Reply #33: What I wouldn't have done... [View All]

[Violet_Crumble]

...is drop a bomb which even the makers weren't sure would go off, or if it did what the extent of the destruction would be, on cities full of civilians. Dropping the bomb turned the aggressor into the victim, and the result of that was that unlike the Germans, Japan long resisted apologising for its actions during the war...

I also wouldn't have ignored the fact that mainland Japan was on its knees and the likelihood of a savage defence of Japan wouldn't have happened. The image of a crazed and barbaric Japanese attitude of fighting to the death was in part caused by the tendency of US troops (and even more so when it came to Australians) to take no prisoners. There is no reason to believe that a weak and scared Japanese civilian population would have put up much of a fight, if any...

The bombings were something that should not be celebrated, and the habit of some Americans to do so is absolutely sickening, imo...

Violet...