ur opinion on hiroshima and nagasaki?

Question

i just want to know what your opinion on hiroshima and nagasaki is
and by that i mean the bombings

ive talked to some people about it
some say we did the right thing because japan would hve done it first given the opportunity

and others said it was a heartless thing to do

what do you think??

Answer 1

Japan declared war on the United States, and then carried it out in a manner that would only be ended by total surrender.

To assault the japanese mainland with conventional forces, many many millions more would have been killed.

Those who say it was a heartless thing to do, what would they say to US troops who would have been told to invade Japan?

Answer 2

I believe, and the Ken Burns documentary that just appeared on PBS "The War" bears it out, that dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the best thing we could have done and the only thing we could have done. Anyone who says anything differently is looking at it from today's point of view and not from what the US had been going through for 5 years of war.

The US had fire bombed most of the big cities in Japan forcing at least 90,000 people to live in the streets because their cities were destroyed. That didn't stop the war.

21,000 Japanese soldiers present at the beginning of the battle for Iwo Jima, over 20,000 were killed and only 216 taken prisoner. Their mission was to kill as many Americans as possible before either being killed or taking their own lives. They killed 6,821 Americans, wounded 19,189, 494 missing. This battle was just one island among approximately 13 islands.

On Okinawa, the next island and the island the Americans took before the invasion of mainland Japan itself, there were 33,096 non-combat losses, meaning people who lived there, 10,000 of whom jumped off cliffs into the see rather than be captured by the Americans. These were mostly women and children. I could go. Imagine how many would have been lost with a mainland invasion of Japan?

Conservative estimates were that at least 500,000 Americans would die with an invasion of mainland Japan. It was estimated that at least 10 million Japanese would die in an assault on the mainland since Japanese citizens were told to fight to the death with whatever they had available.

The Japanese people and government officials were warned with leaflets about Hiroshima. They refused to surrender even after the bomb was dropped. The US dropped a second wave of leaflets telling the Japanese that they would do the same again if there was no surrender. Even after the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the Imperial Military Council was divided 50-50 on whether or not to surrender. Still 50-50! They left it to the Emperor who made the final decision.

The Imperial Military Council knew for months before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima that the war was lost. Yet they allowed it to happen anyway---twice.

I have no doubt that they would have used the bomb against us if they had the capability. They brought the bombs on themselves. They have no one to blame but themselves.

Answer 3

Japan might have done it first but they had no idea how so the likelyhood would have been very unlikely. President Truman ordered the bombing stating that it would end the war earlier. Had we not done this the Japanese would have continued to fight in the streets etc. Many more people on both sides would have lost their lives than did in those two industral cities. It did end the war earlier than it probably would have otherwise and, hard as it is to believe, fewer people were killed than would have been killed. Keep in mind that compared to what we have today those were small. The devistation today would be much worse. Because we were the only country with the bomb in those days the possibility of retaliation didn't exist. Today we would have total destruction of the world if anyone uses one of those big bombs.

Answer 4

Japan could never have done it first.
They were already beat but just wouldn't quit.

Keep in mind there was a third city.
Tokyo was completely destroyed before the two nukes were dropped. It just took longer and more bombs were needed but the result was the same.
Incredibly the Japanese did not quit.
Keep this in mind also; The Japanese still did not quit after the two nukes were dropped.
They did not agree to surrender terms until they heard the Russians were entering the war against them.
They were afraid that the Russians would actually do what they told their people the Americans might.
The lessons of Iwo Jima and Guadal Canal said that one million allied soldiers would have been killed if we invaded Japan and tried to defeat them conventionally.

The crime would have been if we did not use what we had to prevent that.

Answer 5

The U.S. killed far more people in Japan with fire-bombing.

" For months LeMay's bombers went out night after night, relentlessly keeping up their fire-bombing campaign, so that by the end of the war, flames had totally or partially consumed 63 Japanese cities, killing half a million people and leaving eight million homeless."

The argument widely used, was the cost in American lives if we were to invade Japan.
Invasion plans required about five million Allied troops, most of them from the United States. In the first stage, Operation Olympic, Allied forces would invade Kyushu in November 1945. In the second stage, Operation Coronet, scheduled for March 1946, the invasion troops would assault Honshu. U.S. planners had no illusions about the costs of the invasions. The Japanese had gathered more than 8,000 airplanes to use as kamikazes against the invasion fleet. About two million Japanese troops, supported by twenty-eight million armed civilians, awaited the invaders. If the U.S. casualty rate for the invasion of Kyushu matched the 35 percent casualty rate experienced on Okinawa, 268,000 Americans might be killed or wounded during Operation Olympic alone. Experts estimated that the entire invasion of Japan, including the assault on Honshu, would kill or wound a million Americans, and many more Japanese. An alternative to the invasion might save lives, and that alternative was waiting in the wings.

So we nuked them...game over. When at war, you don't win by dieing for your country. You win by makeing the other s.o.b. die for his. That was a quote from General George Patton.....I agree with him.

Answer 6

It was a right thing to do.

Because to invade the islands of Japan at that time would mean many hundred thousand American soldiers, many hundred thousand Japanese soldiers and many more millions Japanese civilians would die.

And the Japanese Empire at that time would not surrender since it got the support by the vast majority of its citizens. The only thing to do was to stop their will to fight. And how would you do that? By showing the people and its regime that it had no chance to win, only more death and destructions.

Don't forget that Imperial Japan at that time was very ruthless and their will to fight was very high. The first of the suicide attackers, kamikaze. And don't forget about the rape of Nankin, the Chinese still are not over that yet.

Instead of invading to subdue Japan, and many millions will die. The atomic bombs were the right decision by Harry Truman, to save lives. Without the surrender of the emperor of Japan, millions would die.

So, it was a right thing to do.

Answer 7

I'll stick with the same opinions I had back in those days of August, 1945. Some look at it as cruel and heartless now, but back then I felt it was necessary to end a cruel and heartless war. Believe me, both Japan and the US and it's allies would have suffered far more if the war hadn't been brought to an end.

Answer 8

I believe it was necessary. The Japanese had little intention of surrendering. Invading the mainland of Japan would probably have cost a massive amount of Americans soldiers to die. Truman I think made the right decision.

Answer 9

How could you justify another year of war knowing it could be ended. How could you justify 1 million American dead. How could you justify 20 million Japanese dead. How could you justify the division of japan into free and communist. 200,000 died in order to save 21 million. 200,000 died to make sure japan was a free nation. These bombs are terrible things , but sometimes in war the end justifies the means. The people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki died so Japan could finally be at peace and take there place among the western nations of the world.

Answer 10

It brought an end to the war and saved American lives in doing so. Plus, restored the Japanese people to peace and brought about many positive changes in their economy, their government and their foreign policy.

All those changes are what has allowed them to remain on the forefront of technology and become an economic power.

There is nothing that can be done to change the fact that the bombs were dropped. All we can do is what the Japanese people have done and focus our attentions upon the new chapter in history that those bombs initiated.