But Japan started it. No one forced them to invade all of Asia and kill millions of people. The US didn't go to war with Japan unprovoked, they were attacked! I don't see how it's the same in that context.

That was lame. We're obviously talking proportions here.

clarification
 

Let's see. Japan attacked the US naval base and fleet, right? The US bombed japanese cities.

The Japanese would have bombed US cities if they'd had the capability. They bombed enough cities throughout Asia and slaughtered millions of civilians in their time there.

Plus this whole judement based on civilian targets it's not really accepting that during WWII civilian targets were generally considered legitimate targets. In Europe and the Pacific wars both axis and allied forces targeted civilian targets all the time. Carpet bombing of German cities wasn't just going after strategic targets!

Still you can't seem to see past one strategic attack on the US that had them enter the war and the dropping of atomic weapons. It's seems this is about the only knowledge of the war you have...sad really.

You seem to believe that the dropping of the bombs were purely in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbour. You do realise there was 4 years of intense and bloody fighting between the two events?

Is it not true that it was not until after the a-bombs had been dropped on Japan that the treaty and new rules regarding bombing civilian areas were finalised?

Many people think that is was simple tit-for-tat, and on a place such a JF where you get lots of people who think zomg Japan and everything about it is the best ever (^_^) will defend anything to do with Japan to the nth degree without any true reasoning. Often they find the easiest way to do this to attack another nation, such as one that seems to have let them down personally.

This is the problem people have. They have this imaginary timeline in their head that goes:

embargos - Pearl Harbor - atomic bombs

The a-bombs certainly would have played a major role. Such destruction from one single weapon changed many things. We are certainly very unlikely to ever see another world war occur with such weapons in the hands of most of the major players...

The Americans get guilted into being the bad guys?

Whether that is true or not.. the answer is not to falsely portray them as the "good guys".

capability
 

The key word - If

More correctly - 4 years of intense and bloody fighting between armed forces, naval forces of Allies and Axis. I believe that the dropping of the bombs weren't purely in retaliation. It was a demonstration of American military power to Soviets as well as a field experiment.
Something like "how many civilians you can effectively kill and how many buildings you can effectively destroy on certain area." As for "legitimate targets" - Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren't mayor naval or air bases of japanese armed forces.

To be honest I just googled it and linked a page that supports the study I've done into the subject.

Let me find you a better source