The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (your views)

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What are your views on the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of ww2?
Do you believe that the Americans did it out of neccessity?
Do you believe it was a huge act of terrorism?
Do you believe it was both things mentioned above but it was appropriate action?
Inappropriate action?

I personally believe that while it saved lives in the end, the intention of the Americans were not genuine. I heard that the Americans were going to continue to drop nukes on Japan if it didn't surrender so that means that had the Japanese not surrendered, the US would've caused a genocide. Besides, the US commited other crimes against humanity by mutilating the bodies of dead Japanese soldiers and and playing around with them. So in conlusion, at that time period, the Americans were dehumanising the Japanese people, not that I'm saying that the Japanese treated others really well though...

The real question should be should we start war at all? Does it really matter if millions of people die by bombings, drownings, shooting, does it really matter is murder justifiable? No what would have saved millions of lives would have been no war at all.

All is fair in love and war.

An important and difficult question.

Lets do a thought experiment. Suppose the manhatten project had failed, and using the atomic bomb had not been an option. What wouldve happened?

The islands of Japan wouldve been blockaded by the US navy making Japan into one huge Leningrad- with civilians dying of starvation the whole length of the country.

The US army aircorps wouldve continued its strategic bombing campain against Japan.
A lot of Americans dont even realize that over 300 thousand japanese civilians had already been incinerated by amercan bombs even before we dropped the first A-bomb- and half of that nation's cities were already more than half flattened by conventional bombs and naplam.
MacNamara said "had we lost the war we wouldve been charged with war crimes".

Then we wouldve launched the actual ground invasion of the Japanese home islands.

We dont know if the Japanese wouldve continued fighting to the death like they did throughout the pacific war-or if they wouldve cracked and capitulated sooner than normal. But optimistically this final campain coupled with the above starvation air war wouldve taken atleast two years. Atleast a 100 thousand americans, and probably atleast a million Japanese soldiers and civilians wouldve died.

So - thank god for the A bomb! Like you said -it actually saved alot of lives on both sides.

Also- if Japan had taken too long to surrender- Soviet Russia mightve gotten into the Pacific War. Russia did take possesion of North Korea. Had there been no bomb Russia mightve siezed part of Japan itsself and carved out somthing like East Germany out of Japan.

Finnally- if you read about Japanese atrocities in their war of agression in China (that lead to the war in the Pacific with America) -notabaly a recent book about the Rape of Nanking ( a city where the Japanese army murdered atleast as many civilians as died at Hiroshima) -well- I cant help thinking that the only mistake we made was crewing the enola gay with americans.

We shouldve given the pleasure of nuking Japan to a crew of Chinese airmen!
I know-two wrongs dont make a right- but -what goes around comes around.

War is a dirty business the fact that they did not surrender after the first one speaks volumes. I had two uncles who would have been in the invasion if there had been one and I for one am glad they didn't have to. Look up how they fought on the other islands like Okinawa to get a feel for what it would have been like. And lets not forget the rape of Nanking if you want to talk war crimes or the use of biological weapons on the Chinese. It was war they would have done the same if they had the option

Necessary. The Japanese military was more than willing to fight until every one of them was dead.

And there were no other bombs. We only had two and it would have taken months to make more.

My RE teacher said that the bomb was supposed to be used on Germany, but then Germany surrendered so America used the bomb on Japan instead. Then she said that the war with Japan was just about to end anyway, but she didn't elaborate on this and it seems to go against everything else I've ever heard about it, so I'll have to look it up at some point. I'm kind of annoyed that she brought up these two points without clarification or evidence, as they are both very important things to consider.

I have no firm opinion either way. On the one hand, I think it is wrong to slaughter innocent civilians. On the other hand, it is true that the bombings (maybe?) ended the war and therefore saved lives, and also could have indirectly saved lives since, because nobody has dared use nukes again because of how much damage they cause.

Even a brief search through the internet reveals that Japan was on the point of surrender before the bombs were dropped. Many military leaders at the time have indicated that the purpose of dropping the bombs was to demonstrate to the USSR that the USA was not to be seen as weak. As noted, there were no more than two bombs.
Undoubtedly the Japanese military machine and the government was a cruel and immoral group who were responsible for many horrors but I wonder if the USA and its allies should use that as sufficient grounds to demonstrate that they could be equally as vicious. As with the recent Bush administration, it seems to me that mindless brutality is no grounds for further mindless brutality.
Christianity provides some worthwhile directives in that area.

Absolutely necessary. A ground invasion would of cost hundreds of thousands of lives probably even more than a million. The Soviets would of no doubt been involved and would probably occupy half of the country which would of doomed that part of the country to their brutal occupation and no doubt civil war later. I don't know if the Japanese would of fought to the death but I know they would of wanted to cause mass casualties on any invader before they did.

I've read that they would of had another bomb ready later in August and 3 more in September and 3 more in October if Japan had not surrendered so that's a little different that what I'm hearing in this thread.

Just thank god for nuclear weapons every day. They're the only reason we're not on like WW8.