Posted on 12/27/2014 6:33:18 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
I get tired of hyperbole that says “never before” “only”...
Nobody feels sorry for what happened to Germany because of WWII. But due to the A-blasts, many people somehow feel Japan was wronged by the Allies. The Japanese were about as bad as the Germans concerning atrocities. It wasn't just Allied POWs who were subjected to brutal conditions...the Japanese murdered millions of civilians in China and other Asian countries.
Even before the world war started, Japan had invaded China and started merciless treatment of civilians. Many millions of Chinese civilians were killed by the Japanese. Maybe a million or more in other Asian countries.
So no tears here for the Japanese who were killed in Allied bombing raids. Sorry. Like Germany, they reaped the whirlwind.
IMHO, Stephen Hunter is the only one worth a damn.
Hitler thought the Japanese were being unnecessarily cruel to the Chinese.
You are a troll. I watched the movie. There was nothing bizarre except the actual events which must be used to tell the story. The boredom of being on a raft for 45 days must have been excruciating. But instead of feeling that, and empathizing with the characters, you think it’s a flaw of moviemaking that must be relayed immediately. Huh? Why are you here? There can only be one reason; to keep people from seeing the film. If the film was bizarre, or inaccurate, or poorly made, then your comments might make sense. However, since it is none of these things your presence here suggests an alterior motive. A boring movie does not motivate anyone to say anything but... Hey, it’s boring.
***Japanese behavior during WWII tends to raise my blood pressure**
Especially since the US government gave up looking for Japanese war criminals a few years after the war, but will still compass land and sea to root out an aged Nazi prison guard.
ping for later viewing.
We had already established air superiority over Japan. Here's a thought: we should have just saturated Japan with conventional bombing runs. Just bomb them back into the stone age. But not drop the nukes yet.
Then, at the close of the war, when Stalin demanded Russia take possession of Poland, etc, we say "no." Flat out. And when Stalin started massing troops to enslave Poland, etc, then we drop nukes on Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc.
Talk about saving millions of lives. Stalin killed more than Hitler ever dreamed of. And Stalin was our ally.
Please read “Downfall” by Richard Frank, it details the last six months or so of the battle against Japan.
It goes into detail about the planning for the invasion of Japan the B-29 bombing raids and the decision to use the Atomic Bombs. Will answer most all questions of the what and why.
I think maybe that dropping the bomb on Japan may have had something to do with Russia. Russia was getting ready to jump in against Japan and grab up Japanese land. There was also the shock value.
ding ding ding. Post of the day.
Saw Lone Survivor on DVD last night. True story. Not boring.
One estimate I saw years ago stated that a conventional invasion of Japan would have extended the war through at least 1946 and would have cost 5 - 6 million Japanese lives and one million additional American casualties.
The A-bombs, as you said, saved millions of lives.
The lives SAVED by the japanese Abombs will NEVER be known..
Therefore never appreciated, honored, highlighted, movies made of them, or recognized..
Almost like they didn’t happen..
When they DID HAPPEN.. both Japanese and American.. (and the allies)
and went on to have children, grand children, AND great grand children..
Whom may surely not (( BE HERE )) except for the Abombs in Japan..
Any LACK of gratitude should be SLAPPED.. HARD...
Not to muddy the issue, but I always believed that the bombs saved millions of lives, both American and Japanese
...absolutely correct...and another way to look at it; let’s say for humanitarian purposes Truman decided not to deploy the two weapons, and the long invasion and certain siege to follow cost hundreds of thousands of Allied lives...when the news of the existence of these bombs were made public, and the fact that Truman declined to use them...would he not be considered a war criminal...?
LeMay and Hap Arnold had reported that we would run out of bombing targets in Japan by Septenber 1945. There was literally nothing left to bomb.
Then, at the close of the war, when Stalin demanded Russia take possession of Poland, etc, we say "no." Flat out. And when Stalin started massing troops to enslave Poland, etc, then we drop nukes on Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc.
The Soviets already had Poland. They had to go through it to get to Berlin. They paused to let the Germans annihilate any Polish resistance before moving through though.
I’m reading the book but won’t see the movie. I’ve yet to read a review that says the movie is anywhere near the book in terms of describing the scope of Zamperini’s life.
My knees buckled reading that book. It was amazing. A truly great man.
The Soviets already had Poland. They had to go through it to get to Berlin. They paused to let the Germans annihilate any Polish resistance before moving through though.
Nonetheless, Patton wanted to continue marching into Russia as we knew Stalin was our enemy, even when he was our ally. If the first time we let him know we had nukes was when we blew him into eternity, it would have saved a lot of lives.
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