re: Let's talk about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings

OP, while you are free to question the "morality" of dropping the bombs, I think to do so is misguided. Frankly, your comments are indicative of where we are as a society where everything done in the political (and to some extent the military) arena is based upon polls and a sense of political correctness.

Our forefathers who fought and managed that war were tough people (way tougher than most people today) and made a simple calculation of saved American lives. The human suffering associated with the bombs was simply horrific. However, I think you fail to properly acknowledge the savagery and commitment of our enemy in that war. Their numerous acts of cruelty during that war (and in China as well) serve as clear evidence of what we were up against.

The folks that made that decision had the guts to make it, with a profound understanding of the misery that would be imparted to the citizens on the ground. Here we sit sixty-nine (69) years later and no other nation has dropped an atomic bomb in armed conflict. I think that speaks volumes as to the difficulty of the decision, evidence of horror for those on the ground and the outward display to our foes in the world that the atomic/nuclear device will result in annihilation if they want to go that route.

An eight (8) year old Japanese child burned, disfigured and suffering for a lifetime due to the bombs is an awful thought. So, would have been the countless Americans kids who would have grown up without their fathers due to them being killed during an invasion of the Japanese mainland.

In making that choice the leadership of our country took appropriate steps to protect our citizen solders and end the war.

to prevent the Russkies from entering the Pacific theater, which Stalin had promised to do, and which he looked forward to doing. he had reneged on allowing elections in eastern Europe and was eager to add holdings in the far east. the cold war had begun even before the atom bombs were used.

I just wish we had dropped more on them

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good hardcore history podcast by Dan carlin

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Logical Insanity

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but he was bound by treaty to enter the Pacific War

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he was also "bound" to allow free elections in eastern europe, but he didn't honor it.
so you think he would have sent his forces thousands of miles to the east, helped with an invasion, and just left after it was over?

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truetigerfan1975

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Beta

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The Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.

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If they were that ready to surrender, why did we have to drop two of them?

Hiroshima, there a shima, everywhere a shima shima

There's no doubt in my mind that it saved my grandfather's life -- and the lives of many OT poster's fathers, grandfathers and greatgrandfathers.

For those of us who grew up with WWII vet fathers/grandfathers, we know the extreme deep hatred that generation had for the Japanese. My grandfather wouldn't buy ANYTHING from Japan. He called the "dirty nips" and hated them to the day he died. And, given how many friends he lost in WWII, I don't blame him or judge him.

Similarly, I don't blame Truman ONE BIT for dropping the bomb on their a$$es. The fact that he had to drop 2 before they finally surrendered should tell you something.

"If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst forth at once in the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One. I am mighty, world-destroying Time."