Was droping bomb on Hiroshima in 1945 evil?

by new hope and happiness 108 Replies latest jw friends

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  Apognophos

  A point that I always thought was valid, which some have made here, was, "Why didn't they demonstrate it on a nearby island?" There were any number of islands with few or no inhabitants around the Japanese archipelago. They could have evacuated an island and nuked it.

  Apparently Truman considered this but rejected it, because there was a possibility that the bomb would fail. A failed demonstration would have set back the efforts to obtain a surrender, and of course the U.S. only had produced a handful of bombs. A successful demonstration followed by an unsuccessful drop on a city would have been a big problem as the bombs were in such short supply.

  As far as I can tell, in fact, there were only four: one was rejected during the design stage as being unworkable, and one was detonated as a test, leaving only two for the war effort. If one was used on an empty island, and then the second (which used a different design) failed to detonate, it would probably have taken months to make a new one.

  That being said, I still think this is the best objection. For the sake of being able to later make a moral defense, the U.S. should have blown up a deserted island first even though it probably would not have convinced the Japanese. That way they would be able to say later, "We tried to warn them and they didn't listen." And they probably should have given Japan more time to decide on surrender after the first bombing. However, the combined psychological effect of back-to-back bombings, combined with the lack of knowledge of how many A-Bombs the U.S. had left, may have been a deciding factor.
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  prologos

  Very few of german scientists were Nazis, to the contrary, some worked on behalf of their Jewish and persecuted collegues. but like all

  Chasers after funding, they eagerly grasped the opportunity to live their dream.

  During the Berlin blockade the US tried to bluff the Soviet Union with the nuclear card by moving the bomb-carrying B29s to England, but Stalin knew the US had no more bombs. and

  In 2 hours the US airforce caused over Tokio the death of an estimated 140 000 people by burning, asphiciation. equal to the eventual death toll of Hiroshima.with equal results, it was not a moral choice but determining the duration of the bombing run.

  Was there not also a movement in the Manhattan project scientists to put the brakes on the deployment of the weapons on moral grounds, and the action by some to "share" the secret with the (future) enemy?
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  sammielee24

  Institute of Historical Review/

  Robert Jackson, the chief US prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal of 1945-46, privately acknowledged in a letter to President Truman, that the Allies “have done or are doing some of the very things we are prosecuting the Germans for. The French are so violating the Geneva Convention in the treatment of [German] prisoners of war that our command is taking back prisoners sent to them [for forced labor in France]. We are prosecuting plunder and our Allies are practicing it. We say aggressive war is a crime and one of our allies asserts sovereignty over the Baltic States based on no title except conquest.” / 26

  Germans were executed or imprisoned for policies that the Allies themselves were carrying out, sometimes on a far greater scale. German military and political leaders were put to death on the basis of a hypocritical double standard, which means that these executions were essentially acts of judicial murder dressed up with the trappings and forms of legality. If the standards of the Nuremberg Tribunal had been applied impartially, many American, Soviet and other Allied military and political leaders would have been hanged.

  An awareness of how the defeated Germans were treated by the victors helps in understanding why Germans continued to fight during the final months of the war with a determination, tenacity and willingness to sacrifice that has few parallels in history, even as their cities were being smashed into ruins under relentless bombing, and even as defeat against numerically superior enemy forces seemed inevitable.

  Two years after the end of the war, American and British policy toward the defeated Germans changed. The US and British governments began to treat the Germans as potential allies, rather than as vanquished subjects, and to appeal for their support. This shift in policy was not prompted by an awakening of humanitarian spirit. Instead, it was motivated by American and British fear of Soviet Russian expansion, and by the realization that the economic recovery of Europe as a whole required a prosperous and productive Germany.

  Oswald Spenger, the great German historian and philosopher, once observed that how a people learns history is its form of political education. In every society, including our own, how people learn and understand history is determined by those who control political and cultural life, including the educational system and the mass media. How people understand the past -- and how they view the world and themselves as members of society -- is set by the agenda of those who hold power.

