Atomic bomb.

do u think that the use of the atomic bomb in ww2 was needed?

  • Yep. (why?)

    Votes: 25 89.3%

  • Not really no. (why?)

    Votes: 3 10.7%
  • Total voters
    28
I voted yes because we would be over wellmed by the japs. and woudn't have the freedom that we have today in the U.S.A.
 
well the japanese fought for the emperor and they would kill themselves for the emperor.. man so japs are crazy lol! i guess their loyalty was real high.. cuz they believe that their emperor is a decendent from the Sun God or something.. dont quote me on this! haha!
I think the reason US dropped the bomb was that it wasted BILLIONS of dollars for the Manhatten Project and after they tested the Trinity Bomb; they wanted to test it a little more and see the "real" effect of the bomb to humans. With that they found out that one type is stronger than the other? yeah.. I think its money issues also; all that money for nothing and used that to show the power of US?... also for revenge of all the soldiers that has fallen in battle/POW with the japanese and the sailors that died on pearl harbor I guess.
 
JulesLee....Do you honestly think that was the only reason that the bomb was dropped. Even after the first bomb had been dropped there was still no reply about surrendering. When the second bomb dropped it was the Emperor that stated the war had to end. Even after that there was a group of Army Officer that planned to size the Emperor so that the war could continue. The whole population was being taught to fight the invaders to the death, so a million allied Casualties was a strong possibility, and that is not counting the Japanese that would have died during the invasion.
 
Before I start, let me say I voted yes.

But in reality, it's too hard to tell. We've had all sorts of discussion and debate on this topic in school, and the only conclusion I've come to is that you can't make one. Major events in history like this are just too hard to make a "what if?" situation for. You can't just isolate one little thing like this and expect everything else to be the same. There are too many variables. So in other words, I really dislike playing with "what if?" scenarios unless it's just for fun.

So then, here are the points:

Against: Japan was rotting on the vine. Several months of American blockade and incessant bombing were taking their toll. At first, it was "just" B-29's making firebombing raids every few nights. But by the end of the war, Japan's military had been so thoroughly devastated that American aircraft carriers could safely come close enough for carrier aircraft to attack the Japanese mainland. Japanese war industries had ground to a hault. There was almost no fuel and no raw materials left, not to mention almost no trained & experienced pilots, soldiers, and sailors, and not much population left to draw on. There is now strong evidence that the emperor and several of his closest advisors were preparing to surrender, no matter what the war crazed military would say. If I am correct, the emperor actually had already recorded a mesasge to announce their surrender when the first bomb was dropped. Furthermore, just a few days before the bomb was dropped, the USSR entered the pacific campaign and began to vigorously fight south into Manchuria, and probably wouldn't have hesitated to go straight to Japan.

In short, those against the bomb say that Japan was already on her knees, and if she had been given a better chance to surrender (instead of "unconditional", allow them to keep their Emperor), she would have.


For: Although Japan was militarily on her knees and by all means had already lost (except they didn't admit it), they still had an incredible fighting spirit. Japanese military leaders called for all men, women, and children to meet the American "devils" on the beaches with any weapon they could find and fight to their "honorable" deaths. A few weeks ago, my history teacher showed us a Japanese propaganda film showing a Japanese military rally, where people cheered vigorously as they sent off 13-14 year old boys to fight. The main speaker gave a speech about fighting to the death and making the ultimate sacrifice for their Emperor. A chilling sight, indeed.

Also, Russian entry into the war would only serve to cause further conflict, not a solution. It is because of the Russian entry that Korea was "tempoarily" divided into Communist north and Democratic south, and to a lesser extent that Mao eventually defeated Chiang Kai Shek (sp?) in China. If Russia were to have assisted the US in an invasion of Japan, it is doubless that today we would have the same, a north and south Japan. This kind of seperation has caused nothing but suffering for countries that have endured it (Germany, Korea, Viet Nam).

So, in short: The bomb was necessary to quickly end the war, saving millions of American and Japanese lives, as well as preventing a split of Japan and halting postwar Communist influence.


As I said before, you really can't tell though. What if Japan's citizens disobeyed their call to suicide and demanded the Emperor to surrender? What if the military coup that almost brought down the emperor when he tried to surrender had succeeded? What if the bomb failed to go off or did not have the great effect we had hoped for?


Man, I'm such a nerd. THIS is what AP history classes do to you!
 
