In the war what was worst: the atomic bomb or the holocaust?¡?¡?

Question

In your opinion

Answer 1

That's a hard question. Millions of mostly Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust but the Atomic Bomb still leaves everyone in fear. Simply because that was the beginning of the Nuclear Wars (or threats of them). Each country is trying to one up the others weapons. And (I hope and pray) that no country would allow another holocaust.

Answer 2

There is no right or wrong answer...both acts were horrendous. However, the atomic bomb has given the rise of the nuclear showdowns we have today, for example, in North Korea and Iran.
Due to the actions of those in the American government in 1945, especially then-president, Harry. S. Truman, the world has lived in the shadow of the nuclear crisis for the past sixty or so years - look at the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis. For years, we have lived under the paranonia of the outbreak of nuclear war and still we haven't got our heads around it; terrorists are finding it easier to find nuclear weapons after the fall of the Soviet Union and Eastern European communist bloc which then in turn threatens the world's stability.
It's true, the Holocaust killed hundreds upon thousands of innocent Jews and such a deplorable act of barbarism is not to be accepted - we've learnt from that, we all have and the world has repaid the Jewish population somewhat by making Israel an independent state. That's not enough, of course, nothing can bring back the innocent lives that were lost but at least the world has done something to right History's wrongs. I just hope we can do the same with the atomic bombs and stop bickering over these horrendous weapons of war.

Answer 3

The Holocaust, without a doubt, because--well, I hate to repeat the excellent reasons already listed, but the atomic bomb explosions, with the resultant tragedy, saved millions of lives on both sides which would have been lost if the Allies had invaded Japan. The Holocaust was the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews, not to mention millions of people in other groups targeted by the Hitler regime. In fact, even if the invasion of Japan had taken place, it would have paled in comparison to the Holocaust.

Answer 4

I would have to say the holocaust, both in terms of loss of life and foundational ideology.

The atomic bombs were used to attack an aggressor state that had to that point refused to surrender, with the loss of a couple hundred thousand lives. Unfortunately, in those days, wars were fought against the whole country. The bombing of civilians was a specific tactic intended to turn the population against their own leaders who were pursuing the war effort. Doesn't make it right, but that's how it was done in WWII and before.

The holocaust was and unprovoked attack against an innocent group (groups, really) of people based solely on their race at the cost of over 10 million lives, 6 million of them Jews. This was not even about war. This was about eradication.

Not to mitigate the horror of the atomic bomb, but in my opinion, one definitely outweighs the other.

Answer 5

Both were awful but I think the Holocaust was worst.

I say this because at least the A bomb ended the war. The Holocaust was just about hate and control.

Answer 6

The holocaust, of course.
The atomic bomb was, is, just a weapon of war. Nothing more. It was NOT intended as a tool for genocide.
FYI: more people died in the firebombing attacks on Toyko than both nuclear bomb blasts. Fire bombs were considered conventional weapons by all armed forces in the war but it didn't make them less deadly. Of course the atomic bombs were horrid weapons but one has to keep a logical perspective. Japan was developing it's own version of fusion bombs and would have used them if they had them. Does this make them evil? No. It's this evil called war, and wars aren't won using spitballs. You better damn well pray your side destroys the other first when it happens.

Answer 7

Which is more deadly: a machine gun or a murderous psychopath running loose thru the streets of your neighborhood?

The number of people killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined was less than the number of people killed by one night's bombing of Tokyo in May 1945. If your criteria is "civilians killed" then you don't want to talk about a-bombs. Napalm and conventional bombs were deadlier in WW2.

Since then, A-bombs seem to have scared all the big countries out of going to war with each other.

Unless you have a son named Mel, the Holocaust is one of the worst things to happen in the 20th century--it set the model for several other genocides in Cambodia, the Ukraine, and Sudan.

Answer 8

The atomic bomb killed thousands of people instantly and hundreds of thousands of others over a period of years from the radiation sickness. Dying of cancer or leukemia is not an easy death, and the aftermath of the war imposed severe hardships upon the people of Japan. They didn't have an easy row to hoe by any stretch of the imagination.
The holocaust subjected an entire race of people to the most awful torture, starvation, slavery, and degredation in every way imaginable. The nazis were merciless and viewed the Jews as less than human. Everything of value was stripped from the Jewish people, even down to the fillings in their teeth, the clothes on their backs, all of their properties, money, families seperated forever and left to wonder if the ones who didn't come back were just missing or if they died....General George S. Patton was among the most battle hardened men in the history of warfare on this planet and he was only affected adversely by one thing which he witnessed...when a concentration camp was at last liberated and the evidence of the brutality of the Nazis was revealed...Patton walked away from Eisenhower and Omar bradley and he became physically sick at what he saw...that has to say something profound about what those poor people went through, and practically NONE of them enjoyed a quick and easy death at the hands of weapon which could vaporize a body instantly.
I am not Jewish or Japanese so I can't speak for either people...but I feel like for Patton-Ol' Blood & Guts Patton-to throw up because of what he saw speaks volumes about how severely those people were mistreated and how abominable it really was. That's just my opinion.

Answer 9

Definitely the holocaust

As terrible as the A-Bomb was it ended the war and some say kept the world form having another all out world war.

The Holocaust had no redeeming feature it was just pure bad.

Answer 10

I, personally, feel that the Holocaust was worse because it was systematic terror inflicted on people who were targeted only because of who they were. I lost many family members in the Holocaust, and knew some who survived (but have now passed away.)
The atomic bombs were a strategic tactic to win the war and limit the future number of Allied casualties in beating the Empire of Japan.