Quote:
Originally Posted by Gorotsuki
The places that they attacked was wrong all they wanted to do was see how good of a weapon it was and how much damage it would cause in a populated area. On the documentries about this that were on HBO one of the bombs was either droped on or very close to a christian community. Oh yes thoes are our enimies thoes silly christian japanese don't they know thats only for us westerners.
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Actually, the Nagasaki bomb was a mistake--due to cloud cover, the pilot of the plane couldn't find his original target. It's not like they sat down and plotted to kill the Christians...that doesn't make sense. Also, at first one of the targets was Kyoto, but enough
American higher-ups protested and so it was spared. So you see, American leaders were in agony over this, and there were plenty of them involved who had great respect for Japan.
It was well known to the Japanese government by the spring of 1944 that they had irretrievably lost the war. But did they endeavor to save what was left and pick up the pieces by surrendering? No. They drove their people to a frenzy with propaganda campaigns to convince them they were winning. Japanese civilians (yes, the women, children and old people) were trained and ready to fight to the last in the event of an Allied invasion. If the U.S. had not dropped the bomb and ended things where it did, it is my belief that the U.S. would be charged with the genocide of the Japanese people, as the years of war would drag on and the dead pile up until America's superior firepower and economy would have at last annihilated Japan. Japan is a very proud country and not used to surrendering. It's sad that it took an atom bomb to convince the government that surrender was the way to save their country.
This is still a very sensitive issue to many with a lot of hurt still behind it...it's something that should never have happened...but I think it saved lives, and I don't think Japan would be the successful country it is today if the bombing and subsequent surrender had not occurred.