UPDATE: For those who wish to berate me for saying Japan is owed no apology for America ending the war with the A-Bomb, Japan Developed Atom Bomb (1946 Atlanta Constitution Articles)
It’s difficult to believe that long before most of us were born, the entire world was embroiled in the bloodiest war in history, World War Two. Oh, we’ve read about it in books, learned about it from parents and grandparents who fought in it and saw the many movies made about it.
None can accurately capture the sheer brutality of war, though. Only participation can give the true feeling of that.
Being a Veteran of Viet Nam myself and growing up in the shadow of that brutal war, perhaps that is why I am so perplexed these past few years that the world now seems to demand America apologize to those who drug us into that war for our ending it by the two atomic bomb attacks on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Atomic weapons had never been used and it was not even known that they would work, having just been developed. But work they did and the Japanese agreed to an unconditional surrender, as had Germany many months before. The war ended and the troublesome task of peace began for a while.
But, why use such a brutal weapon that killed over 100,000, many ask today. Surely it could have been ended without taking so many lives, they opine. And, they are wrong.
The brutality of the Japanese Imperial Army is a well known historical fact today, thanks in part to such books as The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang, which documented how they used the slaughter and beheadings of innocent Chinese for sport.
The maltreatment of Prisoners of War such as occurred during what is known as the Bataan Death March where “Beheadings, cutting of throats and casual shootings were the more common actions, compared to instances of bayonet stabbing, rape, disembowelment, rifle butt beating and a deliberate refusal to allow the prisoners food or water while keeping them continually marching for nearly a week in tropical heat” against captured American and Filipino soldiers and civilians are well documented.
Ignored or forgotten is that both Germany and Japan were also working on creating nuclear weapons as America was developing ours. Luckily, our scientists developed ours first.
Couple the Axis’ Powers development programs of Atomic Weapons with their work on developing delivery systems, such as the German Messerschmitt Me-264 Amerika Bomber and the sharing of technology between Germany and Japan prior to wars end, there can be little doubt that had they developed theirs first, it would have been used against Allied forces, if not America itself.
Much has been said over the years of the scientists that developed the American Atomic Bombs expressed hesitation on using it against Japan. While that will be endlessly debated, the decision was not an easy one for President Truman to make.
Given the Japanese refusal of the Potsdam Declaration and the fierce fighting seen in taking Okinawa and the high loss of life on both sides, every indication was that millions of lives would be lost to invade Japan and bring the war to an end by that means.
Many still claim a “demonstration” of the might of the “A-Bomb” would have encouraged Japan to surrender. But, remember that we only had two bombs built and there was still the question of whether or not they would actually work, even though one had worked in the New Mexico desert.
Even if it had worked, given the fanaticism of the Japanese Army at the time and even with the claims now of they were ready to quit anyways, Truman did not have a lot of choices if he were to end the war and avoid millions more in deaths on both sides.
Those now crying that America should apologize for the Atomic Bomb conveniently leave out one little undisputed fact.
That being, had there not been s sneak attack Sunday morning, December 7, 1941 against the United States Naval Forces moored in Pearl Harbor Hawaii, dragging a reluctant America into a war they were trying to avoid, there would have been no reason to drop any bombs on the cities of Hiroshima or Nagasaki just under 4 years later.
If any apologies are due to anyone, it should be from Germany and Japan for plunging the world into the bloodiest conflict ever seen in the history of mankind.
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6 comments:
Two million people died in the Battle of Berlin. Russian soldiers raped hundreds of thousands of German women.
Encore in Tokyo anyone?
Frankly, I'm a bit disturbed about what has happened to Japanese culture since the war ended. They went from a proud warrior society (albeit evil and imperialistic) to a bunch of effeminate pansies. They have groups of men who are deliberately asexual. They take up hobbies like gardening and avoid women. They're not gay, but they might as well be.
In the old movies, Japanese men would chill your blood just by wishing you a good morning. Listening to the men talk now, they all sound like they're getting off the San Francisco MUNI at the Castro station.
