how would you justify America`s dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima & Nagasaki ?

Answer 1

It's true we lost the moral high ground after use of the nukes on Japan, but looking at what Truman faced in 1945, i probably would've done the same thing. To compare the moral depravity of state sponsored genocide where the death ovens at Aushwitz/Birkenau were topping out at 2,600 per day or 80,000 killed per month and the rape of Nanking vs our aerial bombardment of civilians is looking at different scales.

The "Final Solution" was the policy of only one country during the last century, and it wasn't the U.S. My beef is with the multi-national business cartels that allowed it to happen, the top being IG Farben (now BASF, Bayer, among others).

Not only did they finance Adolf, they supplied him with Zyclon B for use in the death camps. The American side of the company was not tried at Nuremburg, although they were just as culpable, go figure.

The fire bombing of Dresden by the 8th Air Force and RAF Bomber Command, caused the destruction of 15 square kms including 14,000 homes, 72 schools, 22 hospitals, 18 churches, etc. with a conservative estimate of around 30,000 civilians killed. At the time, the Germans used it as propaganda to advocate against following the Geneva conventions and to attack people's perception of the Allies claim to absolute moral superiority. The military claimed the railroad center was a military target, which it was, altho it was up and running a week later. Feb 1945 was only 3 months away from May 1945 (end of the Euopean war), the outcome of the war was not in doubt, so why bomb a 'cultural' medieval city of 600,000?

The firebombing of Dresden and nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes, genocide should also include civilian victims of aerial bombardment. Even after saying this, i still don't think the Allies were close to the moral depravity of the Nazis and their wholesale holocaust of the Euopean Jews.

Answer 2

Hard to believe, but those bombs did three things:
1. End the war quicker. Japan was in no hurry to capitulate and bring dishonor to the emperor.
2.It saved the lives of up to a million people. The next step of the war was an invasion of Japan itself and that would not only mean fighting the Japanese Army itself but the population itself would fight off the invaders.
3. It showed the true power of the weapon. While it was known that it was extremely powerful through secret test in the desert, the bombings in Japan showed the true power not only to those who dropped it but to the rest of the world as well. Not only was the explosive force something to induce fear (a single bomb that could level a city and kill half a million people), but all learned the effects of the radiation aftereffects that no one was fully aware of. It was this that has been the primary deterent from any other bombs being unleashed to date by anyone.

Answer 3

The Japanese army during world war II were going to fight to the death. This would mean an Iraqi insurgence on a large scale in the 40's. This would have had a toll of so many lives. Chaos for years. The bombs dropped was a way to shock the system of the Japanese army. Though 100k people died, the numbers of potential dead with an on going war would have been much greater.

FYI the bombs dropped were not the most devasting attacks on Japan. Actually the fire bombing of Tokyo killed more people. Tokyo was a metro made of wood. Our incindiary bombs turned the whole city into a fire ball. This killed more.

Answer 4

The same way they justified attacking the United States in an unprovoked, cowardly strike which even thier own military commanders immediately regretted.

Don't be fooled by those who would have you believe Hiroshima and Nagasaki were innocent towns filled with victims of war. The fact is, massive weapons producing facilities, military installations, and other legitimate targets were there, mixed in with the "civilian" population in order to deter strikes against them. We have as much right to strike a town filled with military targets and civilians as we did in WWII when Hitler's army surrounded itself with civilians in Germany. We carpet-bombed that country too, but no one seems to care.

The fact is, if you live in a country responsible for slaughtering 11-20 million people, and you also live near military installations of that government, you can consider yourself collateral damage. I would rather see some civilians die than prolong a war which has already claimed so many millions of people with no hope of victory for either side without millions more deaths.

Not that I enjoy seeing civilians die. But when you are forced into a decision where you either choose 1 million deaths or 100 million deaths, you choose 1 million every single time. Then spend the rest of your life in tortured psychological despair at having to make such a choice. The only other alternative is unconditional surrender to an enemy who attacked you first, who will conquer and enslave you when you do.

Somehow, the atomc bomb only claimed 100,000. The rest of the war was far more bloody, as conventional weapons killed about 600 times as many people as the nukes did.

61 million people died in WW2, only 100,000 were from the bombs that ended that war. Do the math.

There were only 300,000 total civilian casualties in Japan for all of ww2. They lost 1,506,000 troops. They have nothing to complain about, as the Soviet Union lost twice as many civilians as military, totalling 16.9 million civilians and 8.6 million troops.

