Posted on 08/09/2015 2:49:19 PM PDT by NRx
...In 1945, however, we also soon heard much of the other side of the story, and how that same appalling tragedy might have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of American and British servicemen who could well have died in the invasion of Japan which would otherwise have been necessary to end the war. Only more slowly did it come to light how the atom bombs had also saved the lives of anything up to a million prisoners in camps across south-east Asia, whom the fanatical Japanese commander, Marshal Terauchi, intended to massacre if the allies landed on the Japanese mainland.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Bombing Pearl Harbor was Japan’s first mistake.
I refuse to second guess Truman. A relative was onboard a ship headed for the Japanese invasion the same day the first bomb was dropped. His CO lined them up & said, “Look at the man on your right & on your left. Two out of the three of you will die in this invasion. Fight it like your life depends on it; because it does.” When they heard Truman had dropped the bomb; their ship turned around & they went back home. - My Daddy had fought the Germans in N. Africa, Sicily, Italy & at last in Germany. As a hardened combat veteran he would have been sent to Japan.
Japan started something they couldn’t finish. Their leadership should have counted the cost.
Yeah, well, you have the luxury of making that observation with 70 years of hindsight and not having your butt on the line in case they decided not to use the bombs.
What rot - the residents of Hiroshima would have cut off just as many Chinese heads as the Japanese soldiers did in Shanghai, without a single resistor.
Your understanding of the national Japanese character of WWII is beyond naive.
When the factories are in the cities and the "civilians" staff the factories, there is no debate.
It is interesting that you brought Dresden into the conversation. The two atom bombs had a greater 'shock and awe' effect than fire bombing. Just a point in history, Tokyo and several other major cities were fire bombed beginning in March of '45. That continued after the first bomb was dropped. More civilians died in fire bombing in Japan than died due to the two a-bombs. It took the a-bombs to bring the emperor to his senses. The Jap military wanted to continue the war.
Luckily they didn’t get to the Emperor and assassinate him before he could make his broadcast urging the end of the war.
you suffer from the European disease that infected the 60’s hipppies now in control and are going to get us killed
you are a peace monger like them and will get us all killed
What’s sad is, in another generation, when all of the soldiers who fought in WWII are dead, these are the only things that will be taught about WWII:
-The Soviets defeated Nazi Germany single-handedly.
-We were evil for nuking Japan.
You seriously need to read some history. Start with the some island hopping death tolls (both Jap and American) and then read about the invasion plans for the main islands of Japan. Yeah, the Japs were beat, but.they were not surrendering. Also a point in fact, the US gave the Japs notice when civilian areas were to be targetted.
Should have done this to Mecca on 09/12/01.
War is hell
We shouldn’t forget that.
Go in, bring the enemy to their knees and get out.
I can still hear the radio and the neighbors cheering as the local radio station played the sound of a bomb dropping and the explosion all day the day the war finally ended.
More so, the citizens of Hiroshima, and many another town, were indeed responsible for the atrocities their sons inflicted on Asia. Japanese were not quite like the Germans, who comparmentalized their mass murder and left the army to fight (with a degree of “honor”) and the SS/Gestapo to do nearly all the dirty work.
The Japanese military, the privates and NCO’s, did most of the nasty stuff directly and personally.
True - but they didn't acknowledge it yet. We had their harbors mined. If it weren't for the Soviets, we could have just waited it out, let a few million of them starve, and then, maybe, just maybe, they would have surrendered. Although the starving masses in N. Korea don't seem to have any effect on their leaders.
Curiously, these two atom bombings — horrible as they were — killed less than the conventional firebombing campaign done by the B-29’s of the 21st Bomber Command, USAAF. On the night of 9-10 March 1945, 334 B-29’s attacked Tokyo with M69 incendiary bombs. The firestorm killed approximately 100,000 people, made another 1,000,000 homeless, and burned 40% of Japan's largest city. By 6 August 1945, the Nagasaki strike, the majority of Japan's large, medium, and small cities had been devastated by fire from the sky. The fire raids killed more people than both the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Mr. Booker did not do his homework.
On the WWII + 70 thread it was interesting to see the headlines. Three big titles:
Soviets Declare War on Japan
Something else (some battle in China?)
And third:
“Atom Bomb Loosed on Nagasaki”
The actual article about the second bomb was fairly small. I thought it interesting. Today we make a big deal out of both of the bombs. Back then, it sounded like it was the “new normal”. Perhaps a bit of psyops going on too.
> But we never needed to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why those cities?
Both were actually military targets. Nagasaki was shipping and ship building. Hiroshima was home to Japan’s largest military boot camp.
On the WWII+70 thread it had the account of the bombing. The plane took several runs at the primary city, but smoke obscured the bombing site. So they went to Nagasaki instead.
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