did the u.s.have to drop the bomb?

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Tenchu

Nyororin,

Did you write that kind of as a reply to my posts?

Not really. I skimmed through the thread, read the basic flow of talk and the opinions being expressed, and just wrote it out. That`s it. I actually completely agree with your statements that willing soldiers are different than civilians. When you go into something knowing full well what you`re doing, and being prepared for it - while it`s never a good thing to lose a life, there is a significant difference between death in that case and just a random murder.

I was actually thinking of writing a reply to just to support what you said, but then remembered about the great-uncles... And it was a little harder to just toss out support with no strings attached.

Anyway, it is an entirly different issue altogether; using civilians as soldier is equally as retarded as murdering innocent civilians.

There used to be a time when, once your Army was lost, you admitted defeat and gave up.

This is incredibly true. During WWII, Japan should have simply given up when it reached the point that it was tossing civilian "soldiers" out for slaughter. But it didn`t. Those at the top had no intention of giving up until the population was exhausted. I`ve heard (but have never seen any actual official documentation on it) from those who were in school back during the war that toward the end, they upped the physical education classes for the girls and were starting to talk about the possibility of them being sent to help in the war effort. Girls - just out of junior high school... With "strenuous phys ed" using a pointy stick being the "training" for a battle with bombs and guns.

The war ended before it got to that point, but I think that the average citizen felt so powerless and was so emotionally pushed into a corner by the propaganda that it would have gone that far had the war not been put to an end.

[Tenchu]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I was actually thinking of writing a reply to just to support what you said, but then remembered about the great-uncles... And it was a little harder to just toss out support with no strings attached.

Well, both my grandfathers were ANZACS ( if you don't know what that is, it is the allied Australia and New Zealand Army Corps; Australia and New Zealand pretty much united to form a single nation during the first and second world wars).

My father's father fought the Germans in Egypt. He got blasted by a spitfire plane, but survived. He never talked to my father about it. My father didn't even know he was in the war until later on.

My mother's father was on the ships that blasted Japanese hills with their big guns. Yet, my mother says there is an emotional issue, also. She thinks he must have landed at some stage.

They were not soldiers, either of them. They volunteered. They didn't really belong there.

I don't really support either side in the war. I think both wars were pretty dodgey, with both sides behaving pretty shamefully.

Anyway, for a lot of what I say to be relevant, you also have to consider other things I say. I'm pretty old fashioned, really (like, 1,000 year old fashion).

In the end, I just accept the murder of the innocent as always a crime under any circumstances, and it should never be done.

[bELyVIS]

All I know is that I hated being in Japan during this time of year. They keep playing those documentaries about it on TV and Western looking gaijin get stares and dirty looks. It makes me uncomfortable.

[packetpirate]

To everyone in this topic who is trying to justify what the U.S. did... war is never right. It is a despicable trait of humanity. People try to say we NEED war for change... that's a load of shit. The only thing that needs to change is us. Our first solution to a dispute is to go to war because humanity is a small child. When we don't like another country's habits, we bully them. Except that in reality, we're not just bullying them, we're killing them. Who gave the U.S. the authority to determine who should live or die? And for that matter, who gave people the right to judge others and tell them how they can or can't live their lives? (Authority)

America prides itself as appearing as the only "free" country of the world, but that freedom is because they'll kill anyone who stands in the way of that freedom, for whatever reason. While that may sound good in retrospect, the point is that they're just looking for a reason to go off and kill anyone who doesn't agree with them.

So no, I don't think there was any justification for dropping those bombs. The civilians that were killed, or even worse, mutated, had nothing to do with the war and should not have been made to suffer for the army's disputes.

[Tenchu]

Originally Posted by packetpirate

war is never right.

Why it that so?

[james1254]

Originally Posted by Ronin4hire

So you can see how the bigger picture of WW2 is more complicated than the typical "We are the good guys Japan/Germany are the bad guys" stance that Americans typically take.

I agree,
Rape and atrocities took place on all sides however the Russians, Germans(not the normal army the SS) and Japanese did commit more than anyone else. Our allies the Russians were probably the worst of all with their bloody vengeance spree through eastern Europe and Germany was as bad as (if not worse) the Japanese in Asia. Even American, British and French committed atrocities.

"In Italy, victims of the mass rape committed after the Battle of Monte Cassino by Goumiers, colonial troops of the French Expeditionary Corps, are known as Marocchinate. According to Italian sources, more than 7,000 Italian civilians, including women and children, were raped by Goumiers."

"A study by Robert J. Lilly estimates that a total of 14,000 civilian women in England, France and Germany were raped by American GIs during World War II."

"At the end of World War II, Red Army soldiers are estimated to have raped around 2,000,000 German women and girls."


also I believe the bombing was necessary as the Japanese didn't even surrender after the first one which shows that dropping it offshore never would have worked.

[Tenchu]

Yeah, but I think America took the cake in Vietnam.

[alanX]

Remember who started the war in the first place.

[hinata2]

no its wrong how would the u.s like if japan bombed them back

[Kandierain15]

Originally Posted by hinata2

no its wrong how would the u.s like if japan bombed them back

....umm.. They had bombed us first correct? I mean, I live in America so I don't know if I'm being biased but from all i've heard from History classes and family, the u.s wasn't involved in the war until Japan dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor. Which made us need to go into the war because the u.s didn't want to war to come come to us. Which would have killed many many americans.

Even though many got killed anyway, not including the innocent that was killed from other countries. I've read over some the past posts and it looks like even innocent Americans that were volunteering got killed for no purpose.

One more opinion before I shut up, I believe any type of war is horrible and kills innocent people that had every right in their life to live and grow. Not to die in a war. I may not know any people that fought in the war personally, but I still have so much respect for them. And I will always wish that they didn't have to go through that horrible time for this world.