SURVEY: Do you believe the using of the atomic bomb during WWII was justified?

[Lorn]

To simplify matters, anyone who starts a war (or a fight) for no good reason deserves anything they get

It's pretty stupid to say Japan had no good reason to start the fight with USA. USA was already involved in the war by supplying arms and was only going to continue escalating its involvement. Japan had to do what it did if the axis was to have any chance of victory. Now if you are saying Japan had no reason to start the fight with China or Germany with Czechoslovakia and Poland then that is another matter.

[lostoday]

To simplify matters, anyone who starts a war (or a fight) for no good reason deserves anything they get

It's pretty stupid to say Japan had no good reason to start the fight with USA. USA was already involved in the war by supplying arms and was only going to continue escalating its involvement. Japan had to do what it did if the axis was to have any chance of victory. Now if you are saying Japan had no reason to start the fight with China or Germany with Czechoslovakia and Poland then that is another matter.

Japan invaded China in 1937. Now what were you saying...... The USA was helping China in case you didn't know it. If Japan had withdrawn from China they would have had no arms, steel, oil and money embargo from the USA. Japan was the aggressor in WWII and got their comeuppance.

[manfredtillmann]

i recently read a comment of a hiroshima survivour. it stated:

i said good bye to my wife and went to work as usual. 3 days later i managed to return home. i found her at once, burnt in the remains of our kitchen. just her pelvis and other bones, scorched by the fire. she was still warm. i picked up my wife and put her in a bucket and i carried her to the cemetery...

there is no justification for war.

So what do you do when another person starts a war? Fight, run or join the other side?

hard to tell. what do you do if your head of state starts a war? in a democratic society one might have a choice. i deserted from west german conscription for military service in 1976. suffered some consequenses. don't regret it, but.

it was myb way of saying 'no'.

So did my grandfather in Prussia a long time ago. A lot of Americans went to Canada but I think Canada stopped accepting them now.

what did he do? desert from the prussian army? that would have been a lot more courageouse than my 'fake' medical discharge. any which way, to withold yourself from military service is a cultural thing, and very much based on education. i doubt many japanese back than - or even today - have/ had the opportunitiy to even dream of a choice.

[lostoday]

So what do you do when another person starts a war? Fight, run or join the other side?

hard to tell. what do you do if your head of state starts a war? in a democratic society one might have a choice. i deserted from west german conscription for military service in 1976. suffered some consequenses. don't regret it, but.

it was myb way of saying 'no'.

So did my grandfather in Prussia a long time ago. A lot of Americans went to Canada but I think Canada stopped accepting them now.

what did he do? desert from the prussian army? that would have been a lot more courageouse than my 'fake' medical discharge. any which way, to withold yourself from military service is a cultural thing, and very much based on education. i doubt many japanese back than - or even today - have/ had the opportunitiy to even dream of a choice.

I think it was the Franco Prussian war. Not too clear on all of the details. He escaped to USA.

[soalbundy]

this thread is boring, really really boring

[fitnesspm]

Dropping an atom bomb on "innocent people" is justified??? I can believe so many people voted yes. It's the same as saying 9/11 was justified!

[lostoday]

this thread is boring, really really boring

I could post pictures of the uniforms from the Franco Prussian war. They were really cool. The French had red pants.

[lostoday]

Dropping an atom bomb on "innocent people" is justified??? I can believe so many people voted yes. It's the same as saying 9/11 was justified!

The innocent people paid the taxes that supported the war criminals that started the war and committed all of the Japanese atrocities during WWII. So if you didn't do it but paid for it are you innocent? It's OK to hire a hit man as long as you don't do it?

BTW Japanese children willingly sewed the fabric for the balloon bombs in the map below.

Edited August 18, 2015 by lostoday

[Spleen]

After the casualties to the US island hoping in the Pacific and the 3 year war of attrition in Burma and china they knew the Japanese would fight to the last, They had no choice imo , it was either atom bombs or conventional bombs

[manfredtillmann]

this thread is boring, really really boring

I could post pictures of the uniforms from the Franco Prussian war. They were really cool. The French had red pants.

great!!!such a smart response. this must come a close second to the 'most irrelevant post ever posted'. keep it up, mate!

[lostoday]

this thread is boring, really really boring

I could post pictures of the uniforms from the Franco Prussian war. They were really cool. The French had red pants.

great!!!such a smart response. this must come a close second to the 'most irrelevant post ever posted'. keep it up, mate!

It was a sarcastic response to make the poster realize the foolishness of his post.

