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Did the US do the right thing in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII?

Did the US do the right thing in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan?

  • yes

    Votes: 72 69.9%

  • no

    Votes: 20 19.4%

  • not sure

    Votes: 11 10.7%
  • Total voters
    103
Tigerace117 said:
But we did put the people who were controlling him on trial, and executed many of them.
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But not him....we did put a lot of SS guards on trial though
 
Re: Did the US do the right thing in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII?.

vegas giants said:
You know more about the war than the greatest military minds of the day? LOL
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You seem to mistake "enthuasism" for "necessity". Nobody enjoyed dropping the bombs. Doesn't mean it wasn't necessary.
 
Tigerace117 said:
Sitting around and letting people starve to death was a non starter. Invading would have had a horrific cost in terms of causulties on all sides.

Nor should we have. Negotiated peace with Imperial Japan would have been just as bad as letting Nazi Germany stay afloat.
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Germany surrendered without a single atom bomb dropped on their cities.
 
vegas giants said:
But not him....we did put a lot of SS guards on trial though
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Yep, we executed most of the leaders/ war criminals of Nazi Germany. And we executed most of the imperial Japanese leaders/war criminals. Your point being.....?
 
Re: Did the US do the right thing in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII?.

Tigerace117 said:
You seem to mistake "enthuasism" for "necessity". Nobody enjoyed dropping the bombs. Doesn't mean it wasn't necessary.
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Did you read the quotes?

In his memoirs Admiral William D. Leahy, the President's Chief of Staff--and the top official who presided over meetings of both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combined U.S.-U.K. Chiefs of Staff--minced few words:
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[T]he use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. . . .
 
Geoist said:
Germany surrendered without a single atom bomb dropped on their cities.
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A mere matter of timing. Had the advance been slower(either ours or the Soviets) they would have undoubtedly been used against the Nazis. The Germans weren't also quite as fanatical as the Japanese.
 
Re: Did the US do the right thing in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII?.

Tigerace117 said:
You seem to mistake "enthuasism" for "necessity". Nobody enjoyed dropping the bombs. Doesn't mean it wasn't necessary.
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Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., Commander U.S. Third Fleet, stated publicly in 1946:
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The first atomic bomb was an unnecessary experiment. . . . It was a mistake to ever drop it. . . . [the scientists] had this toy and they wanted to try it out, so they dropped it. . . . It killed a lot of Japs, but the Japs had put out a lot of peace feelers through Russia long before. (See p. 331, Chapter 26)
 
phattonez said:
And even if the coup worked you're assuming a peaceful Japan. That's very much in doubt.
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No, if the coup had worked Japan would have kept the war going. And been leveled.
 
Tigerace117 said:
So we should have just let hundreds of thousands of people starve to death? Why?
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Emperor was trying to avoid that scenario by negotiating for peace. You seem to keep ignoring that fact.
 
Geoist said:
Germany surrendered without a single atom bomb dropped on their cities.
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Allowing the Soviet Union to occupy East Germany was probably worse than an atomic bomb.
 
Re: Did the US do the right thing in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII?.

vegas giants said:
Did you read the quotes?

In his memoirs Admiral William D. Leahy, the President's Chief of Staff--and the top official who presided over meetings of both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combined U.S.-U.K. Chiefs of Staff--minced few words:
*
[T]he use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. . . .
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Wishful thinking syndrome.
 
Tigerace117 said:
No, if the coup had worked Japan would have kept the war going. And been leveled.
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There would have been civil war. The populace wouldn't put up with a coup against their emperor.
 
Geoist said:
Emperor was trying to avoid that scenario by negotiating for peace. You seem to keep ignoring that fact.
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Emperor had been a puppet throughout the war. It was a matter of sheer luck he'd been able to get the message to stand down out in the first place following the failed coup.
 
Re: Did the US do the right thing in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII?.