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Yes.
We needed the Atomic bomb as a massive blow to Japan.
As someone already mentioned they will fight and die, in old Japan when they were trying to escape their so called "potted plant." existence they actually trained the soldier that he should die in combat, that to come home was not the way of honor. ive heard many a say;"The downfall of the Americans is that they care to much, they have a heart and are not ruthless, this will be their downfall." I dont think so, that just makes us that much better. only a fool would send his whole squad into their deaths vs. a .50 cal on a hill. With out the Atomic Bomb we would still be fighting.
N.McAlister
 
Germany had been in the same position but did you see them run up the white flag, no they fought until Germany had been over run, and it would have been the same in Japan. Also no one has mentioned the POW's as Japan had planned to kill them all just before they lost war. I worked with a chap who had been just marched out of Nagasaki on his way to a death camp when the A Bomb was dropped on the place. Needless to say he could praise America enough for dropping the dam thing.
 
Fullmetaljacket.....some thing else to think about, now there hundreds of American bombers lost over Japan during the bombing raids. Now try and find out just how many of those view that were lost ever got home. Captured Allied airmen were normally classed as terror flyer's and were executed. The British had a number of carriers working along side the Americans around Japan. After Japan had signed the peace document the British Carriers were still flying CAP [Combat Air Patrols] just in case of trouble. One of their pilots had engine failure and the plane crashed near a beach and the pilot made it ashore. He was tried for being a terror flyer's and beheaded even though the war was over.
 
I know this is a little bit off topic, but its something to take into consideration when you bring up Japan and the way the USA treating Japan during WWII


please, consider the following:


During WWII, persons of Japanese descent were basically sent to American concentration camps, minus the death part, but thats besides the point. ANY person of Japanese descent that lived on the West coast of the USA was sent to these camps for the duration of the war.


Here's where it gets touchy:

There was never any persons of German or Italian descent sent away to concentration camps, at least not the way the Japanese were. Weren't we also at war with Germany and Italy, and it was treated as almost a more important war than in the Pacific.
 
Germans and Italians were also sent to concentration camps, but not nearly to the same extent as the Japanese.

The Japanese were seen as the "greater" threat because most of them had immigrated relatively recently and had much stronger ties to their homeland than the Germans and Italians.

It is interesting to note that Hawaiian Japanese were not sent to concentration camps, even though Hawaii had the largest concentration of Japansese-Americans. (The reason was because so much of the Hawaiian population were of Japanese descent that it would have been impossible to remove them all from society)
 
With Japanese it was the attack on Pearl Harbour with out any warning that made every one so nervous. You must remember that in Europe there had a great deal of problems with what was called the 5th Column. This was where people who had links or sympathy's with Germany assisted them during the invasion. If you can't identify these people then for safety sake you have to intern the lot until you can get things sorted. Also it should be remembered that a local dentist of Japanese descent had been monitored on the phone to japan talking about what ships were in Pearl Harbour a day or so before the attack took place and it did not mean any thing till after the attack.
Again it should also be remembered that all the countries involved in this conflict did intern people from hostile countries and it was not just America.
 
the americans says that:::::
yes,it is necessary to use atomic bomb.for the reason of the atmoic bomb many youth from our country was saved,because they had not to invade japan;because they can return to their home quickly;because they can enjoy the peace and will not suffer the war for a longer time.

the japanese that::
of cause it is not necessary.it is because the atmic bomb the commen people in japan suffered a lot.many died.the old ,the young,the baby.the beautiful girls.it is not justice,and it inviolates the huminity.

the russians says that::
it is not necessary.if there is no atmic bomb ,then maybe that :we the people from soviet union wolud occupy japan but not usa.or at least japan will be divided by soviet union and usa just the same as the two countries did in germany.......in fact people from soviet union do not like this.if the people from usa did invade japan and gains a loy lost ,i would be very happy-------of cause the people from soviet union may think in this way.

chinese said that::
of cause ,it is necessary.to defeat japan is justice without regarding the means to achieving the goal.

people from AFRICA says that :::
what ????what ??/what are u talking about????oh<<<atmic bomb>>>oooooo,this has nothing to do with this ,so let it to be .....i am only interested in hunting the rabit and catching the fish...


oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh


have we ever think in the standpoint of others ????/

bad world.the hell,but not hello to the inhabitant of the globe...
 
I am glad to see someone else knows about how the Russians wanted to invade Japan.

