# Dropping the atomic bomb. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 20, 2000, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052 "2000-04-20T19:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/21 "2000-04-21T05:56:00Z")
**sqweels** : Christ dude, throw me a paragraph break. Or something. I started getting a headache partway through and had to stop. 1 thing I did note was about casualty figures. They include both wounded and dead. So saving 500,000 casualties is not the same as saving 500,000 lives. I forget the normal percentage, but there are usually much more wounded than dead. Casualties include both wounded and dead because it makes little difference from a military perspective. Actually a wounded enemy is better for you. Neither is going to be shooting back at you. It takes more enemy resources to care for the wounded than for the dead. I will try to finish your post tomorrow. It is too late right now. I thank anyone who read this for reading my post. Sorry, it is late and sometimes my sense of humor gets warped by lack of sleep. 🙂 Peace. ---
**Author:** ![Danielinthewolvesden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Danielinthewolvesden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danielinthewolvesden)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/22 "2000-04-21T06:07:00Z")
If we did not use the “Bomb” we were prepared to go right on firebombing Japanese cities into ashes. These killed more directly than did the A bombs. In the end, the dropping of the Bomb saved JAPANESE lives, a lot of them, prob millions and millions. Unless, you believe somehow that dying to aa A-Bomb is somehow worse than dying in a firebombing, and not only worse, but more than 10 times worse. It was an unfortunate decision. I believe, tho, that the LIMITED use of the Bomb, and the fact that the world recoiled in horror, stopped more widespread use, in say, the Korean war. (Mac Arthur, that egotisical idiot \ actually wanted to use Nukes on the Chinese!) If we had not learned our lesson in horror in Hiroshima, we prob would have let him. Imagine dozens of nukes going off in China & Korea! ---
**Author:** ![Bored2001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47774/32.png) [@Bored2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bored2001)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/23 "2000-04-21T06:20:00Z")
Everyone pretty much covered my viewpoint on this but they forgot to mention this tid-bit. > [@](#): > > “A lone american bomber dropped one atomic bomb on the **military-base** of Hiroshima, Japan.” And > [@](#): > > "American aviators, on August 9, dropped a second atomic bomb on the **navel-base** city of Nagasaki. Both from “The American Pagaent”(10th edition) by Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy. ~Bored2001 Au revoir. ---
**Author:** ![Bored2001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47774/32.png) [@Bored2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bored2001)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/24 "2000-04-21T06:22:00Z")
Err “Military-base city” my bad. ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/25 "2000-04-21T09:04:00Z")
Another point you may want to consider. Even after the Japanese _did_ surrender, a contingant of their armed forces broke away and attempted to overthrow the government. They intended to assume power and continue the war. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/26 "2000-04-21T12:00:00Z")
On the point about the Russians declaring war on Japan, I believe that was mostly due to the fact that doing so after Germany was defeated was something they agreed to do at Yalta. Once the bomb was dropped, they figured they might as well comply, as the war wasn’t going to last much longer, and they were getting eastern Europe in the deal. * * * “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” - Adam Smith ---
**Author:** ![danielnsmith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c89c15/32.png) [@danielnsmith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danielnsmith)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/27 "2000-04-21T14:05:00Z")
KarmaComa, were these actions necessary for the Japanese? [Ballon Bombs: What are they?](http://www.af.mil/news/airman/0298/bombsb.htm) [Japanese Ballon Bombs](http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/jbb.htm) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/28 "2000-04-21T14:24:00Z")
**Daniel** , I’m afraid you’re going to have to spell out your argument more clearly. Are you suggesting that if the other side uses terrorist tactics, that justifies our use of terrorist tactics? Would Japanese actions in Nanking have justified wholesale rape and slaughter by the U.S. had the invasion occurred? Since the Japanese carried out chemical weapons trials on prisoners, should we have done the same? I fall generally among the people who think that using nukes was a difficult decision that was pushed along by attitudes and experience of the war at that time. Having moved into the debatable position of Total War, the A-bomb becomes just a bigger faster explosion. However, I don’t understand how the “other guy’s” failings justify our actions. * * * Tom~ ---
**Author:** ![danielnsmith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c89c15/32.png) [@danielnsmith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danielnsmith)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/29 "2000-04-21T15:31:00Z")
OK. Maybe I should have directed my comment at **Conner** who made the comment that > [@](#): > > Mainland Japan was not a warzone. The entirty of the Japanese Islands were a war zone. We were bombing them night and day. If the Islands of Japan were not a _warzone_, then the continental United States was not one either. I find it strange that people think that the Japanese people caught up in the bombing of these cities were inocent. The were no more innocent than Rosie the Rivitor here in the states. Maybe I should ask you, **tomndebb** , if a family member of yours had been a victim of the Japanese, how would you feel. And before you parot an answer about forgiving and forgetting, close your eyes and imagine your child, a parent, or a spouse being brutally butchered. The truth of the matter is that the bombs saved more lives than it would have cost had they not been used. The idea that the first American soldier that set foot on Nippon would have been greeted by a white flag carrying Jap is pure fancy. By the way, the United States did use a lot of the chemical and biological warfare data that the Japanese had gathered during their war with the Chinese. We used more information from the Japanese ‘experiments’ than from the German ‘experiments.’ There was and is no moral high groud. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/30 "2000-04-21T16:03:00Z")
Apologies again. By copying that text hastily I wound up wiping out the paragraph breaks. I know the difference between casualties and killed, **2Sense** , and I should have been more clear. My main points are: 1. Critics of the bombings have taken them out of the context of WWII and placed them into the context that developed later where we all felt threatedend by nuclear annihilation. 2. A preponderance of factors suggesting many different scenarios, most of which appeared worse to Truman, led to his descision. Claims that more Japanese were killed than Americans were saved, or that Japan would have surrendered soon anyway ignores too many things. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/31 "2000-04-21T18:15:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Maybe I should ask you, tomndebb, if a family member of yours had been a victim of the Japanese, how would you feel. And before you parot an answer about forgiving and forgetting, close your eyes and imagine your child, a parent, or a spouse being brutally butchered. Since I have never developed a really strong _emotional_ investment regarding the decision to use the Bomb, my feelings there are pretty much irrevelant. I only pointed out that your stand-alone links did not present much of an argument _per se_. Your follow-up reference to **Conner** ’s comment was quite adequate to explain your post. * * * Tom~ ---
**Author:** ![MysterEcks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@MysterEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysterEcks)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2000, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052/32 "2000-04-24T00:18:00Z")
There was going to be an invasion if Japan didn’t surrender first–it was politically inevitable at the time. Harry Truman had an obligation to use whatever means he could to reduce American casualties–not total casualties, AMERICAN casualties–regardless of how many Japanese were killed or wounded in the process. That’s total war–anyone who doesn’t like the results should probably refrain from starting one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-the-atomic-bomb/18052.md?page=1)