Was The Dropping Of The Atomic bomb Justified? Why or Why not? ?

Question: Was The Dropping Of The Atomic bomb Justified!? Why or Why not!? !?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

~I am really getting tired of seeing this question and the moronic and uninformed answers it usually gets!. Here's what the people with the best information at the time had to say about it:

"The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace!. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military point of view, in the defeat of Japan!." Fleet Admiral Chester W!. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the U!.S!. Pacific Fleet!.

"In1945 Secretary of War Stimson, visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Japan!. I was one of those who felt that there were a number of cogent reasons to question the wisdom of such an act!. During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives!." Dwight D!. Eisenhower

Douglas MacArthur was ready to negotiate when Japan sent out peace feelers weeks before Hiroshima!. He opposed the bombs on the grounds that they were not necessary, either to end the war or to save American lives and on the further grounds that by dropping them, the US might well destroy the peace process by giving the Japanese the renewed resolve to fight to the death!. The fact that Japan was already under martial law at the end of July out of fear of a civilian revolt to end the war belies the myth that the peasants were going to meet the marines on the beaches with pitchforks and butter knives!. Tojo's cabinet had fallen after Saipain and more than 60 % of the populace wanted an end to the war at any price!. The peace coalition in the government was gaining strength daily!. None of the bombs, the two that were dropped or the next 11 that were scheduled, were aimed at military targets or troops!. The Pentagon was not afraid of the Japanese military any longer!. The USSR had honored its Tehran commitments and was eating up Japanese troops in Manchuria!. The Japanese army was no longer a significant force!. More than sixty Japanese cities, including Tokyo, were annihilated through the spring with minimal losses of Allied aircraft, proving that Japan could be bombed into submission with conventional weapons!. The fire-bombing of Tokyo killed more people and caused more damage than either Fat Man did in Nagasaki or Little Boy did in Hiroshima!. Conventional weapons were not only adequate to do the job, but could do it better!.

Of course, when Stalin kept his Tehran promise, Washington had reason for concern!. The Red Army Soviets beat the Wehrmacht almost single-handedly and were doing the same to Japan!. Stalin was going to want a piece of the post-war action in Japan!. That could not be tolerated!. Hiroshima and Nagasaki and all those dead civilians were the object lesson sent to Stalin and Mao to hold them at bay when the remaining Allies finally condescended to accept Japan's offers of peace!.

Curtis Le May acknowledged that he (and Harry Truman) would have been tried for war crimes for the the conventional bombings had Japan won!. The nukes were icing on the war crimes cake!.

The myth that the bombs were intended to save American lives is a joke!. 2000 American civilians (mostly Japanese-American students who were stranded on Dec!. 7, '41) were fried at Hiroshima along with an unknown number of US POWs and 70,000 Japanese citizens!. Hiroshima was spared conventional bombing so the full effect of Little Boy could be assessed!. Kukura was the target for Fat Man, scheduled for August 13!. Bad weather was forecast and it was going to be hard to take pictures!. The bombing was moved up to the 9th and Sweeney diverted Bock's Car to Nagasaki because of cloud cover (gotta have those photos)!. The drop was moved ahead, not back, because surrender was imminent and HST wanted to sample and compare both types of weapon!.

The 230,000 or so who died from the effects over the ensuing years, not to mention generations of mutant babies brought on by the fallout, had nothing to do with the war, but I guess that is fair paybacks for the 68 civilians the Japanese killed at Pearl!. Since only about 350,000 Americans died in both the Pacific and European theaters, the 370,000 Japanese killed by two bombs on August 6 and 9 evened that score!. (The other million or two dead civilians in Tokyo and other cities were just insurance in case somebody screwed up the body count!. I mean, that is the just, moral, honorable and brave thing to do - especially if it's civilians who are on the verge of revolution (to bring about their surrender to you) that you are cooking!.

Thirteen bombs were targeted!. Two were dropped!. Those two were dropped after Japan sued for peace and the commanders on the ground recommended negotiation, advising against the bombs!. The brass at home wanted the bombs saved until sometime near the anticipated invasion of Japan (scheduled in Kyushu in November, Honshu in March) and they wanted the bombs used on military targets or at least somewhere close to the invasion sites!. Not one of the 13 weapons was scheduled to hit any troop concentration or military target!. There was no need!. What little military ability Japan had left was being ground up under the treads of Russian tanks and blown to smithereens by Allied conventional and fire bombs!. There was nothing left to cook but civilians and their cities!. Two-thirds of the bomb scientists pleaded that they not be used at all!.