[Spleen]

To simplify matters, anyone who starts a war (or a fight) for no good reason deserves anything they get

It's pretty stupid to say Japan had no good reason to start the fight with USA. USA was already involved in the war by supplying arms and was only going to continue escalating its involvement. Japan had to do what it did if the axis was to have any chance of victory. Now if you are saying Japan had no reason to start the fight with China or Germany with Czechoslovakia and Poland then that is another matter.

Japan invaded China in 1937. Now what were you saying...... The USA was helping China in case you didn't know it. If Japan had withdrawn from China they would have had no arms, steel, oil and money embargo from the USA. Japan was the aggressor in WWII and got their comeuppance.

The Burma Road is a brilliant book on the subject Vinegar Joe and CKS hated each other. And CKS was only kept in line by US pilots delivering lend lease , flying over the Himalayas from India

[Janner1]

If you truth is really to be known the first bomb was dropped because the Japanese government would not allow the emperor to lose face (stupid Asian syndrome ) and they would have totally annihilated the populace to save him, so the war would have continued apace especially as Russia had declared war a week before the actual enforced surrender,so they had to be stopped and it was better to kill in a concentrated area Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities, than let the government destroy the country.

Remember also that nobody knew exactly what would happen until the aftermath was known, they had an idea but nothing was foregone

Bomb 2 was dropped 1 to enforce the surrender and 2 to tell the Russians that if they did not retreat from Mongolia and rescind the declaration of war they too would be forced to suck it and see.

So in the round,if Nagasaki had not happened the Russians being arrogant and full of themselves and uncaring about the loss of lives on the ground would probably have thought that Hiroshima was a one off and continued to advance, so they too had to be shown.

I do not condone entirely what happened but given all that happened after the ending of the world war and the Cold War during the 50s 60s and 70s I do believe that it was a necessary.

[lostoday]

If you truth is really to be known the first bomb was dropped because the Japanese government would not allow the emperor to lose face (stupid Asian syndrome ) and they would have totally annihilated the populace to save him, so the war would have continued apace especially as Russia had declared war a week before the actual enforced surrender,so they had to be stopped and it was better to kill in a concentrated area Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities, than let the government destroy the country.

Remember also that nobody knew exactly what would happen until the aftermath was known, they had an idea but nothing was foregone

Bomb 2 was dropped 1 to enforce the surrender and 2 to tell the Russians that if they did not retreat from Mongolia and rescind the declaration of war they too would be forced to suck it and see.

So in the round,if Nagasaki had not happened the Russians being arrogant and full of themselves and uncaring about the loss of lives on the ground would probably have thought that Hiroshima was a one off and continued to advance, so they too had to be shown.

I do not condone entirely what happened but given all that happened after the ending of the world war and the Cold War during the 50s 60s and 70s I do believe that it was a necessary.

Not only his face. I think the Allies were going to hang him.

[MiKT]

Dropping an atom bomb on "innocent people" is justified??? I can believe so many people voted yes. It's the same as saying 9/11 was justified!

Dont be so stupid, the atomic bombs ended a world wide conflict that affected 100's of million people world wide for many years. 9/11 terrible and trumatic as it was was not even equivalent to one nights bombing on London in 1940. Don't try to justify your sick agenda here.

[brain150]

It is fantastic to see how Government Propaganda has reached its goal ...

People think it is ok to kill other people [nothing else happened with the bombs] as long as it serves its purpose.

That's why it is happening now and that's why it will happen in the future.

ALL Governments are cirminals and the people who "serve" in the wars are foolish sheep who think

it's for "the greater good" ... until they die and are called heroes.

This is madness and insane !!!

There is NO justification for any mass killing [or even single killing] of a human being ... and everybody who remembers that he/she him/herself

is still a human being should never ever vote YES in a poll where thousands of people got murdered !!!

[rijb]

It is fantastic to see how Government Propaganda has reached its goal ...

People think it is ok to kill other people [nothing else happened with the bombs] as long as it serves its purpose.

That's why it is happening now and that's why it will happen in the future.

ALL Governments are cirminals and the people who "serve" in the wars are foolish sheep who think

it's for "the greater good" ... until they die and are called heroes.

This is madness and insane !!!

There is NO justification for any mass killing [or even single killing] of a human being ... and everybody who remembers that he/she him/herself

is still a human being should never ever vote YES in a poll where thousands of people got murdered !!!

What would you do in a kill or be killed scenario?

