The United States is the only nation that has ever used nuclear weapons to kill civilians. Should we remember our sins, repent, and ask for forgiveness? That is the question.
2007-03-21 06:44:06 · 15 answers · asked by Ray Eston Smith Jr 6 in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
At the very least.
But it will not happen.
Most Americans still do not consider it a bad thing that the USA committed the most horrific terrorist act in history.
And it was a terrorist act - intentionally harming civilians in order to achieve a political aim.
No question that it was intentionally targeting civilians.
And it for the achievement of a political aim - that is coercing Japan into an unconditional surrender. Japan was looking for some kind of way out of fighting by that point. But they were looking for conditions and the US did not want to concede anything. Although, it is hard to imagine the Japanese getting a better deal then what they got by unconditional surrender - Keep their emperor, we pay to rebuild their industry and we pay for their military defense. What a bargain!
Also political was scaring the USSR from trying to move too fast against our interests in Asia and Europe.
2007-03-21 10:41:36 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
No.
It was a war. Our goal was unconditional surrender. Without the nukes, Japan would have pursued a conditional surrender. In the land invasion, and coming march through Japan, more and more people would have died.
Considering that the fire-bombing of Kyoto killed more people than either nuke, I think it is a joke to apologize for the past. I do not go around asking whites and hispanics to apologize for the slave trade. Americans should not apologize for nuling the japos in ww2.
2007-03-21 13:55:33 · answer #2 · answered by lundstroms2004 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
We should remember it, but all wars carry a measure of evildoings. Since we've already re-established a fairly good relationship with Japan, I don't necessarily think a formal apology is in order. After all, the Japanese refuse to admit to any wrongdoings in China, Korea, or the Phillippines.
Keep in mind, I'm from Nagasaki and my mother's family went through it all.
2007-03-21 13:49:01 · answer #3 · answered by pokecheckme 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
While I empathize with your feelings on the tremendous loss of civilian life those attacks caused, the bombings seem to appear worse to most people simply by the fact that the bombs were nuclear in nature. The firebombing of Dresden, Tokyo, and Kobe killed far more civilians than the nuclear attacks. So, should the US apology to German and Japan for these acts? If so should we also apologize for the bombing of Berlin and German industrial centers, which also killed numerous civilians? I think you see where I am going with this. If you start to unravel everything the allies did to win World War II you will get to the point where nothing done to win the war was justifiable. And perhaps, even come to the conclusion that the US never should have entered the War and allowed Germany and Japan to continue to murder a much large number of innocent civilians than the ones that were regrettably but justifiably killed during the course of prosecuting the War.
Furthermore, to this day Japan has never apologized for the Rape of Nanking where Japanese troops with tacit approval from their superiors brutally murdered over 300,000 innocent Chinese civilians and raped countless Chinese women. Nor have the Japanese apologized for the actions of Special Unit 731 that carried out biological experiments on the population of Japanese occupied Manchuria, Manchukuo. Some of these lovely experiments included tying living people to a serial of stakes and setting off explosives to test the kill range of ordnance. Giving anthrax laced chocolate to Chinese children to determine infection rates. The Amputation of civilians’ healthy limbs to study the effect of blood loss. And my personal favorite, purposely infecting people with diseases and performing live vivisections of these human being, of course, without anesthesia to determine the results of the infections. The monstrous acts committed by Special Unit 731 killed thousands of innocent Chinese civilians. And Japan has also not apologized for abducting 200,000 Korean women and turning them into sex slaves. These, as the Japanese military referred to them by the euphemism, Comfort Women were forced into service at various military sponsored brothels in Japanese occupied territories throughout the Far East.
Moreover, please keep in mind that those bombs, even using conservative estimates of the life cost of an invasion of the Japanese home islands, saved more Japanese lives than what was lost in August of 1945.
Lastly, Japan has never admitted to even being an aggressor during World War II, and has never apologized for bombing Pearl Harbor. Japan has much soul searching to perform and must come to terms the past horrors it has committed before any talk of even examining if the dropping of the Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was necessary.
2007-03-21 15:15:58 · answer #4 · answered by TheMayor 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
This is the second time you posted this question!! get a grip!!! Hundred's of thousands were saved on both sides..Figure the lives if we would have had to invade the Jap. mainland!!!
2007-03-21 13:50:47 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
No. Every Aug 8th I fax a note the Japanese embassy thanking them for their continued good behavior so we don't have to nuke them again
2007-03-21 14:05:01 · answer #6 · answered by espreses@sbcglobal.net 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
What 'sins' exactly?
The use of the bomb spared tens - perhaps hundreds - of thousands of American troops lives.
End of story.
2007-03-21 13:52:09 · answer #7 · answered by Garrett S 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
NO
We did not start WWII
We did end it though!
If they would have developed the bomb first, Where would they have dropped it?
2007-03-21 13:52:52 · answer #8 · answered by controlac 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Absolutely not... by dropping the bomb, the U.S. saved millions of lives of BOTH american and japaneese forces.
2007-03-21 13:48:00 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 0⤋
Nope.
2007-03-21 13:55:56 · answer #10 · answered by Judge Dredd 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