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Posts:
1
Registered:
5/11/02
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(1 of 82)
May 11, 2002 7:47 PM
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DO YOU THINK TRUMAN SHOULD HAVE DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB? WHY OR WHY NOT?
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Posts:
248
Registered:
9/13/99
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(2 of 82)
May 15, 2002 11:47 AM
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Don't know if it would have worked but the bomb could have been detonated on an unpopulated target where the Japanese leaders could have witnessed it leaving them with a "Well we know what they have in store for us if we don't accept their terms and surrender"
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Posts:
70
Registered:
9/10/99
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(3 of 82)
May 26, 2002 4:19 PM
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This option was discussed, at least by the Los Alamos scientists. The Military view was that if the Japanese KNEW that a single bomber could be armed with such a weapon, they would have targeted single bombers approaching their shores. In fact, eyewitness accounts from Hiroshima indicate that their Air Raid sirens signaled a warning, followed by an All-Clear signal at the approach of the Enola Gay, apparently mistaking it for one of the "weather" scout planes which frequently overflew the area. Such weather planes were not usually attacked as they did not carry bombs.
We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart. - Blaise Pascal
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Posts:
9,202
Registered:
10/27/01
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(4 of 82)
Wouldn't work given the mental stat of the Japanese
May 26, 2002 5:28 PM
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It might have worked with a westgern European state but not with an Asian one where death was preferable to surrender.
Japan had no known a conquer in it's recorded history and had never lost a war in the almost 2,000 years it had been around as a nation. It believed that Ameratsu the sun-goddess through her divine son the Emperor protected Japan and thus as a divine nation and people surrender was impossible and too humilitating to contemplate.
Having had relatives who fought the Japanese and compared them to our own Iroquois ancestors in savagery and preferance for deathy before dishonor of capitivity it would have menat nothing to have dropped it in an unpopulated area.
All it would have shown was that we feared them and were too weak, as they believed we were, to really come to grips with them in a war to the death.
The bombs forall their alleged terror actually killed less people then the fire raids on Tokyo and Yokohama.
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Posts:
9,202
Registered:
10/27/01
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(5 of 82)
May 26, 2002 5:33 PM
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I hit submit too early, oops!
The impact of the bombs were that one plane and one crew could kill thousands and that we could burn Japan from one end to the other without significant loss.
With one plane now doing the work of several hundred the samurai bushido spirit of 2,000 years of invicible Japan meet the face of modern technology and an enemy prepared to use it.
No samurai could stand up to an a-bomb. The war was over.
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Posts:
500
Registered:
6/6/02
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(6 of 82)
Fat man and Little Boy...
Jun 10, 2002 7:28 PM
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The decision to drop the bomb was no easy one I can assure you, but when your fighting a fanatical enemy who fighting to end and not to mention crashing their aircraft onto our ships what can you expect. The Bushido code was not the Western method of fighting. If we would of launched Operations Coronet and Olympic in Nov 1st of 1945 and the latter in March 1st of 1946! We would of lost MANY men, the war in the Pacific was bleeding America dry- the public was tiring of all the fighting for each of those godforsaken islands. Many armchair historain may think America was barbaric in using the bomb, I disagree- had Truman NOT dropped those bombs, and gone ahead with the conventinal method of invansion, and the public known later he had a weapon at his disposal and not used it they would of hung Harry! Many Marines and soldiers were fatalistic of their chances of survival, especially when the entire Japanese population is coming at you. The Japanese are in no position too really complain about so-called barbaric decisions...just mention the Rape of Nanking a Holocust that never seems to receive any attention. The asked for it and had they had the bomb they would of likely of used it on us, Remember it was WAR.
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Posts:
500
Registered:
6/6/02
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(7 of 82)
Jun 10, 2002 7:38 PM
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They would of never given up, these people fought to the bitter end, and also why waste the element of surprise. The Japanese didn't telegram us..."Hey by the way America... ahhm we're come by on Sunday for breakfast and a game of baseball" Like I said before they asked for it, for everything they did in the war like the Batann death march and the Rape of Nanking...Karma is a B*@h aint it!
