Sorry Japan. You did deserve the atom bomb after all...

Well, it is better than the cannibalisms that occurred on New Guinea. There Japanese soldiers there were too weak to waste energy raping women. They ate them instead.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Mar 1 2007, 01:23 PM) [snapback]398578[/snapback]</div>

I've never understood the reticence of the Japenese government to acknowledge this phase of their history. Were it not for the documents that were discovered and published in '93, I doubt they would have issued the statement they now seem to be stepping back from, even though most historians, and most survivors from the earlier era, were well aware of what had taken place.

That said, I can't imagine how you can state that Japan "did deserve the atom bomb after all." That displays an insensitivity to human life that seems to me to be even worse than the Japanese government's insensitivity to their country's war actions.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Mar 1 2007, 02:29 PM) [snapback]398582[/snapback]</div>

Shame on you.

There is a huge difference between a prostitute and a sex slave... the women in brothels have a choice.. the Japanese comfort women had none.

 

Don't forget about the war that would have continued for probably years had not for the bombs being dropped.

Would that have been a war where fewer lives lost than those who died in the blasts and after effects?

The bombs were the right thing to do. Let's line some up for tehran.

 

What about the Paradise Road?

Or are they only denying that Asian Women were coerced?

Paradise Road at IMDB

 

Isn't saying Japan deserved to be nuked (because some of their leaders are backward thinkers) tantamount to saying some of our southern states ought to be? After all some of them still believe in white supreamacy.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hill @ Mar 1 2007, 03:32 PM) [snapback]398624[/snapback]</div>

Well, the leadership was certainly corrupt... and there's something about the Japanese Army killing 8 million (yes, 8 million) civilians, most of which were Chinese. But I guess the leaders were personally out there killing those 8 million civilians, right?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hill @ Mar 1 2007, 01:32 PM) [snapback]398624[/snapback]</div>

You'll have to list out specific cities to get support for this plan....

 

None of the innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki deserved to die. The atomic bombs were not dropped on Japan to end WWII, that was pure US propeganda bullshit. It was the beginning of the cold war, it was a move intended to intimidate the Russians. Japan was already totally defeated before the first atom bomb was dropped.

People who say that Japan deserved the atom bombs are also the same 29% of US citizens who think the war in Iraq is all about promoting freedom and democracy in Iraq.

-Dave

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveLeePrius @ Mar 1 2007, 01:41 PM) [snapback]398629[/snapback]</div>

Skip 8th grade and you get to make up your own version of history?

Maybe you can get Hussein Obama to pass a bill giving billions in reperations to Japan and give them Hawaii as a "We're sorry" gift.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Mar 1 2007, 03:09 PM) [snapback]398648[/snapback]</div>

Its the usual hate America crowd here. Examining something like WWII retrospectively 60+ years later and making a judgement - cute but not smart. After the horrendous losses in Okinawa (where JackMurtha wants to reploy our troops from Iraq) there were estimates that the casualty rate for US forces in an invasion of Japan's mainland would be in excess of 1,000,000 - probably accurate given the number killed and wounded on Okinawa. We had only two bombs and there were no assurances they would work. They picked their targets carefully and I think Truman (an old school Democrat) did the right thing because he was there and made the decision during a world war with the knowledge he had and the circumstances he was facing. To judge him or hold this country responsible for doing something then and there is specious and used by those who callously pass judgement on the US WITHOUT full knowledge of the circumstances.

Yes they did deserve the bomb - they started that war by bitch slapping up on a Sunday Morning (at least the Japanese had the decency to attack a military target unlike the Islamofascists - whose support is also fairly strong here - who attacked defenseless civilians), they cut the heads off of American POW's, etc. Thre is NO doubt in my mind that if they had gotten the bomb first they would have dropped it with glee - almost like the iranians will use it if we allow them to get ahold of it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Mar 1 2007, 03:09 PM) [snapback]398648[/snapback]</div>

Who is that?

 

As usual, the truth is actually somewhere in the middle. The dropping of the bombs hastened the end of the war, which was likely to have continued a few more months otherwise with Japan the loser.

American school children learn the version that bombs were necessary to end the war.

Japanese school children learn the version that the bombs were unnecessary as the war was close to being over anyhow, and so many innocent people died needlessly.

Of course it's the respective governments who provide the learning materials.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Mar 1 2007, 04:53 PM) [snapback]398686[/snapback]</div>

The tragedy here, and it is a tragedy, is that Japanese school children never learn exactly what their grandfathers did... even today most schoolbooks don't own up to the Rape of Nanking. Or the death marches. Let alone the 8 million civilians who died at the hands of the Japanese military.

German children are forced to learn about what their grandfathers did, so that it may never happen again. Japanese children are protected from the sins of the past... which is a shame. Never forget, never repeat. Never admit to wrongdoing ... and who knows.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Mar 1 2007, 04:43 PM) [snapback]398678[/snapback]</div>

While you're wrong about Iran... you're right about everything else.

Some of what went on is absolutely sickening... at one point two Japanese officers involved in fighting in China had a competition to see how many civilians they could behead over a weekend.

And when Hong Kong fell, Japanese soldiers drove wounded Canadian in a hospital into the sea. But I'm sure some apologist here will point out the 'compassionate' act when the same soldiers drove their nurses into the sea too. No doubt to care for those wounded POWs.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jonnycat26 @ Mar 1 2007, 12:55 PM) [snapback]398687[/snapback]</div>

Much the same way as our U.S. history textbooks mitigate slavery.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Mar 1 2007, 03:53 PM) [snapback]398686[/snapback]</div>

you are wrong here - japan could have and would have lasted out for years without a full scale invasion - name the last time a siege of an entire country ended a war in a few months? These people died for their God and would have held out until the last atp molecule had left their bodies. they would have continued to develop jets, rockets and worked on WMD's - it is an illusion to which you are party.