The doubt of those that question the dropping of the bombs on Japan is more idiocy.
I believe the numbers I read through the years reflected 1 million+ projected Allied casualties. From my perspective, given the choice between one USA soldier/sailor dying versus 1 million Japanese enemies, I vote for the 1 million Japanese enemies. Anything other than that is a reflection of our failure as a nation to understand the meaning of war.
Now for some facts not mentioned. Russia would not have participated in an all out attack on Japan, or at least no greater than the French participation in the landings of Normandy, which were token participation. Russia declared war on Japan for one primary reason. They knew that Japan had successfully tested a nuclear weapon in Korea, and they wanted to move in to the Korean peninsula and capture the documentation for that technology, which is exactly what they did. Anyone here doubt for one minute given the opportunity the Japanese would most certainly have used a nuclear device on the USA? If so, give your brain an enema, for it is not functioning!
Japan used bio weapons on the Chinese to test them for their ultimate use on the USA. The Japanese had designed an eight engine bomber that they planned to fly halfway across the USA and dump/blanket bio weapons on the western half of the USA. Again, anyone doubt for a minute the Japanese would have used these bio weapons on the USA if they just had more time. Had we not used nuclear weapons, they would have stalled long enough to make that a reality, which could have well changed the outcome of the war.
The USA made numerous overtures to the Japanese requesting their surrender. They ignored those requests. Ignored them. Therefore, Harry Truman had no choice in the matter. He made a wise decision, and it should never be questioned. And those that do question it should be told to shut the f*&^ up, for they are idiots.
My father was in the Navy, in the Pacific theater, driving a landing craft fighting the Japanese. He was at the battles of Saipan, Leyte, Luzon, Okinawa and a couple smaller actions on other islands. The death he witnessed if you know anything about these battles was significant. He refused my whole life to ever discuss it with me. He took all that knowledge to the grave in terms of the actual battles.
But I will tell you a funny story. He refused all MY life to ever say a word about the war to me, but one day, my son, his only grandson comes home from school and...
Son says, "Wasn't Grandpa in a war or something?"
Me... "Yes he was. He fought in WWII against the Japanese in the Pacific. He was in the Navy".
Son..."I have to do an audio interview of a war veteran as a school project. Do you think Grandpa would let me interview him about his experiences?"
Me..."You can call and ask him, but I have to tell you, all my life I asked him about his experiences during the war, and he adamantly refused to ever discuss it. So, if he tells you something like that, do not be disappointed, for he saw some gruesome things during the war, many men being killed before his eyes, etc, and I would be surprised if he would want to discuss it with you."
So, my son calls my father, and of course, you can imagine what he said without me telling you. My son told him about the assignment, and my father says, "Sure Neil, come on over and ask me anything." Ugggh!! I was happy for my son, but it bothered me that he never wanted to talk to me, his own son. I worshiped him, read every book on the shelf about WWII, and always wanted to know more.
As I mentioned, my son only needed audio, but I decided to film it on VHS, and strip out the audio later for his assignment. At the time, my father was diagnosed with metastasized lung cancer. He had a tumor in his esophogus, told he only had two months to live(he was 1.5 years into that 2 months, using shark cartilage to stay alive...another story), and he met my son about six months before his death with the promise to answer any of his questions.
So I sat down with my son, and told him, he is going to answer all your questions, and all of mine that I never got to ask when I was a kid. We listed out all the questions my son was to ask, and we went over one evening and sat down with my father, who lived only 4 miles away. I helped him structure the interview without questions regarding the blood and guts of it all, because I did not want to upset my father in his condition. My son was happy to avoid all that too at 11 or 12 years of age.
First question my son asks that has HUGE significance to me to this day. This interview happened the first half of 1995.
Son..."Grandpa, can you tell me if you recall, how you first heard about the attack of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese?"
Grandpa...[he was 16 years of age, living in Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh, for those of you that know Pittsburgh, and for those that don't, it is a high hill overlooking the downtown area of the City of Pittsburgh] [he chuckles] 'well, me and my buddies, we headed down the hill into the city that evening, and when we got in town, there were people running about and we were told that the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor. Now there were 6 or 7 of us, and we all looked at each other and said, where is Pearl Harbor?'
Not one of these boys had any idea where Pearl Harbor was. Flash forward to 9/11 and compare what was done on that day to the USA. For me, pick a number, 9/11 was 10x. 100x worse than December 7th, the Pearl Harbor attack. The Japanese attacked military targets in the hopes of knocking us out of the war with one blow, targets that had the ability to defend themselves, and on 9/11, it was civilian facilities that were attacked in our country. For me, many times worse than what the Japanese did. That is why I have such a strong dislike for George Bush and his tea and crumpets response to 9/11. Had I been POTUS, there would not have been need to spend one dime on Afghanistan, for I would have leveled it, and not lost a moment's sleep over it.
So, back to the bombs in Japan. These bombs being dropped brought a fast end to the war. It saved my father's life possibly from further risk in battle with the Japanese, and the lives of many others. Anyone that knows the mindset of the Japanese, they largely fought to the death with every island we took in the Pacific. A lot of Americans died in those battles. Even after we thought we had secured islands, the remaining Japanese would slip out of their caves and slit the throats of sleeping GIs, etc. The Japanese on their own mainland would have fought with great ferocity to defend their islands, killing many. There just wasn't another choice for Truman. NONE!!!
BTW, anyone that has doubts of just how murderous the Japanese were during the war, please read the book The Rape of Nanking. The Japanese were murderous, evil people. They lined up Chinese civilians and competed with one another to see how many they could kill with one bullet. They tore unborn babies from pregnant women and tossed the babies in the air to see who could impale them with their bayonets, they buried people partially in the ground and had dogs devour them alive while they watched and cheered. Believe me, the Germans during WWII with their atrocities were to use an Obama phrase, the JV team versus the Japanese and their penchant for murder and evil.
