Should the US apologise for Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

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Any sources on this arguement? Moreover, does it explain why Japan didn't surrender after Hiroshima? If they were already preparing to surrender, why did it take two bombs?

I think Japan was planning to surrender even before the bombs. There must have been opposition within the government. There was an attempted coup that failed just before Japan surrendered.

Reply 61

Konahagakure

Original post by Rakas21

Hell no.

Japan committed an act of war and went on to lose. They should be grateful that the US never nuked Tokyo.

There wouldn't have been any point most of Tokyo was already destroyed.

Reply 62

Konahagakure

Original post by M14B

The rules of engagement of an army is not to kill civilians.

Your comment highlighted in red, is truly shameful.
Goodbye.

You are confused. Many people would have died accidentally in crossfire. I'm quite sure some of the civilians would have tried to fight back further increasing the death toll.

Reply 63

SmileyVibe

No. The USA cannot take credit for that. Allow me to explain. "We" can apologize all "we" want for the things "we" did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki but at the end of the day what happened, happened. "We" cannot apologize to fix something that already happened. It will always be apart of American history and no amounts of apologize will erase it. I think "we" should focus on improving and having a healthy relationship with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Can "we" apologize for killing thousand civilians? Sure. Will it bring the dead alive, and be forgotten it ever happened? No.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 64

Napp

No, at the time it was considered the right thing to do and undoubedly saved hundreds of thousands. I for one am glad my grand father avoided a direct attack on the enemies home, the japanese were savaged in their army there is no denying this japan was arguably the worst of the evil countries in its babaric actions.

Reply 65

HucktheForde

the US should apologise for dropping only two atom bombs. Japan doesnt deserve to exists for all the crimes they committed.

Reply 66

HucktheForde

Original post by M14B

The rules of engagement of an army is not to kill civilians.

Your comment highlighted in red, is truly shameful.
Goodbye.

It is a sin to kill a civilian. It is not a sin to slay beasts.

Reply 67

PrincePaul6888

Had they been White; would they have been bombed ?

Unlikely

Reply 68

Lacesso

Another thread full of insufferable, do-gooding, armchair activist students with a holier than thou attitude that flies in the face of logic. :bl:

Reply 69

MrControversial

I, MrControversial, hereby take it upon myself to apologise for all those in the US and nations that thought the Japanese.

We humbly apologise to the Japanese for putting a stop to your campaign of rape, murder, taking comfort slaves, pillage and beyonetting babies across the far east and the orient.

Reply 70

PrincePaul6888

Original post by Lacesso

Another thread full of insufferable, do-gooding, armchair activist students with a holier than thou attitude that flies in the face of logic. :bl:

Yeah - Because it's so logically to kill around two hundred thousand men women and children

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 71

username1915455

Original post by HucktheForde

It is a sin to kill a civilian. It is not a sin to slay beasts.

Just want to point out that this view is deeply wrong and very offensive. Hitler used the justification that the Jews (and others) were subhuman to support the Holocaust.

The Japanese were, for the most part, good people, even if they supported the country in the war. There were some who acted committed dreadful mistreatment of POWs and other atrocities. However, there are people in all armies, in WW2 and other wars, who have done the same, notably the Russian Armies treatment the peoples they captured during the war. Even the American army have mistreated their prisoners during the recent wars in the Middle East (at least to my mind).
Also, if supporting the government is reason enough for a person to no longer be human, then surely most of the German population post WW2 fit this criteria. I doubt you would agree with this however, which could have something to do with Germans being white/European?

Reply 72

Vikingninja

No it was a decision made by those in the past to end a war more quickly. Wasn't made by Obama or anyone else in the present so no there shouldn't be.

Reply 73

ohgeez

Original post by Jackster45

Read up on Unit 731 and then tell me that the Japs are good people at heart. Don't let the fact they create anime and cool tech/gadgets cloud your thinking.

Reply 74

DJKL

Original post by M14B

The rules of engagement of an army is not to kill civilians.

Your comment highlighted in red, is truly shameful.
Goodbye.

But of course the majority of combatants were glorified civilians conscripted into their respective armies, I am not sure the distinction is really that clear.

"Quartered Safe out here" by George Macdonald Fraser, a book re his wartime service in Burma, covers the morality question from the point of view of a participant and is well worth a read. (not just re this point is is an excellent read)

He views it as which deaths are justified in that deaths will occur whichever option was taken. He makes the valid point that having a moral certainty that it was wrong, from the comfort of the future, is all very well but would those arguing the point be willing to sacrifice their own lives and take the place of him and those in the Border Regiment for their convictions; place themselves on the line.

I have a self interested sympathy with his view, my father was an 18 year old naval rating (hostilities only) who in 1945 was training for an invasion of Japan/Asia. His role was to be ferrying troops ashore, making repeated trips under fire, and he was under no illusions that his life expectancy, and that of the initial waves of troops, was not great;like GMF's view that his death would lead to his three children and his 8 grandchildren never existing, my father's death would have resulted in the same re myself, my children and my sisters and their families. Instead the bombs were dropped, my father never piloted a landing craft ashore under fire, in 1946 he returned to university and later had a family.

We all want the best for our families, we want them to be safe, moral certainty is frankly a luxury- how many of your parents ,when given an absolute choice , do x your child is fine do y and they are in harms way, would chose y?

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 75

username1915455

Original post by ohgeez

Read up on Unit 731 and then tell me that the Japs are good people at heart. Don't let the fact they create anime and cool tech/gadgets cloud your thinking.

It was their biological weapons unit, wasn't it? I know they performed some pretty horrible experiments (which having just researched further were really, really horrible!), it wasn't what came to mind when I said "for the most part" but it does justify that comment.

Two issues with your line of thinking. 1. I know for a fact the Germans did a similar thing with some of their prisoners, the example I remember most is when they deliberately injected gangrene into wounds and also attempts to 'swap' parts of bones from the upper and lower leg to see if this could be used to treat casualties. Does this make the Germans as bad as the Japanese? I would say so (which is, they had some (or quite a lot) of people committing abominable crimes but the majority of their population were good people)
2. Having just researched it, apparently Americans gave immunity to the researchers of Unit 731 in return for the data they collected. Surely this makes America bad, perhaps equally as bad, as Japanese who committed the original crime?

Also, can I disagree with you use of the word "Japs" which is intended to be derogatory and (at least in my view) should be avoided because of this?

Finally, my mind is not clouded by anime or Japanese technology, partly because I don't like anime but mostly because I am wholly referring to the Japanese during the war, not at the current time.

Reply 76

HucktheForde

Original post by Jackster45

you seem to be living on a different planet.

or simply brainwashed by japanese propaganda.

Reply 77

Konahagakure

Original post by HucktheForde

you seem to be living on a different planet.

or simply brainwashed by japanese propaganda.

He was probably referring to the majority of the civilian population not the IJA and IJN

Reply 78

Konahagakure

Original post by ohgeez

Read up on Unit 731 and then tell me that the Japs are good people at heart. Don't let the fact they create anime and cool tech/gadgets cloud your thinking.

You are also forgetting most of the Japanese population did not know about the details of what their army was doing. They were only fed propaganda by their militaristic government.