[Wat dee]

I believe if this vote were confined to those alive at the time, excluding Japanese the vote would be overwhelmingly yes

It is good that younger generations are more moderate, or are they I think the majority would execute those terrorists who behead their victims, I also think the Japanese executed many prisoners

Younger generations aren't moderate.They are just more informed and realize "good guys" aren't that good.

[MiKT]

I believe if this vote were confined to those alive at the time, excluding Japanese the vote would be overwhelmingly yes

It is good that younger generations are more moderate, or are they I think the majority would execute those terrorists who behead their victims, I also think the Japanese executed many prisoners

Younger generations aren't moderate.They are just more informed and realize "good guys" aren't that good.

regrettably the younger generation are for the most part incredibly ill informed and unable to understand why those who know vote yes - and - for the most part - too bloody lazy to find out. The shameful lack of real historic teaching in Thailand being a case in point. When I took my Thai daughters to visit the Imperial War Museum in London, even though I had told them something of it before, They could not belive and were totally horrified by the exhibition on the Holocaust and on the effects of bombing and fighing in Europe, Asia and North Africa. They had never been taught about the horrific effects of the war at school and the Japanese invasion and terrible treatment of Thai's and allied POW's was barely understood even though we had taken them to Kanchanaburi several times. Yes there are no "good guys" in war, but some are much better than others when viewed in a realistic perspective. Do you think ISIS burning their prisoners alive or beheading them (just like the Japanese did) is better than locking them up for the duration of the war and treating them in accordance with Geneva Convention rules or maybe you think "good guys" try to exterminate the whole population as the Nazis and Russians planned to do to the Poles, let alone what was done to the Jews, or to the Chinese and Koreans by the Japanese, or perhaps you, being young, believe Sudam should have been allowed to keep on gassing the kurds. Good guys, huh, get some knowledge in you.

[lostoday]

It is fantastic to see how Government Propaganda has reached its goal ...

People think it is ok to kill other people [nothing else happened with the bombs] as long as it serves its purpose.

That's why it is happening now and that's why it will happen in the future.

ALL Governments are cirminals and the people who "serve" in the wars are foolish sheep who think

it's for "the greater good" ... until they die and are called heroes.

This is madness and insane !!!

There is NO justification for any mass killing [or even single killing] of a human being ... and everybody who remembers that he/she him/herself

is still a human being should never ever vote YES in a poll where thousands of people got murdered !!!

Would you rather your family got murdered? The Japanese invaded and killed hundreds of thousands of people and would have kept killing people unless stopped. So I don't see your rational. You can't put a whole country in prison now can you?

You or your wife and kids or the guys trying to break into your house/country - who gets killed? It is not an intellectual argument it is you or the guys trying to kill you - who gets killed? How is irrelevant as death is death isn't it?

Edited August 18, 2015 by lostoday

[jtTamad]

You can't with someone who lives in some idealistic wonderland that doesn't exist.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Edited August 19, 2015 by jtTamad

[dontoearth]

The best post here are factual post such as the time line of the bombs and surrender and the emperor's own WORDS! Endless opinions of even important people are just that opinions. I won't use the tired joke but opinions are like some part of the human anatomy. Everyone has one. If you haven't heard that joke you are missing something in life.

Secondly, as an American let me say that after the war we created the Marshall plan paying for the rebuilding of Europe and Japan. Leading to a post war environment in which our former enemies became our allies.

Lastly, I am sorry to see we as a people are just as guilty of following our military and political leaders off a cliff. I am sure if we had not used the bomb in WWII, we would have used it Korea or the Cuban missile crisis, or Vietnam. I would argue once the bomb was used almost all rational people never wanted it used again.

[Jingthing]

I'm surprised at the results here.

My perception of the crowd here is that it is largely anti-American in bias so I assumed most people would have voted No just to reflect that.

Live and learn.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-apologies-necessary/2015/08/17/a0899906-450a-11e5-8e7d-9c033e6745d8_story.html

[Keesters]

I didn't vote. Can't make up my mind about something that happened before my time But if it came to a vote on using one again or even possessing one then it's a great big

NO

[lostoday]

I didn't vote. Can't make up my mind about something that happened before my time But if it came to a vote on using one again or even possessing one then it's a great big

NO

Which side would be on when you voted no? The aggressors who were trying to take over the world (don't have a bomb)? Or. The part of the world being taken over (has the bomb)? If you vote no you will killed and your wife and family given to terrorists as slaves.

[mania]

I'm surprised at the results here.

My perception of the crowd here is that it is largely anti-American in bias so I assumed most people would have voted No just to reflect that.

