Should America have bomed Japan?

Question: Should America have bomed Japan!?

Me and my friend are having this on going battle about if America should have bombed Japan in WWII!.
My Reasoning:
1) They bomb first when we where not even in the war so they had to know we would want revenge
2) as people it seems awful but as a nation we needed to make sure that there was no way Japan came back (we where still suffering from there attack)
3)Japan had not surrender and there for we where still at war
4) It was harsh YES!! but we wanted to make a point and we did

His Reasoning:
1) the war was over
2) his grandparents lived in japan at the time
3) IT was cruel and unnecessary
4)We where trying to get revenge which was pointless because Japan was already completely distoryed!.

What do you think!? Please try and provide some support like a book or website or something I can prove because I don't want to be thinking we where right if we weren't!. I know in history the winer was right but I want the big picture!. Are his points True!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Yes, America did bomb Japan, this is a fact, and the Americans were correct to bomb Japan at anytime while the war was still in effect and no peace treaties had been mutually agreed upon!.

Your reasoning:

1!. America was right to bomb Japan since Japan declared war on the United States and bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor first!.
2!. War is always awful, and the Japanese who ordered the bombing, executed the bombing, and supported the Japanese military knew this!. It is something that every nation knows!.
3!. Correct, Japan had not surrendered, and the war was still in effect!.
4!. Actually the fire bombing of Tokyo was even more harsh than the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but neither the Emperor of Japan nor the Japanese military leaders were about to surrender!. For them there was no honour in surrender, only disgrace!. That was the code they lived by and died by!.

His reasoning:

1!. The war was not over - incorrect!.
2!. Whether his grandparents lived in Japan or not is NO reason not to bomb Japan during a time of war!. Please!
3!. The Japanese began a very cruel and unnecessary war YEARS before they went to war with the United States!. See the Sino-Japanese War of 1931-1945!. See the numbers of Chinese civilians who died as a result of Japan's aggression, and then you will understand what "cruel" and "unnecessary" really mean!.
4!. Japan was not completely destroyed, the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were INTENTIONALLY chosen because these cities were not destroyed and the Americans needed to see for themselves the true destructive nature of atomic power!. It had NOTHING to do with revenge - it had everything to do with stopping the war!. The goal of Total War is just that - stop the war by every means!.

This is what I think!. I cannot provide a website/book, since I have come bythis information from a variety of sources, and unlike your friend I have no personal reasons to prevent from me from thinking logically!. None of his points are true, and why should you be be afraid of your friend's own personal feelings that have next to no basis in factual history!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Use of the A Bomb was necessary to force the
surrender, shorten the war, and probably saved
hundreds of thousands of lives!.
When the behavior of the Japanese on Okinawa
is considered: what would have been the cost of
an invasion of the Home Islands, or a blockade,
(the only other two alternatives)!?
How many more Chinese and others in Nipponese
controlled areas would have been slaughtered!?
(Nipponese behavior in China was as bad as Hitlers
in Poland, but not as well documented in the press!.)Www@QuestionHome@Com

Knight 1192a hit the nail on the head, it's an unfortunate truth that a convential war on Mainland Japan would have cost Up to 1million US and there allies lives, and possibly between 10 and 20 million Japaneese lives!. It was the lesser of 2 evils!.

President Truman really had no choice!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It was a terrible thing to happen, but it was necessary!.

Your friend is wrong, the war was not over yet!. It could have gone on for years if the US had not bombed them!.

Basically, everyone else has said it, so I won't repeat everything!. But what the Japanese did to other Asians during the wars were horrendous! They raped and massacred as much as the Nazi regime did, if not worse!. It's just less known!. An attack on Japan's mainland would have been fatal for many more people!Www@QuestionHome@Com

If you decide to walk into a bar find the biggest guy in there and sucker punch him in the face your decision making power ends there as the ball is in his court so to speak!. You get to decide the action and he will decide the reaction then its your turn again!.
Fact: If The empire of Japan never attacked the US than the US would not have nuked Japan, japan decided to get nuked!.
Unfortunately, national leaders really suffer as much as those that don't run governments!.

PS The Rape of Nan-king, Iris Chang is a good and enlightening read for those that are not well versed in what the Japanese Army was like!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I'm assuming here that you meant the Atomic bombs!.!.!.

1) The war was far from over!. The US was facing the daunting task of invading Japan!. Casualty estimates for the US for such an invasion were at least one million!. And the Japanese would have suffered even more than that!.

2) It has nothing to do with grandparents, that's a personal reason, not a military or political one!.

3) I was hardly more cruel than the several days of fire bombing that each city would have received anyway!. And it was considered very necessary to convince the Japanese to surrender instead of fighting to the last!.

4) The motive was not revenge, it was to end the war!. If it was about revenge the US would not have accepted the surrender, they would have just kept bombing Japan!.

