Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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Nuking Japan, undoubtedly, saved tens of thousands of American lives. But why did we feel the need to invade Japan? We had already destroyed their millitary as well as their economy. Would it not have been best if we just moved our troops out of the region and claimed victory?

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That's what happened after WWI and that's part of the reason why WWII started.

I started this much earlier but got sidelined by “She-who-must-be-obeyed.” Some of it’s been said but I’m not going to edit it.
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Assume we'd just declared victory and pulled out. The Japanese would have done what? Simply said, "OK, guys, that was a really bad idea we had there - that Pearl Harbor thingie. So maybe we oughta just forget the whole thing about taking over all of Asia, too. We can always figure out something to keep us busy."

They declared war on us. The way it came off really, really pissed off a lot of folks. Revenge/retaliation was the order of the day. They had to be made to pay.

FDR was having a real problem convincing the US that we should openly help fight Hitler and Il Duce. Didn't the Pearl Harbor attack get Hitler to declare war on the US? Now it's the Axis we're up against.

Look at the old propaganda material we generated to get everyone on board. We really did a job on portraying the evilness of the Axis. Pure hatred came out of the gentlest of people. If you’ve got any family members old enough to remember WWII, talk to them about what went on and how people thought/felt.

If Truman had done as you suggest I think he’d have been run out of town and up a lamp post, ala Il Duce.

[Stu Pidasso]

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If you're going to fight a war, don't screw around with it. Destroy your enemy. Don't just hurt them and let them rebuild.


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If you want a relatively peaceful occupation you have to beat your enemy so badly that they no longer have any fight in them.

Stu

[lehighguy]

I'm not talking about Russia. Take that out of your mind.

What happens when you don't end a war?

[andyfox]

"Nuking Japan, undoubtedly, saved tens of thousands of American lives."

We've been over this ground several times in the last few years here. It is very likely the Japanese would have surrendered before the U.S. invasion even without the atomic bombs. The Soviet entry into the war was the key element. The Hiroshima bombing did not significantly change Japans's policy. And without the Soviet entry into the war, it is not likely that the Nagasaki bomb would have changed the situation. General Anami's warning that the U.S. might have 100 atomic bombs and that the next target might be Tokyo had no discernible impact on the debate in Japan about surrender.

The most likely scenario would have been that while waiting for the answer from Moscow about Soviet mediation with the U.S. about peace terms, Japan would have been shocked by the Soviet invasion in Manchuria sometime in the middle of August, and would have sued for peace on the Potsdam terms.

[mackthefork]

[ QUOTE ]
If you're going to fight a war, don't screw around with it. Destroy your enemy. Don't just hurt them and let them rebuild.

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I hope Al Quaida find a way of dropping a nuclear bomb on the city you live in, then I'll post what you did, and see if it's met with the same apathy from the sycophants on this board.

You glorify the murder of civilians, and no one says a [censored] word, sick.

Mack

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you're going to fight a war, don't screw around with it. Destroy your enemy. Don't just hurt them and let them rebuild.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope Al Quaida find a way of dropping a nuclear bomb on the city you live in, then I'll post what you did, and see if it's met with the same apathy from the sycophants on this board.

You glorify the murder of civilians, and no one says a [censored] word, sick.

Mack

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Mack, I love you. AndyFox, excellent post.

I actually took an honors seminar a few years ago on just this topic. Most of the declassified docs (which included the internal debate on the issue) and other material from the time led me to believe (as well as the professor teaching the class) that the bomb wasn't as imperative as contemporary opinion thinks, and the the Soviet question was paramount in the decision.

[Easy E]

[ QUOTE ]
If you're going to fight a war, don't screw around with it. Destroy your enemy. Don't just hurt them and let them rebuild.

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Germany, Italy and Japan as the outlying Puerto Ricos of the American Empire?

[tolbiny]

Why even let them surrunder at all Dynasty? Why not just kill every last one of them?

[Il_Mostro]

I guess we are all getting a bit to used to Dynasty posting stupid and/or discusting things and then not back them up. Sad but true.