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Originally Posted by Ronin4hire
Youve missed the point. The dropping of the bombs was not about ending the war as quickly as possible. Again.. the war was all but over.
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United States has given Japan a good 6 months of intense strategic fire-bombing of 67 Japanese cities, the Japanese government ignored an ultimatum given by the Potsdam Declaration. Why? Imperial Japan at the time believed they can win the war by strong Nationalism. Japan had a no surrender policy and was determined to fight to their last man.
As late as May 1945, the U.S. was engaged in heavy fighting with the Japanese at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In these most bloody conflicts, the United States had sustained more than 75,000 casualties. Thus, President Harry Truman had many alternatives at his disposal for ending the war: invade the Japanese mainland or save lifes of Americans from full scale war invasion.
Europe eventually swayed United States Pacific theater military leaders to authorize bombing of Japanese mainland cities. Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe all were decimated by incendiary and other bombs. In all, hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in these air strikes meant to deter the resolve of the Japanese people. Yet, Japanese resolve stayed strong and the idea of a bloody "house to house" invasion of the Japanese mainland would produce thousands more American and Allied casualties. The Allies in late July 1945 declared at Potsdam that the Japanese must unconditionally surrender.
After Japanese leaders flatly rejected the Potsdam Declaration, President Truman authorized use of the atomic bomb anytime after August 3, 1945. On the clear morning of August 6, the first atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. Leveling over 60 percent of the city, 70,000 residents died instantaneously in a searing flash of heat. Three days later, on August 9, a second bomb, Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki.
It is clear the bomb was dropped to END the war as quickly as possible to save the lives of Allied soldiers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronin4hire
For America to defend the decision is hypocritical of the "supposed" ideals they stand for.
Also according to your argument.. shall we end Iraq and Afghanistan as quickly as possible at any cost?
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Policekeeping is never a fun thing to do and many will criticize no matter how good you are doing your job. Almost all policemen are hated by the general public, why? Because if you see a few bad cops, you will most likely think bad of police. People tend to remember the bad rather than the good.