If you could go back to the WW2 era, would you still vote to Bomb Japan?

[SnesTea]

sieanr said:

Snesboy said:
Yes I would. The war ended in the European Theater only. It still raged on in the Pacific Theater. Japan refused to surrender since they were a very Imperialistic nation during WWII. Not too mention that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were military targets. We weren't targeting civilians.

Your argument is very weak because of the reason I mentioned earlier, the war was only over in Europe, and the United States was planning an invasion of the Japanese mainland beforehand. Truman decided to not risk the lives of more than 1 and a half million soldiers that would've been sent to their death if such an invasion occurred. Dropping an atomic bomb was a better solution since it wouldn't cost as many lives, even if it did kill hundreds of thousands of Japanese. If the United States Army did indeed invade Japan, it would have cost far more lives in the long run and make the war last well into the latter half of the 1940's.

Lastly, conservatives are more likely to start wars that have been provoked by other nations. Look throughout history. Hitler, he was a threat, he starts invading countries, he has to be stopped. Korean War, stop the spread of dangerous government idea's (communism). Vietnam War, same thing. War on Terror, prevent psychological maniacs from executing their crazy ideals. On top of that, al Qaeda made a deliberate attack on the United States first (9/11). They were asking for it.

Damn that was a long post.

LOLWAT?

Hiroshima was a city of minor strategic importance, having only a handful of factories and a small number of troops stationed there. The bomb was dropped in the center of the city, where all of the civilian homes and business were while what factories and bases the city had lied on its outskirts. Part of the reason why Hiroshima was chosen was due to its terrain. The city lied in the valley and it was believed that this would channel the explosion, but this theory needed to be tested. Thus Hiroshima became something of an experiment to see how the bomb bast would be effected by land.

The big motivation for dropping the bomb wasnt to end the war with Japan, but to intimidate the USSR. Tensions between the US and Soviet Union were tense throughout the war, but once Truman took office things began to sour. For various reasons President Truman was concerned with the US putting itself in a superior diplomatic position to the USSR, and he saw the bomb as one way to accomplish that. 

One other thing to keep in mind is that the Soviet Union was entering the war against Japan right after the bombs were dropped. Because of this there was a real priority placed on ending the war as soon as possibly to prevent the USSR from acquiring territory in Asia, such as Korea. Oddly enough the USSR entering the war happened to be just as much of a factor in Japanese surrender as the dropping of the Abomb, not just because the Japanese were terrified of the Soviets due to a previous war but also because they were afraid of the Soviets doing the same thing they did in Eastern Europe.

Oh, and one last thing. The US firebombed Dresden in Germany. After we saw the civilian casualty figures and how destructive the bombing was we decided that we would never do the same to Germany. Yet we firebombed Japan on a weekly basis, often times causing far more civilian casualties then dresden.

I don't feel like tackling the last thing you wrote, but its mostly wrong.

 

1. Get a new avatar.

2. Learn what you are talking about.

3. We weren't deliberately killing civilians.

4. The last thing I wrote is true. Back up your statement.