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I have been corresponding for some time with a young Canadian who gets all his news from the MSM. He is ecstatic that Obama wants to unilaterally disarm the US of nuclear weapons. I owe him a reply to this drivel, but I’ve put it off because it’s so daunting.

Put another way, where do you even start with such a person? He has visited Japan, and thinks the dropping of the two bombs is one of the greatest historical wrongs ever done to any people on earth. I don’t want to write a book-length email back to him, and I’m not sure that would do any good. Brevity is the soul of wit, and a short reply is likely to make a stronger impact on him than a very lengthy one.

There are some ideas already on this thread I can use. If anybody has anything to add, I’ll be profoundly appreciative. I’m going to be in and out, so I may not be able to thank Freepers as quickly as I’d like. So thank you in advance!

Remind this idiot that it took TWO atomic bombs for the Japanese to surrender. One would have thought all the Japanese would need to experience was one such attack and surrender would have taken place hours later.

The Atomic bomb was the ultimate weapon ever developed by mankind at that point in time - something only imagined by all the other warring countries - and it took the use of such a weapon twice to get the Japanese to finnally give up? And yet your pal thinks Japan would have surrendered with an Allied invasion.

The American, Brits and everyone other than the Soviets invade from the South, the Russians invading from the North. Does anyone really think anything at all would have remained in Japan? The entire place would have been flattened and most of the country would have been wiped out.

What does your friend think the Allied reaction would have been when the Japanese military started deploying chemical and biological weapons? I’ll bet he hasn’t a clue about that Japanese program. It was the most advanced in the world putting even the German’s to shame. They’d even figured out how to parachute bombs ladden with infected fleas without killing the fleas!

Ask your pal about the Japanese jet fighter program and long range bombers and what affect would they have if they just had more time to finish development?

Remind your friend that discussing or expressing an opinion on a subject one knows nothing about is never a good idea.

I think there’s some good stuff on this thread...

The Hiroshima Rorschach Test

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2309523/posts

"I have been corresponding for some time with a young Canadian who gets all his news from the MSM. He is ecstatic that Obama wants to unilaterally disarm the US of nuclear weapons. I owe him a reply to this drivel, but I’ve put it off because it’s so daunting.

Put another way, where do you even start with such a person? He has visited Japan, and thinks the dropping of the two bombs is one of the greatest historical wrongs ever done to any people on earth. I don’t want to write a book-length email back to him, and I’m not sure that would do any good. Brevity is the soul of wit, and a short reply is likely to make a stronger impact on him than a very lengthy one.

There are some ideas already on this thread I can use. If anybody has anything to add, I’ll be profoundly appreciative. I’m going to be in and out, so I may not be able to thank Freepers as quickly as I’d like. So thank you in advance!"

Keep the reply as simple as possible, I'd go with what Walter would say to someone like him:

"Dumbass"

In the early 60s, I spent three years in Japan with the USAF, and (by choice) I worked the midnight shift the entire time. In the mornings when I got off duty, I usually didn't feel like going to bed, so I'd grab my Nikon, hop on my Honda, and head out into the farm country.

I studied Japanese and really learned to love the Japanese people -- once I got away from the ones who were jaded by being near the US military bases. I also loved to explore and photograph the picturesque and peaceful countryside.

In my wanderings, I discovered that any sizeable hill had a Shinto/Buddhist temple or shrine atop it -- many of them serene jewels of photogenic beauty. So -- I climbed lots of hills...

BUT, I also discovered that the sides of those hills were riddled with WWII caves, tunnels, bunkers and gun emplacements. Taking Japan would have been far more dangerous and bloody than Okinawa or Iwo Jima -- where we fought for every foot of ground, and often had to burn or blast the Japanese out of their caves.

Of course, the Japanese islands are much larger than Iwo, and the Japanese would have been fighting fanatically for their own homes. The slaughter would have been horrific -- and, like Afghanistan, it could have gone on for many years.

The unconditional surrender of Japan shortened the war by several years and saved untold millions of lives (on both sides).

~~~~~~~~~~

In the 70s, I had the privilege and honor of having lunch at a small inn in Osaka with one of Japan's preeminent materials scientists. During lunch, he shared with me that, when I was a young schoolchild, he had the experience of being one of the very first Japanese Army officers to enter Hiroshima after the bombing.

He told of hiking miles back along the railway to find a working telegraph so he could tell headquarters that the US had deployed a "totally undefeatable weapon", and that they should end the war. He said he was overjoyed when the Nagasaki bomb "finally made our leaders see the truth" and surrender.

After lunch, he put his hand on my shoulder and said,

"You were only an 'aka-chan' in 1945, but, if it had not been for those two bombs, you would probably still be over here with a rifle, now, fighting to get my children out of their caves."
"You can thank the Atomic Bomb that we both surived to share and enjoy this lunch together today as colleagues and friends..."

Let us hope your young Canadian is simply ignorant, but not stupid.

You might want to read the book: Code-Name Downfall (The secret plan to invade Japan and why Truman dropped the bomb) by Thomas B Allen & Norman Polmar.

An interesting and I believe factual book about using the atomic bomb and the options of using other types of weapons that The United States military and civilian government discussed as how to defeat and/or destroy Japan.

It could have been much worse!