Who says civilians aren't acceptable targets? War is whatever works, whatever means necessary, I thought we'd established that?
Actually, an American general first established this doctrine, of Total War. General Sherman during the Civil War destroyed not only military, but also civilian targets. He did, unlike later Generals who followed the Total War Doctrine, try to avoid civilian casualties. He did this by sending messages to Atlanta, for example, telling them the city would be destroyed and they had to leave. Although this may be a horrible way to fight a war, it became the norm, with Europeans engaging in the same methods. Do you know why Total War was believed in? Because it worked. It demoralized the enemy so much that they wanted to surrender. It was highly effective, and by World War II, Hitler set the stage for Total War with his bombings of civilians targets. The US became involved in a war that was being fought not only against armies, but against the civilian populations that supported these armies. Sadly, this became a driving force behind the bombings in Japan.
You also must realize that the allied invasion, titled Operation Olympic, was allowing leeway for at least 1 million American casualties and at least that number of Japanese. Military Brass did not, for obvious reasons, feel this was acceptable when the nuke, which potentially could end the war, would do it with far less casualties.
Also, in hindsight you must remember: Oppenheimer and others HAD NO IDEA THE BOMB WAS RADIOACTIVE. They thought it was just an extremely powerful weapon, they had no idea that radiation would cause thousands of death and deformaties in the most horrible ways. Perhaps if this knowledge had been present they may have reconsidered the use of the bombs. BUT IT WASN'T.
when US dropped the bombs on Japan, they already knew the war was over and they had won. the bombs were just a "screw you" for the surprise attack on Perl Harbor and the kamikazi bombs.
America knew it had won, yes. But the Japanese did not. They were willing to fight it out to the last man. The "screw you" for Pearl Harbor came when Allied forces attacked the largest shipyard in Japan. They attacked in the same method as the Japanese had except iwth over 1000 aircraft. There were other incidents in which America attempted to destroy Japanese fleets in the same way the Pacific Fleet had been crushed years early, but that is the best example.
The 'sneak attack' on Pearl Harbor was not intended to be such. The Japanese had sent a declaration of war to their ambassador in Washington to be delivered right before the attack. It was marked so top secret that only the ambassador and one of his staff could work on the decoding. The ambassador was such a poor typist that it ended up being delivered after the attack.
Where did you read this? When the bombings happened the Japanese Ambassador was talking with Roosevelt, ABOUT HOW TO EASE SANCTIONS AND MEND RELATIONS WITH THE US. I'm sorry, but I would love to see where you read this.
The Bombing of Dresden, btw, in my opinion was not justified at all. Dresden was full of civilians fleeing from the Red Army advance. Theere were no factories in the area that was bombed. The only worthwhile target was the railroad yard, but I don't beleive a firestorm was needed to destroy it. THe only reason I have ever been able to see behind the bombing was simply that the Allies were out of targets. Almost every target of significance had already been bombed that was in range of the bombers, Dresden was the only exception.
-The number of casualties, I thought, were more around 55 million killed, both civilians and military. I know Russia had about ~25 million killed, Germany lost at least 3/4 of it's 10 million man army + civilians, Japan lost at least 2 - 3 million men. Those are just the quick ones I can think of.
-One last thing, the quote "the object of war is not die for your country but make the other poor dumb bastard die for his" is from George S. Patton.
Sorry for such a long post, but I spend lots of time reading about world war II. I totally believe the dropping of the bombs was justified.