Poll: Was It Wrong To Drop The Atomic Bombs In Japan?

[Manji187]

Yep, saved a lot of lives, because the invasion of Japan would have been horrific.

And how would you know? Built a working timemachine ay? Went back in time and created a paradox? Returned to our timeline to report the results? Or are you saying your mental faculties are so strong that you could accurately predict an alternate path in history...

Ever heard of the word "hubris"?

 

[madmatt]

its just my opinion but i would have done it as well

to reply some points in the original post - the russians had not engaged in any military actions against japan

this was a war of SURVIVAL - total war

evidence shows the japanese were close to making their own atomic bomb and not acting would have been to risk millions f american deaths

Remember Japan is an island and with 40's technology how many would have died to take it? hundreds of thousands at the least - more died to take Germany, which had easier access and didn't require a massive (and vulnerable) naval attack. Millions lived in Japan taking it would have had a staggering death toll if they didn't surrender and being a matter of honor it seems they had no intention of doing it..

Had it been anything other than total war i would agree it was a horrific act. But considering the ALTERNATIVES, I would have done the same in his shoes - especially after over 5 years of horrific blood shed - if you could end the war now with the bomb and didn't - would all future deaths in the continuing war be your responsibility?

Damned if you do, damned if you don't

 

[Dragon Zero]

I hate to be that guy but I distinctly remember seeing a thread like this before.

My apologies, as you can see I'm new so I hope I get a bit of leeway.

Oh, I don't really care that much, just making an observation. Damnation this thread got big fast!

 

[Manatee Slayer]

I hate to be that guy but I distinctly remember seeing a thread like this before.

My apologies, as you can see I'm new so I hope I get a bit of leeway.

Oh, I don't really care that much, just making an observation. Damnation this thread got big fast!

I know lol, I only posted this last night.

 

[tipp6353]

no it isn't the code they used was die for the emperor, and if they didn't they thought it to be a disgrace. Look what they did on Bloody Ridge in Guadalcanal, banzi charged into Marine lines because they believed it. Not to mention throwing themselves under moving tanks with mines and blowing themselves up with grenades. OT: I don't think it was wrong it saved a lot more lives in the long run than invading.

 

[Agema]

Blowing up cities was a feature of WW2, and the a-bombs were barely any worse than US airforce had already inflicted on Tokyo with conventional explosives.

Might have been nice not have dropped them in a perfect world, but there's no compelling reason to believe it was done maliciously or criminally.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

Before you vote, I would just like to say that this question has been in my mind for a hiwle now and I have done some (albeit not a lot) of research, so I would be interested in hearing others people's opinions, hopefully based on facts.

So far, I have come to the conclusion that they shouldn't have been, and from reading different sources seem to think that the Americans did it to...prove a point or maybe revenge...that's all I have really.

Here are some of the things I have learner recently:

-The Japanese had virtually no Navy or Airforce to speak of.

-The Americans had blockaded Japan, meaning they couldn't get any imported recources, which is nearly everything. lol

-The japanese were terrified by the thought of the Russians coming, due to the fact they had lost to them before and that they would probably take over the country and install communism.

-Many high ranking officials were against the attack saying it was unnesisary and that the Japanese were ready to surrender anyway.Brightest

-Winston Churchill in his book ("The World At War") said that the bombs did not play any part in the defeat of Japan.

-The only reason people think that the bombs won the war in the Pacific is due to American Propagada.

Now, I'm not trying to force your vote by saying these things, I would like some insight into your thoughts not just on the bombing but the points I have listen above.

Happy Posting. :-D

EDIT: Someone has asked for a pros and cons list. Here is a link to basic bullet points for each if anyone is interested.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/trinity/supplement/procon.html

The Japanese were NOT going to surrender, and even AFTER the bombs were dropped a great deal of their officers refused to surrender, one man and his regiment going so far as to take over a hotel and commit seppuku rather than be arrested when they could hold out no longer.
Did, in your "research", you ever come across any documentation about how the ground war was fought with the Japanese? It was slow, brutal warfare almost comparable to the trenches of the last war.
An American incursion into Japan would have required huge numbers of troops, and cost countless more lives. That is what happens when a military force invades a country almost wholly devoted to its military efforts.
Remember, every peasant was now "samurai" and there was no honor greater than to fight for the emperor.
On the other hand, you had one way to solidly gut-punch Japan's entire will to fight: the bombs.
The bombs that only killed as many or (according to some) FEWER than the total number of Japanese casualties an invasion would have mounted, not to many the lives of American troops saved by the action.

I'm so sick of modern day hippies with a minor bit of knowledge and a modern mindset looking back and condemning the past without any sense of perspective or even any real knowledge of the topic. Yes, nuclear war is a terrible thing, yes atomic weapons did terrible things to the Japanese and the side-effects can in some cases still be seen today, and yes, in today's world, there is no excuse for the utilization of nuclear military force. Maybe if we had known the long-term effects of nuclear attack, the decision might have been different. However, thins happened AS they happened because that was the only choice that our country seemed to have at the time.

Besides, if we'd never dropped the bomb, we probably wouldn't be playing videogames (and so we wouldn't have this site to discuss the point), and what would Miyazaki make anime about?

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

Yep, saved a lot of lives, because the invasion of Japan would have been horrific.

And how would you know? Built a working timemachine ay? Went back in time and created a paradox? Returned to our timeline to report the results? Or are you saying your mental faculties are so strong that you could accurately predict an alternate path in history...

Ever heard of the word "hubris"?

Ever hear of the word "tactics"?

 

[Low Key]

Bombing Japan was to send a message to the Russians, who were also testing their own bombs. The defeat of Japan was almost secondary to this purpose. That's what I think.

