| brendude13 said: Sorry if I seemed a bit harsh there, I just don't like it when people try to justify the deaths of 250,000 - 500,000 (not sure on the number) innocent people. I find it annoying that when the coversation goes onto the topic of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all American's (or people who were educated in America) reply with the exact same answer trying to justify why the bombs were dropped. It just stinks of propaganda to me, the American government are making up excuses for such a horrible decision. The one thing your government doesn't want you to know is that Japan was extremely close to surrender. The only thing atomic bombs are good for is murdering innocent people, if you want to fight a war, then you target military bases, not populated towns and cities. |
Let me start off by saying i'm not from the US. Now lets start posting some facts. As you can see here just weeks before the bombs were dropped Japan refused to surrender.
21 July 1945, The U.S. delivers a final ultimatum to the Japanese, quit the war or face total destruction.
29 July 1945, Japan formally rejects the U.S. ultimatum.
Now lets look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both towns were main military targets. Also large parts of the population had already left the cities before the bombs were dropped due to bomb threats. This would have left mostly workers and those directly helping the war effort left.
"Hiroshima was a city of considerable military importance. It contained the 2nd Army Headquarters, which commanded the defense of all of southern Japan. The city was a communications center, a storage point, and an assembly area for troops."
"Nagasaki had been one of the largest sea ports in southern Japan and was of great war-time importance because of its many and varied industries, including the production of ordnance, ships, military equipment, and other war materials. The narrow long strip attacked was of particular importance because of its industries."
Now lets look at the Japanese Military strength in 1945. "By 1945, there were 5.5 million men in the Imperial Japanese Army." The japanese Military also planned to use 6,500 suicide plans to attack any US invasion of japan, along with 5,000 suicide boats.
