With the war in Europe coming to an end, the Japanese, as beaten back as they were, were in the race to fight to the end. The Emperor of Japan gave the military orders that gave every man, woman and child that could hold a sword, to fight to their death against all the Americans and, their allies.
The American war machine were moving men from Europe, after they had fought, some for as long as two full years under fire, my father was one. To the South Pacific to roundavue with other men, to form a fleet of four million, yes, the fugures are right, four million men, to invade Japan.
The figures for dead and wounded upon invading were staggering, It was suggested that over 150,000 men would be killed, over 350,000 would be wounded, the Japanese? it was estimated that over one half million would be killed, men, women and children. Another one million wounded.
McCarthur confiscated over one million swords after the Americans took over, wooden stakes that were sharpened, bottles that were broken, to be used as weapons.
The Japanese were in no means ready to surrender. Even after the first bomb, they were warned but were to stubborn to cede and give up.
It was a matter of them, or our own men, the choice was hard on Truman, he relented that he suffered for weeks after the "bomb" that all concerned would pay the price for what they did to the highest court when they time came but, it would save millions of our own men.
The fault lays with the Japanese, they started the war, they would not give in, their motto "to fight to the death" bought them a hell on Earth, my father came home, wounded twice in Europe, he didn't have to go to Japan to fight for your freedom, again, be proud of what our men did or you would be facing a Nazi flag or a Japanese flag.
2007-09-11 23:38:24
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answer #1
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answered by cowboydoc 7
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More people were killed in the conventional bombing of Tokyo.
You had better find out a bit more about the Second World War and the attitude of the Japanese before you go wringing your hands in public. Ever heard of the Burma railway, the bridge over the Kwai river, the Sandekan death marches or the rape of Nanking? Just a few of the atrocities visited on prisoners of war and civil populations by the Great East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. There are thousands of people today who have neither forgiven nor forgotten.
The Japanese started that war on a pretext in 1933 and extended it by attacking the USA at Pearl Harbor several years later. They got hammered and while most Japanese civilians probably did not deserve it, their military and their government certainly did.
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the war to a rapid halt - there is no doubt of that. It also brought Japan to it's senses and got rid of the crazed "Yamato" spirit. It almost certainly saved tens of thousands of allied lives - which was the main consideration by far and probably hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives, which was very much a secondary consideration in 1945.
It also saved the Japanese from Communism since the war was over before the Russians could invade.
2007-09-12 06:07:08
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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