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Posts:
4
Registered:
7/17/02
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(8 of 82)
Jul 17, 2002 11:40 AM
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Why should we have not dropped the bomb? They did after all raid OUR harbor in an attempt to get us to anger up at them and join the war. They succeded in doing that, we declared WAR, on them and thier allies, which means there are no guidelines towards this issue. The general idea was to cripple them severely by nuking them. We succeded in doing this, we took out many factories. We may have killed many innocent people but that is WAR. The so called innocent people we kill are linked to making the bombs/torpedoes that killed our countrymen, so technically THEY killed U.S. citizens. In war, that means death.
"It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong." -Prince Otto Von Bismarck
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Posts:
28
Registered:
6/17/02
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(9 of 82)
Jul 19, 2002 3:14 PM
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the cost in mans lives to take the islands of japan would be in the hundreds of thousands, and the jappnise in the millions, and the A-bomb would have been devolped anyway, so why not use this weapon to save lives.
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Posts:
213
Registered:
6/15/00
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(10 of 82)
Aug 13, 2002 3:47 PM
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The unit responsible for the majority of the atrocities during the "Rape of Nanking" was recruited from Hiroshima. I don't know if that was known to LeMay at the time, or if known, if it entered into his target selection process. In any case, ain't serendipity a beautiful thing?
"In a land without guns, the man with the boxcutter is king."
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Posts:
1
Registered:
9/13/02
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(11 of 82)
Sep 13, 2002 8:31 PM
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In only the last several years has the story about the Japanese effort to build a nuclear device made the light. Hitler was sending by U-Boat to Japan fissionable material, heavy water and German scientists. When Germany surrendered, we intercepted one of them in the Indian Ocean and quickly spirited everything to the Manhattan Project. Some of the nuclear material in the atomic bombs we dropped was from there. By 1945, Japan had no air force so there was no delivery system. Apparently the goal was to explode a "dirty," highly radioactive bomb on the shores of Japan herself to maximize the deaths to Americans storming ashore. The Japanese military knew quite well that they would kill thousands of Japanese, too. In fact, I'd guess it would be near the same number of Japanese who were killed by our two bombs.
I was always unsure if we should have dropped the second bomb or dropped a bomb on an island as a demonstration of what faced Japan. Now I see that the Japanese government knew what it faced and would not have ended the war unless we did exactly what we did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Posts:
2
Registered:
8/25/02
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(12 of 82)
Sep 26, 2002 7:14 PM
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no why not.
Over taxed hard working citizen, obviously not a member of the 6:30 news soundbite believers.
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Posts:
3
Registered:
10/1/02
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(13 of 82)
Oct 1, 2002 8:51 AM
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Yes, I believe Truman did the right thing in ordering the dropping of the atomic bombs. Estimates showed that if he had ordered an invasion of the Japanese mainland, the result would have been at least 1 million American casualties and even more Japanese deaths. That being the case, the order to drop the bombs saved my grandfather's life. He would have been involved in an invasion of Japan, if it had been ordered.
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Posts:
2
Registered:
10/30/02
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(14 of 82)
Nov 1, 2002 4:48 PM
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Saw a bumper sticker the other day....
"If there was no Pearl Harbor.. there wouldn't have been an Hiroshuma". Any Questions?
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Posts:
5
Registered:
11/30/02
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(15 of 82)
Nov 30, 2002 9:16 PM
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Remember, the U.S. did plenty of damage to the Japanese cities by incendinery bombs, which burned approximately 90-98% of their cities. Now the question is Truman justified to drop the two nuclear weapons? eventually yes. According to the Japanese warrior code, their terms of no surrender will cost more lives, toll that will be the inevitable suffered by both sides.
The Japanese war machine did plenty of damage to South East Asia and China during the war. Lotting ,rape, burning, and all sorts of militarily unnesessary actions were done that are very offensive and apalling to the general public.
Plus the Japanese War Machine is supported by the majority of the Japanese Citizens, which they are "propagandadized" by the Government.
Truman should have dropped the Atomic Bomb, which is less destructive to Truman's "Fire from the skies" bombings. The result is also a lesson telling people that the powers of the atoms should not used for war. If the bombed is not dropped during WWII, the cold war could possibly be a more dangerous time.
Understanding is important.
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