I know there's definitely another post like this somewhere. I swear I searched for it, but once I got to page 25 of discussions and couldn't find it, I decided to make a new one.
The title says it all. What do you think about the dropping of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Well...............Germany forced out a certain group of people who were incredible physicists(no one saw that coming) and of course the sabotage of plants that produced the materials needed to create the bomb(I think I can remember the bombing of a heavy water plant and a Graphite mine??? Not too sure about the 2nd one).
Well, I heard that Germany was also trying to develop an atomic bomb. I am Japanese (do not shoot me, lawlz) and trying to think about how Germany could've developed the nuke faster than America. Well, I am thinking that it would've had a catastrophic result, because they were against Jews. So, even though the nukes dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I'm pretty satisfied with the world that we have here, right now.
If Germany had literally seen the future and kept Einstein plus all the other physicists and forced them to develop an atomic bomb...
I believe it was Hiroshima that was a mistake because of weather the plane went off coarse, but it was suppose to hit Tokyo but just think if the Germans or the Japanese completed the nuke before us then we would have lost the war. War is costly but thankfully we won because we don't conquer, we free.
Hiroshima was a mistake?! Why would you think that? Tokyo and Hiroshima are 400 miles away from each other!
Theirs a reason the U.S. picked hiroshima. They could of easily picked tokyo or some larger city.
The reason is that in hirosima there were more living people at that time- Tokyo had been heaveally bombed- hirosima had never been bombed during the war.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were picked because of the lack of casualties and damage they had incurred thus far, which made them prime testing grounds for testing the effects of the bombs on a human population. There really wasn't a whole lot of military activity going on in either city, at least, not enough to justify dropping atomic bombs. The only reason Kyoto wasn't picked was because General Stimson honeymooned there and thought it was pretty.
In addition, Japan tried to surrender after Midway and continued trying right up to the very end. They went through multiple channels, but no one would accept anything besides unconditional surrender, and the Japanese wouldn't give up Hirohito. They wanted him to remain in place as a figurehead like the Queen of England. But, no one would accept this. It's pretty important to note the fact that it's exactly what was allowed in the Potsdam Declaration, so why wouldn't any one let it happen before the atomic bombings?
Also, people like to note we killed more civilians with firebombings, which is true. But there's a big difference between the two. Firebombs weren't a new technology. People at least understood what to expect. And after the fires are put out, that's the end of it. Atomic bombs had never been used on humans before. These people had no clue what was in store for them. There's no way the bomb shelters were built for that sort of thing. In addition, the horrors of an atomic bombing continue to effect the population long after the initial detonation due to dramatic increases in cancer, illness, and birth defects in the survivors and their children.
I think a lot of people who argue that dropping the bombs was justified just kind of take what they learned in high school and what every one else tells them and rolls with it. When Winston Churchill said 'history is written by the victors', he was completely right. Our history books look at anything we did to win wars as justifiable and an example of our great military prowess. It would really benefit others to look at history from another point of view.
The nuke, when used appropriately, is a great tool of salvation. We stopped the war on the Pacific front by dropping one nuke, giving them a few days to surrender, dropping another, waiting again and, as we were loading a third bomb to be dropped, they surrendered. If we invaded the Japanese mainland, millions more civilians and hundreds of millions of military personel would have died. Japan would not surrender until nobody was left to surrender. The Japanese at that time were fervent zealots who would do absolutely anything for Emporor Hirohito. The civilians would throw themselves off of cliffs if the Americans captured their island. Women and children would walk up to Marines and hold out a grenade and blow themselves up to kill the Marines. Though it may be near universally looked down upon, Little Boy and Fat Man saved lives.
I don't think that it's senseful to use violence to stop violence. And the Bombs in Hyroshima were just the test for the bombs, America wantet to throw on Germany. Fortunately Hitler attempted suicide. That preserved many innocent people from death. The World War II was a senseless act of destruction and violence.
Erm... The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki came after Germany surrendered. Anyways, I believe that the U.S. decided to bomb Japan Truman acted rather quickly on dropping the bombs. In reality, there probably was some other, less violent method of bringing about peace.
The civilians would throw themselves off of cliffs if the Americans captured their island.
That is probably the most ignorant thing I heard. If you would of studied history, then you would of known that Japan's civilians did not like the war and many Japanese soldiers killed and tortured Japanese civilians. No, killing civilians is never the right way.
In reality, there probably was some other, less violent method of bringing about peace.
Of course, Japan was about to lose. Maybe just a couple of months more.
That is probably the most ignorant thing I heard. If you would of studied history, then you would of known that Japan's civilians did not like the war and many Japanese soldiers killed and tortured Japanese civilians. No, killing civilians is never the right way.
Actually they did jump off cliffs at the Battle of Saipan on the order of their emperor. The fact that this lead to over 20,000 deaths leads me to believe that Japan would have gone down hard, also due to their devotion to Bushido during that time.