digg

If they didn’t want Hiroshima bomb, they shouldn’t have bomb Pear Harbor.

Hiroshima would never have been the target of the first atomic bomb had there been no Pearl Harbor. Had America not been dragged into WWII, the bomb might never have been developed -- at least during the war. The Germans had made a big theoretical error in their initial development of the bomb -- which the Americans did not make because of the help of scientist who happen to be Jews that had fled Germany’s persecution.

War is an open ended equation. That was true in 1941 when the Japanese bomb Pear Harbor and it’s still true today. Look at Iraq. Name one war that lasted more than a year that ended anyway near what those that started it thought it would. Never go to war unless you have no other choice.

Why do the Japanese bemoan the bombing of Hiroshima and not one comment of their own arrogance in bombing Pear Harbor?

Too Bad America Dropped the bombs, it only killed a couple of hundred thousand or so. just think how many we could have killed with the planned 4months of carpet/fire bombing of all major Japanese cities. just think how many we could have killed when the Japanese military forced their civilians to mass wave attack the invasion armed with sticks. so dumb to drop the bomb, we could have killed millions.
Made in America, Tested in Japan.

DiggsOnlyJew had this comment above, says it all:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes#The_crimes

That should be the end of this arguement.

I have been to the museum in Japan twice now. Each time I stand there and just get ***** off. Not at the fact we bombed them, but at how the museum makes every country who owns even 1 nuclear bomb out to be villainous and evil, as well as calling the theory of a nuclear stalemate ludicrous. The museum is an amazing documentation of why nuclear weapons should never be detonated on life again, but as you walk through the time line in the Hiroshima museum of the happenings of world war 2, it's interesting to see that Pearl Harbor isn't even mentioned, like it never happened. Apparently it wasn't an event significant enough to comment on, which makes the United States appear to have gone to war with Japan for no reason but to flex their muscles at a tiny island.

I would recommend that anyone who visits Japan go to the museum. It's going to make you ill to your stomach what humanity is capable of, just try not to laugh out loud in front of Japanese tourists at the videos they run every 5 minutes showing how the evil United States "bombed Japan to end the war, a theory produced by United States American politicians and propagandists to persuade the world to believe their action justified."

Looks like it ended the war to me.

At Iwo Jima, Japan showed us what they were willing to do. Kill. Keep killing. No surrender, no mercy, live to kill.
Japan would never surrender unless they were convinced we had a will as strong as theirs. We had the will to unleash, with a single weapon, more firepower than had ever been used in the entire history of warfare.
Also consider that the Soviets were rolling east from Europe to take as much of Manchuria and Japan as possible.
The war had to end. An unambiguous message had to be sent: enough!

Tragic? Absolutely. Wrong? I'm not sure.

Buried as 60 years old.

Um, regardless, I think you guys are missing the point...this was a nuclear weapon. Nuclear. Weapon. Just think about it. The ONLY nuclear weapons used in history, the ones we're so paranoid about and always using as an excuse to invade other countries, was used by us. Twice. I'm priveliged to think that nuclear weapons is on a completely different level of bombing...so saying Japanese bombed us, we bombed them just doesn't hold the same meaning to me.

Are you telling me that the Japanese wouldn't have used it on the USA if they had developed the technology first? Crazy talk! I think we were justified in using it, and it brought a swift end to a war we didn't ask for in the first place.

More died in the bombing of Dresden and our other bombing campaigns of Japan.
War is terrible thing. We didn't start that one but we finished it.

Whether you believe it to have been necessary or not really isn't what is important here.

Take some time to read the accounts of people who managed to live through the bombing. The things they saw and things that happened to them are horrible.

Rhode Island is the only state that still celebrates Victory Over Japan day. Ah, no work that day makes me a happy boy. :)

I knew this thread would be full of laughs before I clicked on it and I haven't been disappointed.
I'd like to hear some more conspiracy theories though. Over to you, Troofers.

Seriously, anyone who doesn't believe we should have dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or is ashamed to be American because of it, obviously has never studied WWII and should be ashamed more of their ignorance.

I ate sushi last night and burned my mouth on the Wasabi. Life's a circle.

everyone who wants to spout off about this should read this book before opening their mouth, be it pro OR con...

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-Richard-Rhodes/dp/0684813785

Both sides would of suffered much more casualties had we invaded the Japanese mainland. The Japanese were too proud to admit defeat, and we had to show them that we have the power to stop them, and to demoralize them enough to surrender without wiping out every last one of them.

It was tragic of course, but it had to happen.

