How the hell could we nuke Japan?!

[Chooco]

both the terrorists and US military of the time had the same way of thinking: "we have to knock that attitude out of their heads"
Japan was very determined to take over the world, they were not going to stop. their willingness to die for the cause is clearly shown through the kamikazi attacks. they fought like it was the end of the world, those bombs had to be dropped just to put across the message of "it's over, we win". to bring across a peaceful surrender instead of Japan going down kicking and screaming, bringing down as many soldiers of the US as it could in which both the US and Japan would be in a lose-lose situation (by numbers that is)

the terrorists believe that the US is trying to takover the world by political means then using strong arm tactics to force the world into being like itself. terrorists see themselves as the defenders of Islam and the defenders of arab land since they see US as the big brother backing up Israel which hates arabs just as arabs hate Israel, i don't know the time line of middle east so i won't comment.

the US at the time thought of themselves as the defenders because that is what they were - defending. the thing that makes the US bombings justifyable sort of is that with the middle east it always refers back to "he kicked me first" then "oh no HE kicked ME first" and so on. with WW2 you could clearly say "look, they just just bombed us, we can actually say that we truly are defending here"

the terrorist bombings are from opinion, the US bombing of Japan is completely based on facts of the time. if better records of history were kept about the middle east then we could determine who did what first.

 

[Chaotic42]

<<

The Germans weren't even close to creating a bomb, and the Japanese were even farther away. The only country with the support, the monetary backing, and the scientific knowledge was the United States. When Allied troops reached Germany, they found Heisenberg working in a cave by candlelight, riding a bike back and forth to check his experiments. >>



You are correct.

From http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/:

They did not build a nuclear weapon because they did not know how. Although Heisenberg was a gifted theoretical physicist, it was widely known at the time that he was a poor experimentalist and he had no experience with large scale scientific projects. Heisenberg and his colleagues also made several critical mistakes early in the project. For example, they tried using graphite as a nuclear moderator. However, the graphite was impure and absorbed neutrons, rather than slowing them down, which is necessary for the controlled nuclear fission in a reactor. Heisenberg also insisted on using reactor designs that worked well on the chalk board, but were experimentally a disaster. The Farm Hill transcripts and related documents do not point to any evidence that Heisenberg and his colleagues knew how to build a working reactor and but chose not to for moral reasons

However the Germans did send uranium to Japan, via U-boat.

 

[LuDaCriS66]

dd

 

[Chaotic42]

<< Bring on the Senators >>



Huh? I'm very confused!

 

[PistachioByAzul]

Are you trying to make me say uncle because technically I didn't answer your obviously rhetorical questions? Could you rather try to respond to the point?

 

[Balthazar]

<< the US had to nuke somebody for ppl to cower in fear at the power they could unleash

hell it worked didn't it?

i admit maybe eisenhower (or whover -> /me is to late and too drunk to think straight) could have tried trash-talking or something ??? >>



It is better not to say anything than to say alot of incorrect things....

Here is ANOTHER reason it was neccisary.

Go searching the net sometime for the ATROCITIES carried out by the Japanese during and before that war.
Things like burying people up to their necks in the sand, then leaving them, or beheading them. Murdering countless women and children. Just generally horrible things.

Why the hell risk OUR lives to stop them? (same people, in case you forgot) that sneak attacked us at home while boldly lying to our faces (Pearl Harbor anyone?).

Don't feel TOO bad for Japan, they were on the wrong side of that war by their own volition.

 

[hoihtah]

put it in a microwave.

 

[gunf1ghter]

Even many in Japan agree that this action saved lots of Japanese lives. If you want an example of how ferocious the Japanese fought look at the island of Okinawa which lost a sizeable portion of it's civilian population defending against the "American Barbarians".

If you want to blame someone for allowing this war to continue you should blame Emperor Hirohito who should have stopped the war much, much sooner than he did.

 

[snooker]

We gave a warning, dropped the first, gave another warning that went unanswered, so we dropped the second. I can not change what happened, but I am pretty sure if Japan didn't surrender after the second. More would have followed until they did. Yes the US only had 2 bombs, but the reason was, they just developed them. After the first 2, it didn't take too long to have the nuclear arsenal the US has today in place, which would have been used then if a surrender didn't take place.

History shows that when the US gives a warning of any type, the recipient of that warning better listen because the US will backup their warning with action, and I agree with that.


Examples:

Japan (total destruction), Libya (Gulf of Omar), Iraq (Invading Kuwait), and now Afganistan (taliban being overthrown).

 

[gunf1ghter]

Well it certainly doesn't make sense to have hollow threats....

There is no question that there were alternate ways that the US could have brought the Pacific theatre to a close, it is highly debatable though as to whether or not they could have done so without greater loss of life. With the way that the Japanese defended Okinawa, I'm sure that any direct ground or naval action against the mainland would have been met with ferocious suicidal attacks.

The US gave Japan ample opportunity to surrender and they refused, why on earth would we allow thousands more of our fighting forces to die in order to satisfy the "honor" of the Japanese Emperor?

 

[Chooco]

too bad ya didn't have nukes at the beginning of the war, it would have made ya look more powerful

nuking them was good because of 2 reasons:
-saved US dollars on equipment
-saved US lives

if Japan had the bomb they would have done the exact same thing. Do unto others before they do unto you.

 

[absolutiza]

... to end war?

 

[Nemesis77]

<< That is a very fascinating answer. I wonder why I never thought of that.

WWII Timeline
Aug. 6 First atomic bomb dropped Hiroshima
Aug. 8 Soviet Union declares war on Japan; Soviet forces invade Manchuria

I guess Truman was able to foresee the future and know in advance that the Soviet troops would roll over the Japanese forces in Manchuria. Wow! >>



Yes, he knew that Soviet troops would march over the Japanese army in Manchuria. Like I said, Allied and Soviet Union made an agreement which basically said that their primary enemy is Germany. Once Germany is defeated, Soviet Union will declare war on Japan after a certain amount of time (I don't remember the amount). So the americans knew that SU would declare war on Japan withing certain amount of time. And I'm pretty sure that SU knew when Hiroshima was to be bombed so they could coordinate their actions with the dropping of the bomb. Having two cities wiped off the map, losing an army in Manchuria and facing imminent occupation of the northern islands was enough to force Japan to surrender.