Was the Atomic Bombing of Japan Really Necessarry?

by frankiespeakin 71 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Sad emo

  Thanks Badboy - those were the ones I was thinking of, I remember seeing film footage of it, terrible. Even when they got within speaking distance of one guy hiding in a hole and tried coaxing him out, he preferred to blow himself up in the hole with a grenade.

  So even if the allies had made actual contact with Japanese civilians, they might have still been so frightened as to kill themselves like that guy did.

  As an aside, if the whole ethic of 'shameful surrender' was what caused the ill-treatment of allied POW's by the Japanese military - if it was a kind of 'punishment' coupled with an attempted incentive to get them to commit suicide, then you can sort of understand why they did it and why they saw nothing wrong with it - they were just trying to encourage 'cowards' to die an 'honourable' death.
• 

  james_woods

  Rhetorical question: what was the point of this thread?

  It is about like asking "Was the Civil War Really Necessary?" - as if to make the anti-war point that maybe slavery would have just come to an end in a couple or three dozen more years without it.

  Who can logically say they know?

  My father was in the South Pacific, scheduled for the mainland invasion, when the news about the bomb and the end of the war came through. One more thing that I don't know is whether I would even be here (and many thousands of my generation) if that invasion had been made.

  Let's get over this - if we want to "hate America", lets just say so honestly and over current events.

  James
• 

  wvpeach

  Killing of innocent civilians is never nessecary.

  So no it wasn't .

  Just as the deaths in Iraq will be added to our account as a nation.

  Just as all the Native Americans we killed to take the country over will be.

  Just as all the slaves we denied life to will be and

  Just as all who die in poverty for lack of medical care in this country daily will be.

  God keeps track of such things.

  For a nation that likes to say its founded on Christian principles our track record sucks.
• 

  james_woods

  Well, previous poster, whoever you really are:

  I just finished reading your constant whining that someone "bashed the JW religion" for pointing up the silent lambs website.

  Are you "bashing America"?

  What is the difference?
• 

  wvpeach

  James it has nothing to do with hating America.

  I am a proud amercian , proud of my beautiful country and its loving citizens,

  It;s about a goverment that cares little for human life, including the lives of American soldiers.

  It's about being hypocrites and filling church pews every Sunday and proclaiming we are Christians , yet ignoring the fact Christ taught only love and forgiveness .

  Its about being ready to hand over all our freedoms because of a 911 attack,to the goverment.

  Because we are such cowards and so fearful for our own skins that we believe the lies the goverment tells that they can keep us safe.

  Its not about hating America, for those of us who love it, its about not dishonoring the nation in the name of war mongers , who really only care about the money , oil and power that comes with war.

  For me as a christian its about , not at least speaking up as my country kill's hundreds of thousands of innocents around the world.

  God won't be able to hold that sin against me, as I holler long and loud we should not have troopps in 120bases around the world.

  We should bring them home , put them guarding the borders , and growl like a pit bull dog when another nation or terroists even looks our way. Presto problem solved.
• 

  james_woods

  I repeat OUTLAW's comment to your previous trolling...

  GaryBuss was joking..The Troll jumped on it..Troll dosen`t care Jehovah`s Witness`s support an organization that intends to kill everybody except Jehovah`s Witness`s..Troll dosen`t care fellow Christians will be slaughtered if Jehovah`s Witness`s have they`re way..Troll likes Jehovah`s Witness`s..Don`t you wvpeach/Paula?...OUTLAW So, "killing of innocent civilians is never necessary"? What about Jehovah at Armageddon? I call this blatant self-righteousness on the part of the peach poster. Sometimes it is kindness to quit whining about everything and call a spade a spade.
• 

  Warlock

  Rhetorical question: what was the point of this thread ?

  James,

  I think the point of this thread was to put out "revisionist" B.S. to make the U.S look like the villian in WWII. Seems like these "revisionists" never question the atrocities committed by the Japanese or the Germans. Have you ever read an article entitled "Did the Germans really have to classify the Poles and others as sub-human?" "Did the Japanese really have to commit biological experiments on the Chinese?"

  These same "revisionists" never question how many of their own people Stalin or Mao put to death, which are estimated in the millions, but that's just a bunch of western propaganda, you know.

  Warlock
• 

  Sad emo

  Hi James Woods

  I'm not seeing this as an America bashing thread.

  At the end of the day, the decision to drop the A bomb was an allied decision, not just an American one (as far as I know anyway). I believe it was a difficult decision to make, whoever made it, and maybe right, maybe wrong - it's what we learn from it that makes all the difference.

  wvpeach - life ain't that black and white unfortunately! Nuff said
• 

  james_woods

  Warlock, you make an excellent and very clear point.

  BTW, this subject was one that fascinated me a great deal when I first left the JWs...

  If anyone else is interested in this history, one good place to start is the book by General Leslie Groves on the Manhatten Project "Now it can be told". Groves was the director of the project and describes not only the technology, but also the decisions to use the weapon and the arduous task of deciding the target, etc. He also discusses the real fact that Germany certainly wanted to possess nuclear weapons also, but did not quite have the economic and technical infrastructure to pull it off. They certainly had the delivery system, though - it is scary to think about.

  I also have a book which describes the US inspection of Hiroshima, and the civilian casualty aftermath. I think it horrified the military analysts enough to make a very strict and permanent policy to never use these weapons again, unless truly as a form of last resort. The point might be made that nobody really knew what would happen when the first A-bombs were deployed.

  Given the general 75%-80% (minimum!) hard-left and anti-American tone of this forum, I think any political history thread like this needs a good looking over for the possibility of political purposes. What you say about the Poles and other war crimes revisionism will likely take place about Iran & Iraq, 911, and so on.

  There are already a pretty scary number of this wing-nuts who think George W. had a demolition company wire up the twin towers. Including at least one political science college professor. He seems to be silent on what happened to the airplanes...

  But, again, good point!
• 

  frankiespeakin

  This link takes you to the President Truman's library and a scan of a letter sent to the pres from scientist urging the president not to use the bomb unless ample warning were given to Japan, it makes for an interesting read the pres btw ignored the plea(paste it in your address window to work,, clicking on it will just bring up a page without the scan):

  http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?documentdate=1945-07-17&documentid=79&studycollectionid=abomb&pagenumber=1