After WWII, was America ever punished ...?

Question

After WWII, was America ever punished for war crimes and dropping two of the most powerful bombs on Japan as German officers were for war crimes and genocide?

Answer 1

America did incarcerate Japanese-Americans during WWII. In many cases, some of these families that suffered did get a small amount of compensation. That was a terrible mistake, which should not be repeated.

Dropping the two bombs on Japan was not a war crime. In the end, it probably saved more lives than it took. The fire-bombing in Tokyo was almost as savage, yet the two bombs was what make Japan surrender. Japan was poised to continue the war to the LAST MAN standing. Following the surrender, over 1,000 Kamikaze pilots, who were trained for that mission were retrained so they could be returned to have normal lives.

Indeed, if the Bombs were not dropped, it would have been a serious crime to allow 20 million more people DIE needlessly for Japan's lost cause.

A tiny fraction of German officers faced trial for war crimes.

Answer 2

What makes you think the bombs were not necessary and justified?

1) In 1945, they were just 'big' bombs. Cities like Berlin and Dresden in Germany suffered more destruction and civilian casualities by bombing than Japan. Worldwide destruction from atomic bombs was not conceiveable in 1945. You cannot judge 1945 men by today's standards.

2) The US dropped the bombs on smaller cities intentionally. They could have dropped it on Toyko and killed 5,000,000 people instantly but they didn't.

3) Truman was advised, probably accurately, that the conventional invasion of Japan would take up to 1,000,000 Allied soldies lives, 5,000,000 Japanese civilian lives and last three more years, with widespread starvation and suffering for all Japanese. The bomb was the most humane alternative to a people who would not surrender otherwise.

4) The Allies had defeated the Japanese Navy and Air forces, but they had not even fought the 8 million man strong Japanese army, which was making their way back to the homeland by any means they could find to cross the narrow Sea of Japan. Four years of bitter fighting and they had not even met the main force of the Japanese Army!!

5) Stalin, who had 25 Million Red army soldiers now free to jump into the war in Asia and the newly built Trans-Siberian railroad to transport them, would have invaded China and wanted a piece of Japan. This would have been really, really bad.

6) The Japanese Army had taken most of Asia killed and slaughtered an estinmated 9 Million Chinese, Korean, Indochinese and Fillipinos unarmed and defenseless civilians. They had orders to rape every girl and woman before killing them. Go ask a Fillipina woman that was raped by 50 Jap soldiers if "dropping the bomb" on Japan was a war crime!!!!

I am sick of Anti-American people like you who don't know the facts and like to put the USA down. If you are American, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Answer 3

America became the most powerful nation state in the history of the world.....so no, I'd say America was not punished.
The dropping of those two bombs, killing roughly 214,000 people, stopped the war, avoiding the deaths of untold millions as Japan vowed to fight to the last. In the Battle of Okinawa 50,000-100,000 civilians died. What do you think would have happened if the US had to invade mainland Japan? The Japanese were foolish to attack the US at Pearl Harbor, bringing us into the war. They showed that they had little regard for human life by sending their kamikazes. You reap what you sow.

Answer 4

America did not drop the bomb to further war, but to end it.

Dr. Oppenheimer said that he thought of a famous phrases, "I am become death, destroyer of worlds" when the bomb dropped, yet he was not a war criminal, nor was anyone else involved in the project, because it didn't violate any

I think you need an understanding of War Crimes to see the difference between concentration camps and atomic bombs. The bombing of Japan fell into the category of "an appeal to arms has been brought about by events which their care was unable to avert" which is from the Laws of War :
Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907 and is what they were using to determine, at the time, what is a war crime. Read about it at the Avalon Project.

Answer 5

In actual fact both the US and Britain did commit acts which were in contravention of the Geneva Convention, however, it was generally legally accepted that if such an act was perpertrated in retaliation for the same act being committed against you first then it was not a crime. In Britain's case, this meant being allowed to bomb German cities, as the German's had done to them. The US could kind of argue the same in the case of Japan (ie Pearl Harbour) but NOT Germany.
Regardless of the legal implications the massive destruction wrought on German civilian populations was definately excessive and had little military value. Most people don't realise the destruction of Dreseden with conventional weapons was far more devastating than what happened to Japan.

Answer 6

No one punished the U.S. for dropping the two bombs. It has now come to light that Japan had planned to bomb San Francisco, CA around that same time with "dirty [nuclear] bombs." A Japanese submarine had been refitted for this purpose. Nuclear fuel had been sent from Germany to Japan but the submarine that carried it never got to Japan -- the sub's captain surrendered his sub, crew, and payload of nuclear material to the U.S. in New Hampshire. Both Japan and Germany were planning on attacking the U.S. with nuclear bombs in World War II. We just beat them to the punch. Some had suggested that the reason the U.S. finally decided to use the bomb on Japan was because of what they found on the German sub. They feared that if the Pacific war did not end soon, Japan might still attack the west coast or the Panama Canal with a nuclear payload. They thought that if one German sub carried nuclear material perhaps another one had gotten through to Japan already.

Answer 7

the u.s. did that to japan in response to pearl harbor and the japanese involement in the war. we were living in fear of another attack from the japanese (who would have continued in the battles until all their people were killed) and the only way to insure that this didn't happen was to disarm the enemy, crippling them to the point that we did not have to worry about them anymore... this is how war is done. had we responded with a strike that was proportionate to pearl harbor we would have been hit again. that said, it is horrible what happened to all the innocent people... it is really too bad that japan sided with the axis powers - who were racist against them anyway... had america not ended the war many, many more people would have died - including probably a lot more japanese after the germans were done using them during battle and turned their sites to wiping them off the map just as they were planning for all other races they considered imperfect... so, no america was not punished - beyond guilt and paying money to japan... but, more good came from our participation in the war then bad - and it is not fair to draw a comparison between our actions and those of the germans.

this was one of the only wars where america actually was in the right.

Answer 8

History is always written by the victors. Always. Besides, the dropping of the bombs on Japan saved many American lives. War crimes? Victors never commit war crimes.

Answer 9

People who "win" wars are seldom punished for war crimes.
Most historians agree that POWs and other US detainees were treated much better in US-led camps than the Japanese and Germans treated their prisoners. So there wouldn't be cause to try the US on treatment of prisoners.

Not specifically mentioned, but related, would be the reparations money the US paid to Americans of Japanese ancestry for taking away their property, putting them in internment camps, and disrupting their lives. However, even this wasn't foisted on the US, but something the US did after many years of public outcry.

Answer 10

My dear friend the winners in war are not punished ! But America is surely being punished by time for the extreme materialist tendencies of the people, egoism in each individual more than a shape of his/her body, and for the tendency to think that all other human beings excet Americans are inferior like Germans use to think before ww2







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