Live and learn.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-apologies-necessary/2015/08/17/a0899906-450a-11e5-8e7d-9c033e6745d8_story.html

This is why having prejudged & having preconceived notions is faulty

PS: I voted no & again to go against preconceived notions am not Anti American

But I would vote the same no against nuking any civilian population to gain anything

It is/was the pinnacle of cowardice

It would have been called the same if instead of stopping with striking a military target ( Pearl Harbor)

The Japanese war planes had proceeded to obliterate Hawaii/Hawaii's population...would we later accept their excuse claiming

it would end the fight sooner as the US would have no Hawaii mid-Pacific fueling stations available to strike Japan?

No answer required as it is not a question but my opinion

Edited August 19, 2015 by mania

[lostoday]

I'm surprised at the results here.

My perception of the crowd here is that it is largely anti-American in bias so I assumed most people would have voted No just to reflect that.

Live and learn.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-apologies-necessary/2015/08/17/a0899906-450a-11e5-8e7d-9c033e6745d8_story.html

This is why having prejudged & having preconceived notions is faulty

PS: I voted no & again to go against preconceived notions am not Anti American

But I would vote the same no against nuking any civilian population to gain anything

It is/was the pinnacle of cowardice

It would have been called the same if instead of stopping with striking a military target ( Pearl Harbor)

The Japanese war planes had proceeded to obliterate Hawaii/Hawaii's population...would we later accept their excuse claiming

it would end the fight sooner as the US would have no Hawaii mid-Pacific fueling stations available to strike Japan?

No answer required as it is not a question but my opinion

You mean like they did in Nanking?

[MiKT]

I'm surprised at the results here.

My perception of the crowd here is that it is largely anti-American in bias so I assumed most people would have voted No just to reflect that.

Live and learn.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-apologies-necessary/2015/08/17/a0899906-450a-11e5-8e7d-9c033e6745d8_story.html

This is why having prejudged & having preconceived notions is faulty

PS: I voted no & again to go against preconceived notions am not Anti American

But I would vote the same no against nuking any civilian population to gain anything

It is/was the pinnacle of cowardice

It would have been called the same if instead of stopping with striking a military target ( Pearl Harbor)

The Japanese war planes had proceeded to obliterate Hawaii/Hawaii's population...would we later accept their excuse claiming

it would end the fight sooner as the US would have no Hawaii mid-Pacific fueling stations available to strike Japan?

No answer required as it is not a question but my opinion

You mean like they did in Nanking?

or Hong Kong, or Malaysia, or Singapore, or etc. Just proves my point about lack of knowledge.

[chuckd]

I'm surprised at the results here.

My perception of the crowd here is that it is largely anti-American in bias so I assumed most people would have voted No just to reflect that.

Live and learn.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-apologies-necessary/2015/08/17/a0899906-450a-11e5-8e7d-9c033e6745d8_story.html

This is why having prejudged & having preconceived notions is faulty

PS: I voted no & again to go against preconceived notions am not Anti American

But I would vote the same no against nuking any civilian population to gain anything

It is/was the pinnacle of cowardice

It would have been called the same if instead of stopping with striking a military target ( Pearl Harbor)

The Japanese war planes had proceeded to obliterate Hawaii/Hawaii's population...would we later accept their excuse claiming

it would end the fight sooner as the US would have no Hawaii mid-Pacific fueling stations available to strike Japan?

No answer required as it is not a question but my opinion

While I appreciate your post reflects only your opinion, it would also seem to be based on what you assume is a fact. The fact being your thought that Hiroshima was not a viable military target.

Lifted from a good source on the bombings:

---------------------------------------------------------------------

"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. To quote a Japanese report, "Probably more than a thousand times since the beginning of the war did the Hiroshima citizens see off with cries of 'Banzai' the troops leaving from the harbor."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

...and...

---------------------------------------------------------------------

"The city of 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."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/MED/med_chp5.shtml

[billd766]

To simplify matters, anyone who starts a war (or a fight) for no good reason deserves anything they get

It's pretty stupid to say Japan had no good reason to start the fight with USA. USA was already involved in the war by supplying arms and was only going to continue escalating its involvement. Japan had to do what it did if the axis was to have any chance of victory. Now if you are saying Japan had no reason to start the fight with China or Germany with Czechoslovakia and Poland then that is another matter.

Japan invaded China in 1937. Now what were you saying...... The USA was helping China in case you didn't know it. If Japan had withdrawn from China they would have had no arms, steel, oil and money embargo from the USA. Japan was the aggressor in WWII and got their comeuppance.

According to Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_of_Manchuria

The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 18, 1931, when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II.