You might say that the bomb saved millions of Japanese lives, as a ground war in Japan would have created millions upon millions of civilian deaths.

Answer 5

Before the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, President Truman asked his top advisors including General of the Army George Marshall what his options were. here's what he was presented, you make the choice.

Option 1: Amphibious and airborne invasion of mainland Japan. Estimated US troops necessary for success: between 650,000 to 770,000.
Estimated US casualties: 31,000 in the first 30 days of the invasion (Truman said after the war he belived that the US would have sustained between 500,000 to 1,000,000 casualties). Estimated Japanese casualties: exponentially higher than US casualties (possibly as high as 3 to 5 million dead or wounded).
Estimated outcome of the war: Japanese guerilla fighters would flee to the underground and continue to fight to the death - the Bushido code. Hostilities would continue well into the 1950's, possibly the 1960's.

Option 2: Drop the Atomic Bomb on MILITARY targets, thereby lessening the civilian casualties to as low as reasonably achieveable.
Estimated US troops to be successful: 1 US Navy warship to deliver the bomb to the forward area (1500 men), 1 B29 Superfortress crew (10 men) to deliver the bomb to the designated target.
Estimated US Casualties: zero to 200 (actual US casualties turned out to be much higher, though, as we lost the USS Indianapolis CA-35 to a Japanese submarine just after she delivered the bomb to the island base of Tinian. 1196 men went into the water on July 30, 1945, ...300 went down with the ship. Of the roughly 900 men remaining, only 316 were rescued 4 days later; the rest were all eaten alive by sharks).
Estimated Japanese casualties: 140 - 150,000 dead and wounded (in both raids).

War is hell. And, even as sophisticated as modern warfare has become, innocent people die in war. It is a sad but true fact. in this instance, 140-150,000 people dead or wounded may seem outrageous. But comparing it to the estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 American casualties and the estimated 3 to 4 million Japanes dead and wounded in an invasion scenario, the bombs were infinitely more merciful.

Let us not forget that the Empire of Japan started World War II with their expansionist policies in China and the Far East as well as their antagonistic attitude toward the United States and Great Britain. The Potsdam Declaration gave the Japanese warning that if they did not surrender unconditionally, they faced complete and utter destruction. The Japanese warlords who controlled the government at the time were to blame for the terrible price the Japanese people paid for World War II, not the United States.

Answer 6

My father, who was in the military during WW2, was of the opinion that the atomic bombs were not needed, because the Japanese supply lines had been thoroughly cut by US attacks and the country was prostrate. My own study of the situation has convinced me otherwise. There were many Japanese leaders in 1945 who wanted to continue the war, no matter what, with pitchforks if necessary, in order to defend the Emperor. (It's a religious thing.) It was necessary to take strong action to convince the leadership that further resistance was hopeless. Even so, it was a near thing; after Hirohito recorded his surrender message, zealots attempted to steal and destroy it, and nearly succeeded in doing so.

Answer 7

By pointing out that doing so caused the Japanese to surrender just in time for a massive American food relief effort to prevent the starvation of an estimated 10 million Japanese civilians.

Answer 8

The justification is simple. Military commanders had grown very accurate when estimating the casualties that would be sustained in the taking of any target. The Japanese home islands had to be taken, and it was calculated that one million men would lose their lives or be wounded in the process. We elected to kill a hundred thousand of them instead of a million Americans.

Answer 9

I find it very justifiable. the Japanese way of thinking was way different then ours. It was an honor to die in battle. It was o.k. to kill people. by using them as live bayonet practice. Officers would ride on their horses, and chop soldiers and civilians heads off for fun. their soldiers plucked out Caucasian men's eyes that were blue or green. because they never saw blue and green eyes.The Japanese invaded American soil. They had plans to launch balloons filled with disease, to fall on our homeland. Life meant nothing to them. Look at the kamikaze pilots. They would of fought to the death, taking hundreds of thousands of our soldiers lives.I see no reason if someone wants to die for a crazy cause. Lets help them out.

Answer 10

it saved millions of people Japanese and Americans we were going to invade and millions would have died besides we killed millions of people dropping regular bombs on them and in Europa but people don't say to much about that i have met 4 of the men that dropped the atomic bomb Paul W. Tibbets pilot of the Enola Gay Theodore J.Van Kirk and Morris R.Jeppson and the co pilot of Box Car Maurico Jeppson and i think they are all heroes