I am going call the BS card on the 1 million casualty figure. That was floated around after the war by the United States as a way to show support for dropping the bomb. I think Truman and Churchhill were the 2 behind that.

The real figure was first like 110,000 casualties according to McArthur. Truman was shocked at the figure and asked McArthur to rethink the number. McArthur came back with 80,000. The thinking in the US military was that the invasion of the southern most island would produce 50,000 US casualties. Most thought Japan would have surrendered after that and there would be no other invasion.

The reason for the low casualty figures comes from the fact that therw would be manuever room when invading Japan. Invading small islands during the island hoping campaign meant one can only conduct frontal assaults to gain ground.

Ok enough of that. I agreed with the droping of the bomb. It saved US lives and brought an end to the war.

Just think, if we did not drop the bomb and invaded. Lets say we lose 75,000 in invading Japan. The war ends. Then the public learns that the government had a weapon, that they spent $2 billion on, that could have ended the war and saved those 75,000 but never used it. There would be hell to pay on a grand scale.

NOTE: my information for this post comes from my military history class. My professor has a Doctorite in history and feasts on WWII and all the newly declassified documents that are becoming availible. That is my source.
 
Doody after Russia liberated Chine from the Japanese they invaded some Japanese islands which they still hold. The figure for allied casualties for the invasion of Japan were expected to be one million based on the figures on all previous battles against the Japanese. Now you quote a figure of 75.000 but just how many troops did America have killed or wounded on Iwoa Jima. There was no certainty that Japan would have stopped fighting but would have carried on to the bitter end just like Germany.
 
i think that it was the right thing to do. the Japs (no offense, im just used to saying it, im not racist) would never surrender before, so when fighting on the home islands, they would would be even less likely to do so. everyone in Japan was being taught and trained to fight against an invasion. most estimates were that if we attacked on the ground, around 1,000,000 (one million) GIs would have been killed, along with countless Japs. the atomic bomb literally saved millions of lives, even though it took acouple hundered thousand.
 
Usefullidiot said:
I voted no. Now dont get your panties in a bunch i have a reason and im going to tell you what it is. Now like many of you I used to believe that dropping "Little Boy" was justified, I even yelled down my teacher and the whole social justice group once in class.

But one day I was taking a drive and listening to the radio and they were interviewing Paul W. Tibbets (man who flew the enola gay). Paul didnt have any objections to dropping the bomb and he said he would do it again if his duty called for him to do so. He then went on to tell about why he thought dropping the bomb was completely useless. When Germany surrendered Japan offered terms of her surrender with only one request, that their Emperor not be emprisoned for war crimes. The U.S. did not accept these terms, to try and force their own terms on the Japanese their dropped the first atomic bomb. After destroying hiroshima they sent Japan their new terms of surrender. Japan once again requested that the emperor not be tried. The U.S. dropped a second bomb and sent another terms of surrender to the japanese. The japanses sent back their terms requesting that their emperor not be emprisoned. Instead of dropping a third bomb the U.S. agreed and the war ended.

Now my point is Japan surrendered with the same terms it would of surrendered with before two atomic bombs were dropped so I question what was accomplished by dropping the bombs, they didnt change anything.

Please comment because i dont know if this is the truth its just what i heard Paul say.
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That is not quite correct. Yes, the Japanese did indeed ask that the Emperor not be tried, but that was one of many other conditions that were asked. Ironically, this term was very important to the Japanese, but in the end, to the Americans, it seemed to be quite unimportant. Other terms included things like officers being allowed to keep their sidearms (swords) and changing the schedule of withdrawal of occupied territories, etc. The American reply was very short and clear; they wanted an unconditional surrender.
In general, the war cabinet was using this as a delaying tactic. They wanted to continue the war at all costs, but more and more pressure was being brought on them to end it. At the time, they were also trying to send peace feelers to the US through the Japanese Embassy in Moscow, but the Soviet Declaration of War effectively ended that experiment. Finally, the palace coup ended the influence of the war cabinet, and ironically, gave the emperor some freedom of movement. He immediately called the government and ordered them to accept the American terms. Had the bombs not been dropped, the war cabinet would never have been under pressure to accept any terms, and the war would have continued. As it was, they continued to hold power until the second bomb was dropped, and then, they tried to seize the Emperor to force him to allow them to continue the war. Dropping the bombs hastened their fall, ended the war, and avoided the invasion of Japan, saving the lives of millions of people.

Dean.
 
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