Reply #95: messages [View All]

[ptolle]

IMO from my research the principal message was for the Soviet Union. Churchill and others were already wary of their postwar aims, and I think this was principally intended as a message to Stalin saying cool your jets buddy.The residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were mostly, as too often innocents in time of war are in the wrong place, wrong time.Again IMO tactically and strategically the a-bombs were unnecessary. Their military forces were pretty well destroyed we could have imposed an almost total naval blockade of the home islands quite easily. But then you get into the moral issue of whether or not it's "better" to use such a weapon on a relatively small portion of the civilian populace or to starve a larger portion.I'd not want to have to make such a decision. From my point of view the worst part of the use of the atomic weapons was that it legitimized their use and made the unthinkable thinkable.