  That’s why, in our society, death and suffering during and after World War II of non-Jews -- Poles, Russians and others, and especially Germans -- is all but ignored, and why, instead, more than six decades after the end of the war, Jewish death and suffering -- above all, what is known as “the Holocaust” -- is given such prominent attention, year after year, in our classrooms and motion pictures, and by our political leaders.
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  Apognophos

  Germans were executed or imprisoned for policies that the Allies themselves were carrying out, sometimes on a far greater scale.

  Yes, because the U.S. and Europe were also committing genocide and trying to take over the world

  An awareness of how the defeated Germans were treated by the victors helps in understanding why Germans continued to fight during the final months of the war with a determination, tenacity and willingness to sacrifice that has few parallels in history

  I've noticed that people who have committed crimes against humanity tend to shy away from surrendering and undergoing trials in a court of law. Funny, that.
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  cofty

  Those poor misunderstood Nazis.

  WWII had to be fought and won at all costs.
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  Simon

  People rarely see the opportunities of hindsight in present situations and so the past repeats and people lament "who knew? what could we do?".

  Who wouldn't have thought stamping out the nazis early on wouldn't have been a good thing and saved the world from so much damage and misery?

  And yet we have ISIS ... a modern day result of ill-conceived and botched post-war planning combined with radical, abhorent and inhuman belief systems on a rampage. We should be trying to wipe them off the face of the planet.

  Since WWI we know that wars can extend to all corners of the planet so when the choices are clear we should act firmly and quickly.

  One of the damaging leftovers of the bogus Bush wars is the lack of appetite for further conflict in the area and the desire for the America to withdraw from the world to some extent.
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  hamsterbait

  That is why it is foolish to placate the muslims who "assimilate" into our societies only as far as they need to take advantage of our weaknesses (fair play, civil rights, social security, protection from being offended etc)

  What we see as liberal democracy they see as an opportunity to extend the potential western Caliphate to come. They will insist on their own 'rights' whilst trampling on everybody elses( a bit like the Jdubs)

  A Mullah recently met the Mayoress of a town in France - as he claimed the arrondissement they were to meet was 'Islamic" he would only meet her on the border of that place, and only if she wore a head covering. She caved on both - in her own country!!!!!

  After every Islamist atrocity the politicians scuttle to the nearest mosque, insisting that Islam is a religion of PEACE. (yet most muslim countries are hell holes of violence, murder, prostitution and poverty)

  Since countries such as Canada, France, Holland, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, UK and others are now below the sustainable birthrate, they are encouraging immigration to cover potential labor shortages (and of course giving social security to those who have not paid in and who are breeding at twice to 3 times the rate)

  The socialised economies will be ruined, and by the time they wake up, they will realise their freedoms were taken away an inch at a time in the name of appeasement, "anti-racism" and political correctness. The politicians are still making the same mistakes they made when facing Hitler in the early days.

  I tell you another big war will come, but the west will not have the backbone to fight for its own survival. Women will start meekly walking around in a scarf to avoid verbal abuse in the streets from muslim males, and before long the men will capitulate out of fear of beheading. Similar things happened along different lines as Hitler's power increased.

  KNOW THINE ENEMY - never mind thinking they are "Gentlemen" like Neville Chamberlain did in 1938.
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  Apognophos

  I can't decide whether the post above me is hilarious or sad. You're a living caricature, hamsterbait.
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  hamsterbait

  Apog - Winston Churchill was mocked and derided in the British parliament for uttering similar warnings throughout the 1930s. He was mocked and marginalised by his pacifist and pro appeasement opponents.

  I wonder who will be eating humble pie in 30 years time. I dont share your optimistic view of peoples who despise our very existence and were dancing in the streets celebrating 9/11. They see us as WEAK as did Hitler and Japan. I know because a close friend of mine married an iranian man. They mock us as "potatoes".

  One Imam was quoted in the Portugese press: " the lives of unbelievers are OF NO VALUE." Fact - period. Is that why after each suicide bombing you NEVER hear a Mullah, Ayatollah or Imam condemning what was done??

  As Sammielee shrewdly said "not enough attention is given to preventing that situation arising in the future."
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  AlphaMan

  I would have no problem at all making the decision to drop an atomic bomb to end ISIS.