Tigerace117 said:
Wishful thinking syndrome.
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The commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces, Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, gave a strong indication of his views in a public statement only eleven days after Hiroshima was attacked. Asked on August 17 by a New York Times reporter whether the atomic bomb caused Japan to surrender, Arnold said:
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The Japanese position was hopeless even before the first atomic bomb fell, because the Japanese had lost control of their own air. (See p. 334, Chapter 27)
In his 1949 memoirs Arnold observed that "it always appeared to us that, atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the Japanese were already on the verge of collapse." (See p. 334, Chapter 27)
 
Tigerace117 said:
Emperor had been a puppet throughout the war. It was a matter of sheer luck he'd been able to get the message to stand down out in the first place following the failed coup.
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Arnold's deputy, Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker, summed up his understanding this way in an internal military history interview:
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Arnold's view was that it [the dropping of the atomic bomb] was unnecessary. He said that he knew the Japanese wanted peace. There were political implications in the decision and Arnold did not feel it was the military's job to question it. (See p. 335, Chapter 27)
Eaker reported that Arnold told him:
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When the question comes up of whether we use the atomic bomb or not, my view is that the Air Force will not oppose the use of the bomb, and they will deliver it effectively if the Commander in Chief decides to use it. But it is not necessary to use it in order to conquer the Japanese without the necessity of a land invasion. (See p. 335, Chapter 27)
 
phattonez said:
There would have been civil war. The populace wouldn't put up with a coup against their emperor.
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Assuming they knew about it. If a radio broadcast said "the emperor says fight to the death" after years of hearing the exact same thing, do you actually think anybody would question that?

The coupists would also frame it in terms of "the emperor was lead astray by evil advisors who wanted to disgrace Japan by surrendering to the westerners. Now we have freed him from their poor judgment, he says....."
 
Tigerace117 said:
Nobody enjoyed dropping the bomb. Doesn't mean it wasn't necessary.
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Except most of those generals said it wasn't necessary. EXPERTS said the exact opposite of what you are saying.
 
Re: Did the US do the right thing in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII?.

vegas giants said:
Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., Commander U.S. Third Fleet, stated publicly in 1946:
*
The first atomic bomb was an unnecessary experiment. . . . It was a mistake to ever drop it. . . . [the scientists] had this toy and they wanted to try it out, so they dropped it. . . . It killed a lot of Japs, but the Japs had put out a lot of peace feelers through Russia long before. (See p. 331, Chapter 26)
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Wishful thinking syndrome. I've already covered why the Japanese tried driving a wedge between the allies to buy for time.
 
Tigerace117 said:
Assuming they knew about it. If a radio broadcast said "the emperor says fight to the death" after years of hearing the exact same thing, do you actually think anybody would question that?

The coupists would also frame it in terms of "the emperor was lead astray by evil advisors who wanted to disgrace Japan by surrendering to the westerners. Now we have freed him from their poor judgment, he says....."
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Lemay was the biggest hawk of the war. But he said this:

On September 20, 1945 the famous "hawk" who commanded the Twenty-First Bomber Command, Major General Curtis E. LeMay (as reported in The New York Herald Tribune) publicly:
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said flatly at one press conference that the atomic bomb "had nothing to do with the end of the war." He said the war would have been over in two weeks without the use of the atomic bomb or the Russian entry into the war. (See p. 336, Chapter 27)
 
Tigerace117 said:
Assuming they knew about it. If a radio broadcast said "the emperor says fight to the death" after years of hearing the exact same thing, do you actually think anybody would question that?

The coupists would also frame it in terms of "the emperor was lead astray by evil advisors who wanted to disgrace Japan by surrendering to the westerners. Now we have freed him from their poor judgment, he says....."
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This is getting ridiculous. They were already getting restless with the emperor. They would have tolerated no one else.
 
Re: Did the US do the right thing in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII?.

vegas giants said:
The commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces, Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, gave a strong indication of his views in a public statement only eleven days after Hiroshima was attacked. Asked on August 17 by a New York Times reporter whether the atomic bomb caused Japan to surrender, Arnold said:
*
The Japanese position was hopeless even before the first atomic bomb fell, because the Japanese had lost control of their own air. (See p. 334, Chapter 27)
In his 1949 memoirs Arnold observed that "it always appeared to us that, atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the Japanese were already on the verge of collapse." (See p. 334, Chapter 27)
Click to expand...

The Japanese had fought on despite losing control of the air dozens of times. They'd fought on in hopeless situations dozens of times. Once again, not rational people.
 
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