The Russians were supposed to be our allies, and the biggest issue was trying to develop a nuke before the Nazis, not the Ruskies. The Cold War didn't start until after Germany surrendered and Russia didn't want to give back the land they had won because they felt they needed compensation for all of the men they lost. Before that, the allies were working together swimmingly.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

nagasaki was a munitions manufacturing area as I understand it, "Hiroshima was a city of considerable military importance, containing Japan's Second Army Headquarters, as well as being a communications center and storage depot."

actually both were chosen as they were located in valleys with mountains around them that would maximize the blast intensity. as a result kyoto was also marked for destruction.

actually, the reason was to LIMIT the blast. Some scientists feared that setting one of these off would start a chain reaction that annihilated the planet.

 

[benoitowns]

Well from what the military said, it saved more Japanese lives than it took, and it saved hundreds of thousands of American lives. So it was justified and effective. Fuck you Chicken, fuck YOU cow, using dolphin and whale as scapegoat!

 

[The Brewin]

Is it wrong to drop the bomb....perhaps not.

Dropping it on Hiroshima and Nagasaki though is unacceptable. Why not attack a military compound or the infrastructure of Japan...instead of a insignificant town full of poor local civilians

 

[Velocirapture07]

-The Japanese would never surrender (their beliefs at the time prohibited such a thing), necessitating a drawn-out and destructive conflict between them and the United States before the war could end.

-The bombs certainly did end the war in the Pacific. Whether or not it could have been won without them is debatable (and difficult to prove either way), but leveling a city with a single explosion sends a pretty strong message.

-The Japanese had enough of an air force to get to Pearl Harbor and do a lot of damage.

I'm not saying we should use nuclear weapons ever again, but if you add up the death toll and compare it to what would have resulted from a drawn-out war with Japan, the bombs probably killed fewer people.

Invasion of the Japanese main Island would have been catastrophic for both sides with Millions of casualties and a Japan that would have fought to the last man.

This is not to trivialize the gravity of the decision and the intense sadness I feel when I think about the cost to the Japanese civilians living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Interestingly enough Nagasaki at the time housed memorials to Christian martyrs and a large Christian population, all of which was destroyed by the U.S. bombs.

This is one of those questions which can never be adequately answered because no one knows for sure what would have happened if we had not dropped the bomb. Hopefully this kind of decision never has to made again.

Edit: I am basically agreeing with the above poster.

 

[HentMas]

one of the main points in Dropping the bombs was to show the other still strugling countries that they had the power to do it

i think of it like shooting Aalderan just because i could.

 

[Jdopus]

You know what pisses me off more than the dropping of the bomb itself? World War 2 was a dark time in human history and this was one of the worst acts of the war, but the thing that gets to me is the certain breed of thick-headed yank who brag about winning the war with their bombs. I find it utterly repulsive that anyone could think of it as anything other than a necessary evil.

 

[walsfeo]

Civilians that let their government wage war on their behalf are not innocent. Yeah, that includes the USA right now as well.

Japan attacked the USA, they hadn't surrendered before we dropped the bombs, and dropping the bombs saved the lives of US armed forces. Sure it may have been a touch extreme, but it was justified. If it saved the lives of one US serviceman, it would have been worth it.

Also, the use of the bombs a that point probably prevented a massive nuclear exchange once Russia had the technology as well.

 

[ratix2]

-Many high ranking officials were against the attack saying it was unnesisary and that the Japanese were ready to surrender anyway.

many high ranking japanese officals were aganist going to war and bombing pearl harbor in the first place, but those things still happened anyway. it was the few at the top who wanted it to happen anyway. that and the japanese wouldnt have just surrendered without some sort of attack, and as many of the other high ranking officals were saying at the time, they would have fought tooth and nail in a mainland invasion.

its easy to sit back and say 65 years after the fact that maybe it was wrong, but this was war, not a playground squabble, and decisions had to be made. but that alone doesent keep me thinking it was wrong is this:

the estimation of loss of life for US troops in an initial invasion of the japanese mainland was 1 million us soliders lost. this didnt count the loss of japanese lives, nor did it account for the lives lost on both sides (or from russia) in the months after the initial invasion. had they not been dropped the number of dead would have likely been at least another 2-3 million dead, if not more, and ww2 would have dragged on for much longer. instead less than 200,000 dead from the initial bombings.

 

[zehydra]

I'd say it was wrong because war in general is wrong. But hey, relatively speaking it was probably much less worse than if we had attempted a land invasion. Even the japanese civilians were willing to fight the fight to the death.

War is not wrong, to say so is ignorant.
Regardless of what country you live in, it became a country through WAR.
There is no more slavery in America because of WAR.
America is an independent country, because of WAR.

Without WAR, we would all be speaking German and saluting a Nazi flag.

War is wrong, and I fail to see how to say so is ignorant? (Ignorance is not knowing information).

While it is true that slavery is gone in America because of it, it wasn't the only way that could of happened.
America could have become an independent nation without specifically declaring war on Great Britain.

Really, my take on war, is that it is not necessarily wrong for a nation to defend itself if directly attacked, but war itself is nothing more than legal murder.

(btw, with Nazi Germany, the reason they were a threat in the first place was because of WAR). But even without our involvement, Nazi germany would have fallen. Long before our intervention there were dissident groups all over the third reich and several assassination attempts against the fuhrer.

Some people can't talk things out. Actually, a lot of people cant.
War is totally necessary. And it's not "wrong" if it's a justified war for good reason, so all war is not "wrong"

It's easy to say "sure, this could have happened without war" When in reality it's much more complicated. America TRIED many times to become it's own nation peacefully, they even tried to stay a colony under British rule if they would just be treated fairly. They were ignored each time. So they finally made them listen with war, the only solution.

you must understand however, that whether or not it was the only solution to achieving some goal doesn't make it right.