Thank God for the Atom Bomb

Hot Air ^ | May 24, 2012 | Libby Sternberg, Novelist

[Retain Mike]

I like the idea of proposing the idea of “slow systematic genocide”. Certainly the Japanese would have killed the allied prisoners in their custody, but based on the estimate of American and British losses from an invasion the butcher bill would still have been less. Those who oppose dropping the bombs will never allow a dilemma such as you present to disturb the purity of their moral trappings.

In Edward Behr’s book Hirohito he gives a quote by a film director named Akira Kurosawa which illustrates the transformation of that generation of Japanese people, who before were resigned to the slogan “Honorable Death of a Hundred Million”.

“When I walked the same route back to my home (after the Emperor’s broadcast), the scene was entirely different. The people in the shopping street were bustling about with cheerful faces as if preparing for a festival the next day. If the Emperor had made such a call (to follow the above slogan) those people would have done what they were told and died. And probably I would have done likewise.
The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self-sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life. We Were accustomed to this teaching and had never thought to question it….In wartime we were like deaf-mutes.