# Rush Limbaugh--Atomic Bomb a "win-win" situation for Japan **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 5, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-atomic-bomb-a-win-win-situation-for-japan/315796 "2005-08-05T21:57:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![MMI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@MMI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MMI)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-atomic-bomb-a-win-win-situation-for-japan/315796/201 "2005-09-27T14:13:13Z")
> [@ambushed](#): > > Nonsense. Churchill – in one of his irrational, drunken rages – put Dresden on the bombing list personally, knowing full well that it had no few, if any, legitimate military targets and was overrun with civilians and irreplaceable art and architecture. He just wanted to spread brutal, vicious terror by killing as many civilians as possible – the populace included **26,000 Allied prisoner of war** – and destroy the most beautiful cities in the world. > > This act, far more than any other, was so profoundly immoral according to official U.S. diplomatic agreements and promises that the U.S. owes an apology for Dresden. My understanding was that Dresden (on the American end at least) was a tran-plan target - the railyards. IIRC there was originally intelligence indicating a panzer division scheduled to be shipped through when the bombing raid was planned. Later intelligence indicated there would be no panzer division but neither the Americans nor the British saw fit to cancel their raids. I don’t think that the US should apologize for the dropping of the atomic bombs. I do feel that dropping the atomic bomb ended up being the “best” option for both the US and Japan. (Though I just read Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan, by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, which looks at the last months of the year from Japanese, American, and Soviet points of view and raises some interesting questions about some of the motivations and choices of the key decision makers on all sides [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0674016939/qid=1127830848/sr=8-1/ref=pd\_bbs\_1/002-4086655-5550436?v=glance&s=books&n=507846](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0674016939/qid=1127830848/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-4086655-5550436?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) ) I still don’t think that it was a win-win solution for Japan. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-atomic-bomb-a-win-win-situation-for-japan/315796/202 "2005-09-27T14:15:35Z")
> [@ambushed](#): > > Nonsense. Churchill – in one of his irrational, drunken rages – put Dresden on the bombing list personally, knowing full well that it had no few, if any, legitimate military targets and was overrun with civilians and irreplaceable art and architecture. He just wanted to spread brutal, vicious terror by killing as many civilians as possible – the populace included **26,000 Allied prisoner of war** – and destroy the most beautiful cities in the world. > > This act, far more than any other, was so profoundly immoral according to official U.S. diplomatic agreements and promises that the U.S. owes an apology for Dresden. Wait, which one was Churchill again? :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-atomic-bomb-a-win-win-situation-for-japan/315796.md?page=10)