Quote:
Originally Posted by babydriver
Notwithstand the pure humanitarian horror of the A-bombing of Hiroshima, it was in fact a military target by virtue of the large military presence there (Headquarters, 2nd General Army AND 5th Division) and its heavy industrial manufacturing infrastructure. It was also a key shipping area and communications center. All of these features made H. an obvious military target.
It is also important to note that Japan also was actively developing an atomic bomb under the direction of Dr. Yoshio Nishina and had they succeeded in their efforts, it no doubt would have been deployed against the United States, probably San Francisco via a submarine suicide mission. I have no doubt that the Japanese leadership of the WWII era would have used an A-bomb on America if they could have delivered one.
The same was true about Germany, Britain and Russia; every major power of that period was working on an atomic bomb. The U.S. just got there first. Every nation working on this horrific weapon was driven by the thought that the "other guys" might get there first.
With regard to Nagasaki, I have to wonder why the Japanese leadership did not surrender after the first bomb on Hiroshima was dropped. Surely, they knew what it was, considering that they had been developing the same thing, just with less success. Even after Nagasaki, there still was hesitation on the part of the military leadership; that is why Emperor Hirohito famously stepped in to end the war by surrendering.
Plently of blame on all sides to go around. Facts are important, though.
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*sigh* this is a sore topic for people of my ethnicity so i'd rather not continue, but i have to insist that regardless of that, it was a civilian target, and an atrocity. In today's era, bombing a civilian city full of 300,000 civilians would be considered an atrocity regardless of whether there was a military base there or industrial manufacturing there or not. Back then, it was still considered a war crime but players on all sides continually committed war crimes. I'm just glad i didn't live in that era. And saying if we didn't do it to them first, they would have done it to us first is a very poor excuse for committing an atrocity. Food for thought.