Your friend's points are either exaggerations or emotional statements with little basis in fact!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

i would have to agree with you on this mainly because your friend is an idiot and doesn't know history!. your reasonings are for the most part correct!. its called war for a reason!. if they hadn't bombed pearl harbor without a declaration of war, we might not have did what we did to them!. they started it and we finished it!. his reasonings are all wrong!. the war was not over, don't care his grandparents were still in japan, it wasn't cruel or unnecessary, and the japanese were not completely destroyed!. they were still making planes, tanks, rifles, machine guns, midget submarines, ammunition, and the lot!. the only thing that they couldn't build were ships due to us controlling most of the water in the pacific, and we had air superiority!.
if your friend is so concerned about being harsh and unnecessary, ask him about the bataan death march, unit 731 in manchuria that used biological and chemical warfare on pow's and the local populace, the 300,000 unarmed civilians that were brutally slaughtered in nanking by the japanese army, and the beheading of allied prisoners by the japanese army!. i'd say that the japanese brought this on themselves!. you want sources, try "the rape of nanking", "hiroshima" by john hersey, or just do a google on these things and see what you find!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

well tell your friend this!. there is no nice and friendly war!. who cares if his grandparents lived there!? so did thousands of other japanese!. the japanese raped and massacred non-ethnic japs and they complain about being bombed!? oh please!. the japanese only deserved to be bombed!. bombing japan made sure that the japanese surrendered and no more american lives would be at lost because an invasion of japan would have atleast 50,000+ American casualties!. the war was never over because japan never surrendered so i dont know why he sould say that!. japan was not completely destroyed!. only their navy!. the allies bombed germany and bombed japan!. i dont see why people dont complain about american bombing germany!. hypocrites!.

Random, the japanese never surrendered until hiroshima and nagasaki were bombed!. america gave japan ample time to surrender but japan never responded!. the closest thing japan tried to do was make a deal with the soviet union but not with the usa!. get your history straight!.

JK, yes many of the civilians were innocent but then you have to look at world war 2 from the bigger point of view!. world war 2 was a war on civilians!. take a look at the bombing of london, bombing of dresden, bombing of berlin, etc!. consider the holocaust or the rape of nanking by the japanese!. think about the bataan march where the japanese killed american soldiers on a long grueling march!. if american didnt bomb japan, then more american soldiers would have died!. truman made the right choice!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Ask him if he's thankful to be alive today!. Then point out to him that had it not been for the bomb the planned invasion of the Japanese homelands might well have eleminated all Japanese people!. It's known that the Japanese people were expected to give their lives defending the emperor and the home islands!. That's every man, woman, and child, soldier or civilian!. Pamphlets were given out to civilians instructing them how to use items such as rakes as weapons in repulsing the invaders that Japan was expecting!.

It's known that in the first wave alone of the planned invasion that at least a quarter of a million American lives would have been lost!. By the end of the invasion that number would be well into the millions!. On just the American side alone!. No one knows exactly how many lives would have been lost on the Japanese side!. But it would have been far higher!. And much like Okinawa you'd probably have had women and children (and men unable to actually fight) commiting mass suicide!.

The war wasn't over at the time the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki!. As already pointed out, Japan was gearing up for an invasion of the home islands!. Little Boy and Fat Man actually saved lives on both sides, far more than they took!. As for revenge for Pearl, that's what the Halsey-Doolittle Raid was!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

"Prior to the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, elements existed within the Japanese government that were trying to find a way to end the war!. In June and July 1945, Japan attempted to enlist the help of the Soviet Union to serve as an intermediary in negotiations!. No direct communication occurred with the United States about peace talks, but American leaders knew of these maneuvers because the United States for a long time had been intercepting and decoding many internal Japanese diplomatic communications!. From these intercepts, the United States learned that some within the Japanese government advocated outright surrender!. A few diplomats overseas cabled home to urge just that!. "

A few friends and I have this argument every few weeks as we always argue politics and it often leads up back to issues like this and gold standard, and other defining characteristics of our stances!.!.!.

I personally take the side it was avoidable if only Truman would have conceded to allow Japan to keep its emperor, its amazing what communication can do when your trying to end a war!

(this is just the easy explanation, i know i would have been tedious to persuade the military leaders to surrender but with no fuel for planes and food/men running out there really wouldn't have been any option!.)

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His Reasoning is totally flawed:

1!. The war was over - The War was not over, the Japanese were still actively resisting in the remaining pockets in the Pacific!. They were actively preparing the defense of the Home Islands which would have resulted in a far great lost of lives than the Atomic Bombings!.

2!. His grandparents living in japan at the time; Has no place in such a discussion; millions of peoples grandparents were either directly or indirectly affected by the war in general or the Atomic Bombings specifically!. For all the lives lost on both sides, ten fold more were scared as a result, what makes his Japanese grandparents any more noteworthy than mine who suffered the lost of their sons!?

3!. It was cruel and unnecessary; It certainly was cruel, all aspects of war in the modern era are cruel or it would not be war, would it!? The Japanese clearly defined and chose their course to war, they fought their war as cruelly as humanly imaginable and when they are finally struck low, it is we who were too cruel!. Ask the Chinese people who was too cruel or the people of the Philippines who was too cruel during the Second World War, they have a very different viewpoint than the Japanese! Was it necessary!? It ended the war once and for all, it was very necessary and there is no debating that fact!

4!. We where trying to get revenge which was pointless because Japan was already completely destroyed; If our goal was revenge, we would have put aside the Atomic Bombs and went ahead with our plans to invade the Home Islands!. The destruction planned in Operation Downfall would laid waste to Japan as a nation and a people!Www@QuestionHome@Com

The Japanese DID in fact surrender, but the Americans ignored it!. The reason was because the WWII era was a very competitive one!. US had to show their power to the whole world, especially Russia that they had developed the nuclear bomb!.

It was ethically wrong without a doubt, but that's how the whole world was during the WWII period!. People were looking for change at any cost!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

What's done is done, but NO they shouldn't have bombed and killed hundred of thousands of civilians, women, children the elderly, they did nothing wrong, these were innocent civilians and war is mostly caused by the politicians and higher officials!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

well it doesnt really matter now, whats done is done!. But youre friend has a point, we had them cowering, left them with no defense!. The bomb was just a ploy to show off the Powers of the U!.S!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

no! no inocent people deseve to die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Www@QuestionHome@Com