"In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity,
no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish,
the physicists have known sin" J!. Robert Oppenheimer

So did the folks that ordered the bombs to fall!. Did they do anything to save lives or end the war!? Better minds than mine and yours have addressed this question, and they based their conclusion on the facts: facts that will never be fully available to you and me!. I have to accept them at their word, and here's what the US government concluded:

"Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated!." The United States Strategic Bombing Survey, July 1, 1946!.

Operation Olympic, the invasion of Japan, was planned for November 1, 1945!. Phase II, Operation Coronet, was scheduled for April, '46!. The fire bombs and conventional weapons guaranteed that there would be no Japanese left to fight!. The embargo was starving the army along with the civilians and Japan's capacity to produce weapons was lost when she lost her oil, steel, rubber and fuel imports!. The navy was rotting at anchor, decommissioned!.

"The use of [the atomic bombs] at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan!. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender!." Admiral William D!. Leahy, Chief of Staff to President Truman

The cover story is that the bombs were used to shorten the war and save American and Japanese lives!. The facts are otherwise and only an ignorant fool would attempt to believe that one!. Over a million civilians were killed by conventional weapons in Japan in the Spring of '45!. Japan was trying to surrender and no invasion was going to be necessary!. The Japanese army was busy in China, Indochina and Manchuria!. They weren't going to be called home to stop the invasion!. Even if they were called home, conventional bombing would have taken them out!. The Japanese were unable to stop contest the air raids!. Both Enola Gay and Bock's Car were watched on radar as they were inbound and no interceptors were scrambled to stop them!. Even if Japan had not lost the will to fight (a false assumption) she had lost the ability!. The "suicidal Samurai" civilians were on the verge of revolt and by November would not have posed a threat!. The cabinet was on the verge of a coup before Hiroshima and there had already been several attempts!. The war counsel recognized the war was lost and was trying to end it!. Hirohito was agreeable to finding "peace with honor", and MacArthur and Nimitz were prepared to give it to him!.

Those facts are in the record!. Read them!. Or you can go with the mythology and legend and ignore the facts!. I expect a bunch of thumbs down!. Those will be from the folks who won't be confused by the facts or simply don't know how or where to find the truth!. The starting point, for those interested, is in US government documents!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

This is controversial!.
The atomic bomb killed millions of innocent Japanese civilians and the continuing radiation continues to kill more nad deform babies!.
But on the other hand, it spared America a lot of fighting!. As Japanese soldiers got nearer to Japan, their fighting was brave and suicidal!. Kamikazes you might have heard of!. If US invaded Japan, it would taken more months, and more casulaties!. The main Japanese army in China was still there!. Japanese civilians would have been called up!. Hand-to hand fighting during streets, it would have been a unmerciless slaughter, bloodbath!.
I don't want nuclear weapons anymore!. The atomic bomb might or might not have been justified, but let's make sure there aren't any nuclear bomb attacks!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The justification of dropping the bomb has nothing, in my opinion to do with ending the war (which it did quickly), but has everything to do with showing the all of the world how dangerous, destructive and final the use of nuclear weaponry is!. No country can use a nuclear weapon ever again for any reason on anyone; too many countries have nuclear power and are therefore in a position to respond with equal force if anyone were to use that power!. Because a mere handful of nuclear weapons could extinguish all life on earth, none of us can afford a nuclear "mistake!." But back to the war: the US had already done such massive damage to the Japanese with extensive firebombing, it is frankly surprising that they didn't surrender prior to Hiroshima and Nagasaki!. It's likely that the bombs shocked the Japanese into full awareness of the futility of further conflict!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

while horrible, it's my belief that if those bombs were not dropped, and the US had to invade the homeland of Japan, there would have been MILLIONS more deaths during the second world war!. Every man woman and child on the Japanese home islands would have fought to the death for the Emperor, dropping those bombs may have kill 300,000 people, mostly civilians but those civilians would have been soliders in the Empires army, had we invaded!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Liberals would prefer that thousands of Mrs!. Smith on Clover Street USA's sons and daughters were killed instead!.

On the other hand, if there were a way to have spared those civilians in Japan, I'd be all for it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

No!.
It ended the war, but it wasn't the best way to do it!.

The after effects of the bombs radiation are STILL effecting Japan today!. These are very very innocent people being killed/deformed!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Hello I'm a Liberal but the bomb had to be dropped!. It saved tens of thousands Allied troops!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Epic climax to an epic war!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

it ended the war!.Www@QuestionHome@Com