese with a demonstration of the power of the bomb by dropping one off shore. Then, warn them that the next one was to be dropped on them if they didn’t surrender.
Over the years, various people have said it was some sort of crime against humanity, to have used an atomic bomb.
Hindsight is always 20/20 of course.
My unanswered questions to those who think we should not have bombed Japan, revolved around the questions of how many more lives on both sides would have been lost, if we had to launch a conventional invasion of the Japanese islands. My questions are: is it better to kill many more people, including Japanese civilians, through conventional means, rather than inducing them to surrender by the use of the atomic bombs? Never heard a coherent answer to such questions.
Would the Japs or the Krauts have hesitated to use the bomb on us if they had gotten it first?
Obviously not.
RIP Major Theodore Van Kirk
A true American Hero
The left wanted this nation to be spent after the war. Chaos presents opportunities to seize power.
I am not opposed to dropping nukes into several ME “cities” to end the conflict at once. Of course, new conflicts will again arise, but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of working condition nukes. Why waste tax payer money in researching, building, and maintaining them, when they are not used from time to time?
Over 100,000 people burned alive. Pictures of Tokyo on March 6 look just like pictures of Hiroshima on August 8.
Only 3% of the bomb damage to Japan was caused by Fat Man and Little Boy. Martin Caiden's book A Torch to the Enemy is a must read for any WWII historian.
In college I worked on the paint crew with an older gentleman who fought in the Pacific and was training for the invasion when japan surrendered. He wasn’t religious but said he said a prayer every year at Thanksgiving thanking God for the atomic bomb. Not just because he and all his buddies knew they’d be killed in the invasion, he was thankful he was spared having to kill the women and children they knew would be sent out against them.
Made in America!Tested in Japan.Thank God it worked. My dad was training for the invasion of Japan. He might have been killed which would negate my existance, my two sons existance, and my two grandsons existance.War is Hell!Guess God was on our side!
I was privileged to meet”Dutch”at a West Springfield,MASS Gun Show.He sigen a copy of the book:”The 509th Remembered”for me.For those of you who aren’t aware of”The 509th”,it was a “Specially Trained/Bombardment Group”in WWII.They were trained to deliver the Atomic Bombs.He was a humble(almost self-effacing)man.While he decried The Atom Bomb,he insisted that if there was to be a weapon like this,it’s a Damned Good Thing We(The United Sates of America)were the Only ones to have it!!!GOD Bless you”Dutch”!ThankYou for Your Service!!!
An excellent article. In light of the circumstances dropping the bombs was the most compassionate thing to do for all involved.
If a similar debate ever arises I offer a practical solution. Ask everybody in the country the question. Draft those who give the anti-Truman answer, using the age/gender limits the Japanese historically followed in their home island defense preparations. Use them as your invasion force. If/when they fail you may try the Truman option. The eventual winners will be better for the process.
Mass murder is never right. Just BC we were in the winning side is not an excuse for not holding war crimes.