Quote:
Originally Posted by nsoshnikov
Lol the only reason why US dropped the atomic bomb was:
1) To show they were more powerful then the Soviet Union
2) To claim the victory, as the Soviets were in Manchuria and would of won anyways.
To say that it saved more lives is as ridiculous as it can get. You dropped a bomb on civilians, yes just the people, not on the army. Would love to see you be in that spot. Some can argue it was a genocide. And Americans are yet to admit they were wrong. Don't forget all the long-term effects after as well.
I guess I expected more responses like this one, although I don't agree that those were the most salient reasons. I've never heard of anyone but Americans that support the "saved lives" explanation, which seems no better than the "to fight terrorism" line used to justify Iraq-Afghanistan.
As simple as it sounds, I think one huge factor is the Manhattan Project itself. Once all that effort, time, and money had been put into developing the bomb, it becomes psychologically very hard not to use such a weapon against an enemy that's pissed you off. My understanding is that the top brass were happy to drop the bomb on Kyoto (major Japanese cultural center) until someone somewhat more enlightened pleaded with them not to. The way I've heard it described was that it as though Truman et al. were on a "toboggan ride" that once initiated, was almost inevitably going to lead to use of the bomb.
I'll grant that the firebombings of Tokyo, Dresden, etc. were more destructive from a body count and cultural perspective, but that hardly seems a justification. Besides, this act let the atomic genie out of the bottle and, to this day, if say a jihadist were to get his hands on one of the these and drop one on a US city in retaliation for US aggression in the Middle East, do we even have a more valid complaint than Japanese who lost family members in Hiroshima?
In addition, notice that not one but TWO atom bombs were dropped. It's arguable whether or not sufficient time had been given for Hirohito to make a decision to surrender. What was it, four days between bombings?