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Originally Posted by noodle
I guess it was inevitable that this would turn into a "which country is more evil" debate.
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Did you know that the Japanese military attempted to refuse to surrender even after the dropping of the bombs? The military took steps to prevent the emperor from agreeing to any surrender. The emperor had to make the recording of the surrender in secret, and the recording had to be smuggled out of the imperial compound so it could be played. The emperor couldn't make the statement on live radio, as he was a virtual prisoner of the military at the time. The military found out about the record, and ransacked the compound trying to find it, but, luckily for Japan and the rest of the world, it wasn't found.
The nonsense story that Japan would have surrendered shortly without the dropping of the bombs is easy to sell now, but back in 1945 when the cost in lives for even a small island ran into the tens of thousands it was not believable.
My grandfather fought in the Pacific during the war, and he was one of the few survivors left in his outfit when it was over. He was present for the signing of the surrender on the battleship Missouri. Most of his friends and fellow soldiers died during the war, and those captured by the Japanese early on suffered incredible hardship.
Ronin, large numbers of soldiers from your country were captured by the Japanese during the war in the fighting in Malaya and at the surrender of Singapore. Perhaps you should read their stories to find out who the good guys really were. They will tell you that even after the dropping of the bombs, the commanders of the prison camps told them daily that Japan would never lose, even if the war were to last 100 years. They were given tiny rations of food, so many of them starved. They were never given any medicines of any kind, so many succumbed to tropical diseases. They were beaten and tortured almost daily. They were used as slave laborers, building airfields, railways, working in mines, etc. The unlucky ones were sent to Japan's Unit 731 in China, where they were subjected to barbaric medical tests, or used as live guinea pigs to check the effectiveness of new grenades, rifles, and other weapons. Few of those captured by the Japanese during their victories in 1941 lived to tell the tale, and the average weight of these POWs in 1945 was under 90 pounds. In contrast, my girlfriend's grandfather was captured by American soldiers during the war, and he was well treated. Japanese prisoners were not starved, beaten, forced to do slave labor, or denied medical help for injuries or wounds received in battle. Did you know that many of the German soldiers captured by America during the war refused to return to Germany when it ended? Many of them remained in America, got married, and never left. One of these men was the grandfather of one of my high school friends. These obvious facts should give anyone with the ability to think the correct idea as to who were the good guys during the war.
In the more distant islands in the Pacific news of the surrender was slow to come, and Japanese soldiers continued to fight. Many who heard the news didn't believe it and refused to surrender, or simply they killed themselves rather than submit to it. Before the surrender Japanese soldiers killed themselves and others (including Japanese civilians) so they couldn't surrender or be captured.
The war ended only 65 years ago, it's amazing how few people know anything about it.
Not everyone in Japan believes the bombs were unnecessary, by the way. Many admit that were it not for the bombs Japan may not have surrendered until there was nothing left of it. A senior member of the Japanese government stated such last year, and then resigned his position. But of course, these opinions are never shared on August 6th, which is the national day of people feeling sorry for themselves for having had to eat the foul soup which they themselves made.