At the memorial, the Japanese mention the incident at Pearl Harbor and talk about the tragedy at Hiroshima.

So this is why everyone hates the U.S.... every one hears B.S. rumors about America that make it out to always be the bad guys.

Why do I suspect that the dubious honor of being the first and only to use the bomb is going to change in the next few years?

Some people bitch about the US dropping two bombs but never stop to mention that they have never done so in the decades that followed.

This is rather amusing how easy it is to rile everyone up. Both sides have some points, some bad, but I don't think there was a clear solution to the question of dropping the bomb at that time, and there still isn't now.

Ahh. yes.

The 'evil' Americans dropped the Big One(s), ended the war and rehabbed Japan from backwater-feudal state to capitalist-economic powerhouse it is today. All major powers were developing atomic tech. Japan and Germany both had plans for long-range bombers to bomb major cities in the US along both coasts. There are always tears for Japan, why not for Russian victims of German bombing of Leningrad. Why not for the Allied bombing in Berlin or Dussledorf?

We can only speculate how many Japanese 'civilians' and American servicemen would have died if there was going to be a land invasion. I also use civilians in quotations because, Emperor Hirohito himself considered all citizens of Japan as combatants against the American land invasion, if there was one.

What is oft overlooked is how this even was the dawn to the Cold War, and how it made the Cold War significantly more bloodless than it could have been. This really wasn't about Japan. Japan had made clear that they could not fight a two-front war once Russia entered the fray.

Russia's declaration of war was imminent, and I believe they did declare war on the 9th or 10th, at which point, Japan would likely have surrendered (as documentation shows they would have). The US, simply, didn't want to give Russia the privilege of ending the war. So we dropped our nukes, to tell the Russians to back the hell off, and to also show that we can and will use nuclear weapons.

This precedent lead to a lot of credibility during the Cold War. I strongly believe the Cold War would have been much worse if we did not have this precedent. These nukes were a message to Russia, not to Japan. If winning against Japan was the goal, as your history books would have you believe, then we would just need to have waited a week for Russia to make its declaration of war. It wasn't a "Nuke vs Invade" decision, it was a "Do we want to let the Russians end this and stake claim to Japan and company?"

Taken in this context, its a difficult decision to mull over. One cannot measure the number of lives that DID NOT perish because of the actions here. But it's hard to come to any justification for their use, but there would be a logical reason, if very hard to swallow.

Anybody who thinks we shouldn't have dropped the bomb just read plans about Operation Olympic and Operation Downfall and the estimated casualties for both American troops AND Japanese troops and civilians. The atomic saved American and Japanese lives.

Most here need to read a history book or two. Japanese imperialism is what ultimately led to the atomic bombings of Japanese cities.

War is not won through accords or peace talks or diplomacy. War is won by completely destroying the enemy's will to continue fighting

this is the most hateful ignorant comment section i have ever seen

the atomic bombs killed a small number of Japanese civilians compared to the napalm.

An island so nice, we bombed it twice.

Here we go. Another round of the annual "Hiroshima/Nagasaki" flame war begins! I'll add some fuel to the fire, by saying that I think that it was tragic and unnessary and quote some important historical figures who seemed to aggree with my view:

""During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face'. The Secretary was deeply perturbed by my attitude..." - DWIGHT EISENHOWER

""It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons.

"The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children." - ADMIRAL WILLIAM D. LEAHY

"The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul. ...the Japanese were prepared to negotiate all the way from February 1945...up to and before the time the atomic bombs were dropped; ...if such leads had been followed up, there would have been no occasion to drop the [atomic] bombs." -HERBERT HOOVER

"Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945 and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated." -PAUL NITZE

"...when we didn't need to do it, and we knew we didn't need to do it, and they knew that we knew we didn't need to do it, we used them as an experiment for two atomic bombs." - BRIGADIER GENERAL CARTER CLARKE

More here: http://www.doug-long.com/quotes.htm

I don't understand how everyone thats saying that it's NOT ok that the US bombed civilians is getting dugg down, how come? The bombs killed ~200.000 innocent civilians, please explain why you are digging.

"The Japanese deserved to get bombed. Period." This got dugg up

"How on Earth does an attack like Pearl Harbor excuse the bombings of hundreds of thousands?" This got dugg down.

?

It's called "VJ Day" and helped close one of the most awful chapters in the history of the world. It's also a good lesson for everyone. The Japanese are now one of our closest, dearest allies. Maybe in another 60 years we'll be wondering why we ever hated Iran, etc.

I suppose the bombing of Dresden was also justified.