Do you think the scientists should be held accountable for what happened in Hiroshima/Nagasaki?

Question

Beach, I think you're getting away from the point here.

Answer 1

What a silly question.

You do realize the casualty estimates for an American invasion of the Japanese home islands was upward of 1 million?

If we hadn't dropped those bombs, and invaded the Japanese islands instead, there would have been FAR greater casualties on both sides, and your question would be should the military leaders who sent millions of people to die be held accountable for what happened.

I think a lack of information of the historical circumstances surrounding the decision to drop the atomic bomb is responsible for your ignorance of this subject.

below is a link to the wiki on Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall

When you get to the bottom and the casualty estimates, remember that the operation was planned BEFORE the Okinawa invasion, most of the aspects of which turned out to be massively underestimated by American military planners.

The same was painfully obvious to the Generals and Admirals after Okinawa, and most of them at heart didn't support an invasion that would undoubtedly kill a large percentage of the millions of men sent into combat.


edit: lol...what IS the point then? you cant rationally ask this question without a wholesale indictment of pretty much all previous generations.

Why arent you mentioning the 72,000 killed in a single firebombing raid on Tokyo the previous March?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo_in_World_War_II

so why dont we hold the bomb designers accountable for that? Why dont we hold Alfred Nobel accountable for inventing dynamite, which has led to essentially all high explosives? How about indicting Hiram Maxim for inventing the first true machine gun in 1881? That invention has killed far more people than the atomic bomb. Why not bring a lawsuit against Raytheon, maker of the Tomahawk cruise missile, while you're at it? Those have killed plenty of people as well....

I could go on and on...like i said you cant rationally ask this question. you cant simply single out the atomic bomb creators without holding everyone else to the same standard.

and no, i didnt directly answer your question because the majority of the other posts already addressed my feelings, that #1 its the leaders that are responsible for dropping the bomb, and #2 our leaders WERE IN THE RIGHT when they did it because of some of the facts i have pointed out already above, and so i didnt feel the need to repeat what everyone else said, but i guess i have now.

Not dropping the bomb would have resulted in millions, if not tens of millions, of casualties on both sides, and the Japanese islands would look much different today, ie probably without the majority being Japanese.

So were the lives of those people in the cities bombed worth the preservation of tens of millions of lives and most likely the Japanese culture?

i was just trying to make a point different than everyone elses :)

Answer 2

No, not at all. You have to view history in context. How we view things today is VERY different from how they were viewed at the time.

During the Manhattan Project, the scientists working on the bomb were viewed as heroes fighting for freedom. The entire country was completely devoted to winning the war in a way that people really can't identify with today.

I think Harry Truman holds more then a little bit of guilt. Japan was clearly on the skids when the bombs were dropped. The idea that we were saving lives by nuking the two cities is slightly ludicrous. Japan was already in the process of surrendering, anyway. the Truman administration was eager to demonstrate to the world the power of it's new weapon to generate respect and fear.

It's hard to say how history would have gone if Hiroshima and Nagasaki hadn't happened. Overall, I would have been opposed to dropping the bombs, but without the worldwide shock and horror generated by those two incidents, the cold war might have gone very differently. Without those two very real demonstrations, it might have seemed reasonable to one or more of the nuclear powers to risk mutually assured destruction, at some point.

It's a very tricky game, trying to second guess history. Occasionally, an atrocity is the thing that keeps something much worse from happening.

That all said, I would be less inclined to excuse contemporary scientists from developing further such devices. Nobody today can claim such naivete, with so much history behind us.

Answer 3

No. The scientists who developed those bombs ended up saving many Japanese and American lives.

The idea of the bombs saving lives is not ludicrous. Some of Japan was wanting to surrender but not all of Japan. There were plenty of Japanese who felt they could still win the war. There were even more who vowed to die before allowing a US invasion of Japan. Ask the marines who fought on the Japanese controlled islands if they thought that the people of Japan were going to roll over and allow the troops to just walk in. The bombs showed those holding out that winning was not going to be an option and that Japan could be destroyed without an invasion. This allowed for the complete and unconditional surrender.

If the bombs had not been dropped then troops would have been required to invade Japan. The civilians were being armed and readied for this. It would have been a bloodbath for both sides. Using the Japanese controlled islands as a guide shows that the civilians would have had considerable losses for men, women, and children.

Answer 4

Nothing to do with scientists; Blame the politicians for their egoistic temperament for destroying lives. In any case Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the making of Japanese who attacked Pearl Harbour. Americans weren't interested in the war but they were attacked first and the only way to bring swift end of it was to use something more powerful!!

I would blame the Arabs for the problems in the Middle East and if Iran is bombed then they only should be blamed. They have been warned!!

Answer 5

When Oppenheimer designed the atomic bomb he could not be certain that it would not set off a chain reaction that would destroy the whole world. However he willingly worked on the project up until the defeat of Nazi Germany because they were exterminating his fellow Jews and the possible destruction of the Earth was a price worth paying. Oppenheimer didn't want to continue after Germany's defeat because, with the Jews safe, he didn't think it worthwhile and had to be cajoled into finishing the job.

Answer 6

I was going to let this one go until I read the answer that said science should be morally "neutral." I'm sorry, no one should be absolved of taking responsibility for their actions. News media should take responsibility if a news story results in deaths or damage. Politicians should take responsibility if their decisions and edicts negatively impact their constituents. And scientists and engineers should take responsibility if they build the tools of mankind's destruction.

Our nation, indeed our world, is in trouble because we've grown soft in holding people and organizations accountable for their actions. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with being held accountable. It's just a matter of standing up and saying, in effect "Hey, I did that; I take full responsibility for it." In fact, history shows that when the rare politician stands up and takes responsibility for a mistake, he fares much better in politics than if he tries to lie about it.

Answer 7

Absolutely!

And while we're at it, lets hold those that made iron accountable, because its made into swords, and cannons, and land mines and guns!

Oh, and lets hold all those who invented plastic accountable as well, because it doesn't degrade in the landfills and is causing a terrible environmental problem!

While we're at it, lets hold all the scientists and engineers who explore for and produce oil and all the pollution it has cause us over the last 120 years!

Lets just forget all of the good these technologies has brought the entire planet.

Unless you haven't caught my drift here, I'm not really agreeing with you....the scientists didn't drop the bomb, they were merely tasked with creating controlled and uncontrolled nuclear fission. Hold the presidents and generals who ordered the use of that bomb.

Don't blame the maker of something, blame the one who missuses it.

Answer 8

The Manhattan project scientists didn't create atomic energy, they simply figured out how to harness it. They also didn't drop the bomb, they simply figured out how to construct it. The whole world was learning the capabilities of E=MC2 and someone had to be first to actually put it to use. So if you want to blame anyone blame those who put the bomb into use (still the argument that dropping the bomb saved millions of other lives is a good one, and one that I agree with.)

Answer 9

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Answer 10

Why should the scientists be held accountable? They just made the discovery. Why not hold the person who ordered the bomb dropped accountable?