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Actually, you're simply avoiding a hard question because you cannot handle the cognitive dissonance. Your position is that Japanese civilians in Hiroshima and Japanese troops who did Pearl Harbor are "they." By your own odd thinking, your family and U.S. troops are one and the same in the eyes of hostile elements who would do our country harm - groups like Al-Qaeda.
(Are you going to tell me to live in Japan again? LOL)
I get your point, but Hiroshima was in fact a legitimate military target, as well as a civilian population center. It was a major distribution center for the Army. And the most important base of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the one at Kure, was just a short distance away from Hiroshima.
It was a city.
By your definition, any major U.S. city with military installations is fair game. The U.S. military has installations near San Diego; as such, a foreign attack on San Diego would be militarily justifiable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bus man
And here's an interesting historical tidbit. Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, the man who led the air raid on Pearl Harbor, was in Hiroshima the day before the bombing. He was attending a conference, and in fact he was slated to have remained there overnight and into the next morning -- when he, along with everyone else who was at the conference, would have been incinerated. What saved him was a phone call from his immediate superior, telling him to return to Tokyo unless his presence was urgently needed at the conference. It wasn't, so he departed the city the evening before the attack.
Interesting, yes. Fuchida made it out. Grandmothers and toddlers as well as ethnic Koreans living there who had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor weren't that fortunate. These were not combatants.
Actually, you're simply avoiding a hard question because you cannot handle the cognitive dissonance. Your position is that Japanese civilians in Hiroshima and Japanese troops who did Pearl Harbor are "they." By your own odd thinking, your family and U.S. troops are one and the same in the eyes of hostile elements who would do our country harm - groups like Al-Qaeda.
(Are you going to tell me to live in Japan again? LOL)
I'm not avoiding any questions. Take your high horse and start riding.
The 10 dollar words aren't intimidating me, either.
I've read The Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang, which is about the massacre. It'll absolutely churn your stomach. The subject matter was so traumatic that it is believed to be a factor in the author's eventual suicide. The massacre was so unspeakably horrible that even the resident Nazi representative was appalled. He was so disgusted that he actually tried (and, to an amazing extent, succeeded) in shielding Chinese civilians from the marauding Japanese soldiers.
I am not saying that Japanese infants deserved to be incinerated at Hiroshima because of atrocities like this. They didn't, and their death is no less tragic than that of the innocent babies who were killed at Nanking. I'm saying that we were justified in stopping Japan's aggression. And I'm saying that the party responsible for causing the deaths of these infants, in both Nanking and in Hiroshima, was Japan's government.
I'm not avoiding any questions. Take your high horse and start riding.
The 10 dollar words aren't intimidating me, either.
Yes you are. You're not answering my questions about how you'd react if Al-Qaeda murdered your family and claimed it was justifiable given they see civilians and soldiers as one and the same just as you called Japanese air force pilots and Japanese kids in Hiroshima "they."
I'm as far from the left as one can be. I support lawful firearms ownership, oppose same-sex marriage, want an end to birthright citizenship, favor the deportatation of illegal aliens, want DACA gone for good, and want a limited government. I think Black Lives Matter is a scam, I am convinced George Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose, I support law enforcement, I voted for President Trump, I believe Michael Flynn was set up, I believe with all my heart Brett Kavanaugh never raped anybody, I want restrictions on the killing of the unborn.
By your definition, any major U.S. city with military installations is fair game. The U.S. military has installations near San Diego; as such, a foreign attack on San Diego would be militarily justifiable.
Interesting, yes. Fuchida made it out. Grandmothers and toddlers as well as ethnic Koreans living there who had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor weren't that fortunate. These were not combatants.
Context is important. We didn't touch Hiroshima until after we had sunk almost every major Japanese warship, and isolated nearly all of their army, and completely cut off their oil supply, and converted much of their manufacturing capability to scraps of twisted iron. In other words, we had already thoroughly defeated the Japanese military. And yet, they still refused to surrender. What else could we have done, other than continue the blockade that would have resulted in mass starvation, or else launch an invasion that likewise would have resulted in millions of casualties. If an enemy had put us in this position, and still we refused to surrender, then I think that an attack on a remaining military installation, such as one located in San Diego, would be justified.
And I am sympathetic to the plight of the grandmothers and toddlers and ethnic Koreans who had nothing to do with the war, yet paid with their lives. But if we had allowed an aversion to civilian deaths to halt our military advances, we would have never captured Saipan, and thus would not have been in a position to launch the bombing raids against Japan proper. It stinks, that innocent people had to die. But the fault lies with the aggressor, not the victim who chose to fight back.
Yes you are. You're not answering my questions about how you'd react if Al-Qaeda murdered your family and claimed it was justifiable given they see civilians and soldiers as one and the same just as you called Japanese air force pilots and Japanese kids in Hiroshima "they."
You are making absurd comparisons.
If my family were killed, of course I'd be sad.
HOWEVER, all those kids' blood is on Japan, not us. Get that through your head.
They were warned repeatedly to surrender, warned by us of mass devastation if they didn't surrender.
Click all those links another posted about the atrocities that the Japanese have committed.
Are you even an American? Let me guess you live in Canada?
Context is important. We didn't touch Hiroshima until after we had sunk almost every major Japanese warship, and isolated nearly all of their army, and completely cut off their oil supply, and converted much of their manufacturing capability to scraps of twisted iron. In other words, we had already thoroughly defeated the Japanese military. And yet, they still refused to surrender. What else could we have done, other than continue the blockade that would have resulted in mass starvation, or else launch an invasion that likewise would have resulted in millions of casualties. If an enemy had put us in this position, and still we refused to surrender, then I think that an attack on a remaining military installation, such as one located in San Diego, would be justified.
And I am sympathetic to the plight of the grandmothers and toddlers and ethnic Koreans who had nothing to do with the war, yet paid with their lives. But if we had allowed an aversion to civilian deaths to halt our military advances, we would have never captured Saipan, and thus would not have been in a position to launch the bombing raids against Japan proper. It stinks, that innocent people had to die. But the fault lies with the aggressor, not the victim who chose to fight back.
They refused to surrender? They wanted a promise that the imperial house would be left alone. That promise was never given yet fulfilled after they surrendered in mid-August.
You're being mature and respectful and for that you deserve credit even if I disagree. I will simply quote the 1946 United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report:
There is little point in attempting precisely to impute Japan's unconditional surrender to any one of the numerous causes which jointly and cumulatively were responsible for Japan's disaster. The time lapse between military impotence and political acceptance of the inevitable might have been shorter had the political structure of Japan permitted a more rapid and decisive determination of national policies. Nevertheless, it seems clear that, even without the atomic bombing attacks, air supremacy over Japan could have exerted sufficient pressure to bring about unconditional surrender and obviate the need for invasion.
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.
HOWEVER, all those kids' blood is on Japan, not us. Get that through your head.
They were warned repeatedly to surrender, warned by us of mass devastation if they didn't surrender.
Click all those links another posted about the atrocities that the Japanese have committed.
Are you even an American? Let me guess you live in Canada?
I didn't ask you if you'd be sad. I'm asking you whether you'd be ok if Al-Qaeda murdered your family and justified by claiming civilians and soldiers of the U.S. are one and the same - just a "they" - the way you conflate Japanese troops with Japanese toddlers and grandmothers who did nothing to the U.S., who had no role in Pearl Harbor, and who posed no security threat to the U.S.
As for the rest of your post, it's irrelevant and it's none of your business. If you can't answer a straight question, quit posting.
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