I'm a big fan of Kurosawa. I wish Japan would reawaken some of its samurai spirit. It might also reawaken their dismal, stagnant economy.
We owe them absolutely no apologies though. They deserved both atomic bombs and more for their treachery.
I saw an account on the History Channel, though, of one poor guy who survived Hiroshima and was transported to a hospital in Nagasaki where he survived the second bomb. So sad and unlucky, I had to laugh.
I played golf with a man who was Japanese and was a boy in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped. He descirbed the post-bomb scene as the most horrific imaginable. The partially burnt bodies, total devastaion, etc.
I asked how he felt about the bomb and without hesitation he said, "it saved my life". He explained that he and his 13 year old classmates were given sharpened sticks with which they were to meet the Marines on the beaches when they landed on the mainland.
He moved to the USA and joined the US Army.
This must be a joke certainly. You approve of the atomic bombs? You approve of the killings of civilians in cities chosen for the purpose of "testing their power" as in 'see how many people we can kill'.
Many millions may well have died in the war and that would still be better in my opinion. One civilian or ten soldiers and I would choose soldiers. Burning children and women alive is not something I would agree too, but I guess it's not that bad according to what I just read. Never bring one innocent into the argument and say that it's okay to kill a child instead of killing a soldier. Your arguments are all flawed as Japanese officials have many times apologized for their atrocities, the US on the other hand refuses to do so. I am certain that apologizing the action of burning people alive or letting them live in hell, or raping their women, killing prisoners of war, authorizing the use of mustard gas and other illegal weapons and desecrating japanese soldiers' bodies wasn't enough for a US official to say sorry.
I am not Japanese, I am Norwegian and I know of the Allied war crimes as much as I know of the Axis' war crimes. You think that it's okay for the US to commit crimes because the Japanese did? I say you are mad. Yes, the Japanese army did horrible things, but that doesn't excuse the unforgivable treatment done to Japanese CIVILIANS, it just enhances the hypocritical nature of the Allied war tribunals during WWII (Allied generals should also have been executed for their crimes against humanity).
Dropping of the atomic bomb to end the war without a massive invasion is not a "war crime." It was an end to hostilities that owes no apology to anyone.
I am amazed that you, a Norwegian can so cavalierly dismiss how your own country's neutrality was violated and was occupied by Nazi's for the duration, with hundreds of thousands of allied lives being sacrificed throughout Europe that brought the Nazi's to their knees and cause them to surrender their weapons on 8 May 1945 on orders from 'High Command.'
Maybe the next time you are overran and occupied, allied forces will just say "screw you, deal with it yourself."
Tell Siv Jensen not expect any assistance in the fight against radical Islam. After all, she shouldn't encourage more "war crimes," now should she?
It appalls me to see how the death of over 200,000 civilians could be justified? They were not combatants. If you consider Pearl Harbor a war crime, it was! No doubt about that! The nuclear weapon could be dropped on the Japanese soldiers. But why on unarmed civilians? the Japanese civilians did not commit themselves to the war? our logic is completely fallacious. If we support your logic, then US's entering the Vietnam war was also a crime because the US was not dragged into the conflict. It dragged the Vietnamese into a war they had already won! This then perfectly justifies dropping an A-bomb or an H-bomb on the civilians of Alabama!
The ignorance of some people is just astounding! It was a war begun by others and ended as it did, no apologies are due as it would change nothing and those responsible for prosecuting the war, from both sides, are gone now.
It's history! Buck it up, We ended what others started.
Incidentally, what do you think Japan then would have done with their atomic bomb had they perfected theirs first?
Yes, Japan during the war worked on building one too.
Would you feel better had they perfected theirs and carried it to the West Coast in one of the super submarines they were working on and annihilated Los Angeles first?
Your knowledge of our entry into Vietnam is equally lacking.
But, I guess that is what your leftwing socialist professors taught you.
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