Reply #124: Karl I am going to get involved in this [View All]

and this is in no way a justification

1.- WW II WAS total war, the meaning of this is that civilians were valid targets, and this was the view by ALL sides

2.- The Japanese would have dropped an H bomb on San Francisco or any other Americana City if they had it. So would the Germans

3.- The Only reason WE did it and on Japan no-less, was because we developed it, and we tested it after VE Day... so the arguments that we would not drop it on the Germans because they were white has nothing to do with reality... we would have, if we had it.

4.- Yes, modern Japanese are very nice people, so are modern Germans, if we went to war with them tomorrow, they would magically transform themselves into the faceless enemy millions... that happens almost every war. In fact the current war in Iraq has to a point, it just didn't last enough.

So if you want the brutal answer, those same very nice Japanese would have dropped the H bomb if they had it.

Read a little history of the pacific theater. It might clarify to you the almost, well actually the religious zeal with which Japanese troops fought, and their cruel inhumanity to endless civilian populations. The people you know today were formed and grew up under very different circumstances than the people who were adults when the end of the war came.

Oh and that goes for both sides by the way.

And yes, I know folks, in their 80s and 90s these days, who are alive because that bomb was dropped. They know that... and if you want to understand why, read Operation Olympic, especially the expected losses artier the first two weeks of operation, based on the experience on Iwo by the way.

Oh and as to the effects of the bomb... BDA personnel were surprised... what do you mean one bomb can do that? And radiation? Again something most folks were not expecting, some of the scientists were, but not everybody

Oh and it did end the war... just as Sherman's march to the sea ended the civil war... and if they had a nuke back then, they would have used it.

I know, what a happy thought eh.