And anyhow, perhaps all the wars of the 20th century, more and more about politics and territory, contributed to the spiritual slide of the West. People saw themselves being pulled by governments into drawn out conflicts that didn’t seem to make sense.
Perhaps the conquest of Japan was the cleanest war of all those waged in the 20th century. Two atom bombs and that saved the rest of Japan, as well as the morals of the West. Broad population wars are very demoralizing.
I guess the moral would be that if you MUST wage a war, don’t do it as trying to inflict a death of a thousand cuts. Smack as hard as you possibly can and then when a surrender comes, accept it graciously.
“Perhaps the conquest of Japan was the cleanest war of all those waged in the 20th century. Two atom bombs and that saved the rest of Japan, as well as the morals of the West. Broad population wars are very demoralizing.”
The firebombing of Tokyo killed more people than either atom bomb; the American high command had figured out the perfect mix of high explosive bombs to reduce buildings to kindling followed by incendiary bombs to set it all alight. Planes flying over the burning city were lifted by the heat of the firestorm below. By the time we dropped the atom bombs there was almost 0 chance the bombers would be shot down; we killed plenty of Japanese civilians in bombing raids that spanned three years. I’m not criticizing the policy, but it wasn’t “clean” by any stretch.