__________________
I Walk Alone
Every Step I Take I Walk Alone My Winter Storm
Holding Me Awake It's Never Gone When I Walk Alone
I collect credits. Donate and help me reach one million!!!
I'm a Tart - What! You want some of this!!!

How long do you think it would have taken for them to surrender? 10, 15, 20, 25 years? They would starve to death before surrendering. On most islands we fought them on, when it was apparent that their fight was lost, the last of the men gathered for one last suicide bonsai charge. I doubt the United States could have maintained a blockade half a world away for that long.

__________________
Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China.

here is something from a very interesting website:
i agree with the professor.
plus if we had tried to blockade instead on nuke or even invade,
then it still would've meant more Americans dead from kamikaze attacks,
and more civilians dead from the above type of attack.
so yeah, the photos are definitely horrible,
but im convinced it saved lives on both sides.
and they would've nuked us in a heart-beat.

__________________

Blockading the island would have been just as cruel as invading it. You'de leave millions of innocent civilians to starve while the generals got access to enough food to last them for years. It would have led to the distruction of japan..

The point being that the piled up corpses were THEIR women and children, not ours.

Thank God Truman had the balls to drop the bomb!

__________________
Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. -Barack Obama

In the end Tojo was the factor of the military surrendering and his refusal resulted in the cities being vaporized. The emporer who was kept out of the light for all we know was never aware of the American attempt to discuss negotiations. The Japs were a proud people and they were brainwashed to the max. Hell look what they did with the largest battleship ever named the Yomato. They sent it on a suicide mission and the crew was told they were never coming back.

__________________
Support Your Local Oil and Gas Companies and the Industry. Invest in Oil & Gas Futures.

Take your Kids Hunting and Fishing.

Wait a minuet! While I agree with you that the oil mans comment is horrible and the photos are hard to look at without feeling deep sorrow for innocent lives taken by our country. Let’s not forget that Japan attacked America first; got that! Dropping the bomb was the right thing to do on many fronts. The result of any war is death and destruction. The photos just bring it home. (It’s not hard to see why The Bush Administration doesn’t want photos of coffins seen!)

__________________
EVERY WORD YOU SAY IS A DOOR WAY TO YOU!

You bought into that BS argument, too, huh?

Japan offered a surrender before the bombs were dropped, albeit with conditions. Most of those conditions concerned keeping some percentage of land acquired during the war, but the major one, believe it or not, was to allow the emperor to maintain his position even if only as a figurehead. Of course these conditions were unacceptable, but Truman's advisors on Japanese affairs believed these conditions could be negotiated down to one- maintaining the emperor's position. Truman didn't bother with negotiations.

Bombing Hiroshima was less about winning the war and more about seeing what would happen and showing off to the Soviets.

Hiroshima: Was it Necessary?

__________________
LET ME SEE YOUR WAR FACE!!!

Japan was a spent force. I would in the past have considered the nuke argument if I hadn't seen Robert mcNammarra weep openly about what he had done and question it himself. The nuking was a good show of power to the russians and nothing more. Of course it did make them also really want the bomb.

It can be argued that Japan reaped what they sowed, much as this is the truth for pretty much every country that loves military adventurism, but you have to look in the mirror and question your human credentials if you take joy in seeing dead women and kids stacked like bloated cattle. That says a lot about a man to me. I see the bombing of civilians as a war crime, nothing less. It has no military honour no matter who does it. The japanese were monsters in Nanking, and the Allies were monsters over tokyo. I don't feel like slapping anybody on the back about either lack of humanity.

It is also ironic that Japanese militarism came about because a certain ship sailed into a japanese harbour one day and forced them to sign a trade agreement at gunpoint.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan#History

"We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction."

July 26th

"We are now prepared to obliterate rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have ... It was to spare the Japanese from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July 26 was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on earth."

August 6th...first bomb

August 9th second bomb


Despite the best that has been done by everyone — the gallant fighting of the military and naval forces, the diligence and assiduity of Our servants of the State, and the devoted service of Our one hundred million people — the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest.
Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.
Such being the case, how are We to save the millions of Our subjects, or to atone Ourselves before the hallowed spirits of Our Imperial Ancestors? This is the reason why We have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the Joint Declaration of the Powers.

August 15th surrender.....over.

While IMHO I think it was overkill (no pun intended) to drop two bombs and the choice of targets very unsettling, it was a military strategy and it worked exactly the way it was drawn up.As much as it was a means to an end it to the war and Japans quest for an empire,it was also a wake up call for all the rest of the earth to pay attention.

Fact is it ended the war in a flash (once again,no pun intended) undeniably saving many,many lives in the long run I think.While its true the Japs were in deep poop and more or less blockaded anyway, a drawn out final battle certainly couldve been the alternative.Given the nationalistic pride shown by so many of the Japanese military,the final battle couldve proved extremely costly for the US.Given the ten of thousands of soldiers already lost in the war ,a quick end was obviously a cherished outcome.Imagine we had the capacity to end the Iraq war ina two week span? Would you want that?

People can argue till the end of time if the ends justified the means.Theres no way to be right or wrong on this one folks.

I always questioned why a more remote area,perhaps more military wasnt vaporized first before going right into urban enviroments.Somewhere we couldve said,go look and see the destruction then ask yourself do you want to subject your people to this?

__________________