You are correct, Radwoody: There were no honest justifications for dropping nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, non-military targets that also had Allied POWs interned. (Of course, the Allies had already incinerated numerous cities both in Japan, including Tokyo, and in Europe, using incendiary bombs, but that's not the point).
Japan was already TRYING to surrender; the only sticking point was that they wanted to retain their Emperor in a ceremonial mode, and we said "no, you have to surrender unconditionally." Then after they surrendered, we let them KEEP their Emperor, which they still have today.
In other words, we could have ended the war EARLIER -- under the SAME TERMS, unconditional but with the ceremonial position of Emperor retained -- but we chose not to.
Japan was fully broken and could NOT have won at that point regardless, and the "500,000 Allied deaths from a necessary invasion" were fantasy.
Those two atomic bombs were dropped on civilian populations TO PROVE WE HAD THEM AND WOULD USE THEM CALLOUSLY. They cemented our status as the unbeatable bully in the schoolyard.
You are correct, Radwoody: There were no honest justifications for dropping nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, non-military targets that also had Allied POWs interned. (Of course, the Allies had already incinerated numerous cities both in Japan, including Tokyo, and in Europe, using incendiary bombs, but that's not the point).
Japan was already TRYING to surrender; the only sticking point was that they wanted to retain their Emperor in a ceremonial mode, and we said "no, you have to surrender unconditionally." Then after they surrendered, we let them KEEP their Emperor, which they still have today.
In other words, we could have ended the war EARLIER -- under the SAME TERMS, unconditional but with the ceremonial position of Emperor retained -- but we chose not to.
Japan was fully broken and could NOT have won at that point regardless, and the "500,000 Allied deaths from a necessary invasion" were fantasy.
Those two atomic bombs were dropped on civilian populations TO PROVE WE HAD THEM AND WOULD USE THEM CALLOUSLY. They cemented our status as the unbeatable bully in the schoolyard.
If you like your emperor, you can keep your emperor
Ding. [°~°]
Except that the bombs were fake.
No, they weren't.