Do people really think that pearl harbour is a justification for nuking innocent people in hiroshima?

Question

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Answer 1

Nothing can justify bombing of civilians and the use of nuclear weapons.

If bullying were an answer, then can you justify 9/11 or other actions by terrorists? (I personally condemn them).

What if the shoe were on the other foot and it was Japan that did this to the US, drop nukes that is? It is very easy to justify crimes against humanity if you are a conquering nation, but what of the conquered? And the Japanese were wrong for following the Samurai code, they should have limited (if at all they should) it to their own Nation and nationals.

It is easy to say that nuking helped save American lives, but you did end up killing and harming for a very long time innocents, as do terrorists everywhere.

If you can justify as right the use of nuclear weapons, then why not India, Pakistan, Korea, and anyone else?

And don't give me the crap about maturity of the government possessing nuclear arms, the US is the only country that has used nuclear weapons in war, no one else has.
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Answer 2

Civilians always get 70%+ of fatalities in wars. Static unarmed and unarmoured targets. People always mourn their own side and criticise the other, which is all too late after the hostilities have begun. America dropped the bomb because they were going to anyway. There were other ways to do it, but they dropped them because they had two bombs to drop. Russia wasn't picking up the phone and then it was too late. The dropping of those bombs summed up everything xenophobic, predujice, and weak about mankind, there is nothing ever right about killing on either side of a war. If you think the order starts at the top, the soldiers doing what they are told, and the civilians just targets at best, on both sides. Its the mentality of explosives though...give a soldier a blow torch and tell him to use on a five year old girl, thats a big no-no...but kill a hundred thousand? Lets have a victory day....all that said...if anyone reads this far before constructing their insult/rebuke/memories "It did what it did." I don't think any non-combatant should demand anything off another one after the war is done, so the problem I have is people asking for apologises from people who weren't even born at the time. The victims are the war dead, apologise to them, all of them, every single person, by name...and that still won't change a thing. The best apology is action...not to repeat old mistakes..which is not happening.

My answer is: No, but there was no justification for pearl harbour either, just a few mens ideas.

By the way, more people died in the fire bombings than were killed by the a-bombs.

Answer 3

Nothing in this world can justify death. But you have to look at the times. The bombing on Japan was more then just about Pearl Harbour. What most people don't know is that Japan was also invading China, and getting help from the Germans. While the bomb may seem harsh it also served another purpose. The ability and willingness to use the bomb secured Americas stand as the super power of the world. And while the bomb may have crippled Japan at the time, it made it possible for Japan to become the second largest economic power in the world today.

Answer 4

I almost wrote a nasty word. Innocent people? You mean the ones that attacked Pearl Harbor and various other U. S. bases, unannounced? You mean the innocent people that worked non-stop, 24/7 to supply the war effort? You mean the innocent people who were armed with whatever the government had left to fight the invaders to the death? So, you're saying that the Japanese, who started the Pacific War in the first place, were more innocent than the million or more servicemen who would have died invading Japan even though the Japanese authorities knew the war was lost? I lost someone in the war! There was more to it than Pearl Harbor, but you aren't really interested in the truth, are you?

Answer 5

If you read your history a little better, you would know Pearl Harbor was not even in the thought process of the President or Military Leaders for dropping the Bomb on Hiroshima or Nagasaki. The reasoning (to put a blunt force point to it) was to force an end to the War as soon as possible and (Believe it or not) to save lives, both US and Japanese. The statistics of a prolonged war taken to the heart of Japan placed the number of people killed (Military and Civilian) at almost 10 times what the bomb killed. Japan was prepared to prolong its fighting in the truest of Bushido codes until every last fighting man in her Military was dead. This also would have caused tremendous loss of life in the Allies Armies and taken an estimated 3 more years to end the war... President Truman fought a very tough inner battle with himself before he gave the order to drop those bombs. If you don't believe me look then you might want to research for yourself.

Answer 6

Pearl Harbor was not the justification, just the excuse needed to toarget someone to use the bomb on. Germany surrendered already as had Italy. so had Japan really, but the US still wanted to prove a point and be the big boys and blow something up. then Oppenheimer came out with words which made them, and everyone else realise what had just happened:
" I have become death, the destroyer of worlds."

Answer 7

The justification for the atomic bombs was because the only other way was to invade Japan, with the casualty estimates starting at a low of 5 million dead (both sides). The dropping of the bombs saved over 4.5 million lives, perhaps significantly more. And it spared a total destruction of Japan.

If that isn't a good enough reason, then nothing is. Knowledgable Japanese people also agree it saved lives and the destruction of Japan.

Answer 8

Probably some, but there are also those that believe that pulling out of Vietnam was a great idea, even though the result was hundreds of thousands slaughtered in Vietnam, and millions in Cambodia.

The US could have stayed and prevented it, but didn't. Sometimes, war is right.

Back to your question - the US weighed the human cost of the atomic bomb, and decided that a quick Japanese surrender would minimize the total lives lost, even including civilians. The strikes ended a world war within days. Apparently, some people think ending the war quickly was wrong.

Answer 9

Pearl Harbor had absolutely nothing top do with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, other than the fact that it brought us into war against Japan, which eventually (for completely different reasons) led to the bomb being used.
My recommendation is that you go back and do the research needed to determine the reasons for President Truman doing so, and then if you have a question, bring it back for us to answer.

Answer 10

they generals said that a million men would die to finally defeat japan. it would have cost so many lives on both sides that it was actually humane and yes i really do think it was humane. otherwise a lot more people would have died. remember the us was still fighting a war that japan had started. and no the Japanese didn't deserve it because of pearl harbor. but they did deserve it for the rape of Nan king ( basically they wiped out a whole city and killed literally everyone) it was also a way of intimidating the soviets. the soviets and Americans were only allies by convenience otherwise they hated each other.