Quote Originally Posted by Reefer Rogue
personally i think bombing them was taking the easy way out. anyone can do that. americans are always boasting about there superior army so why didnt you invade them and prove it? i think the japs would've won if you would have invaded because they would've never given up. i think you saw this and thats why you annialated them.
You are right, the Japanese never give up, for them to surrender was the ultimate dishonor. The Japanese were known for fighting to the death. Why would you possibly want to invade a country where the people see their leader as a living god and fight to the death? Why would you want to send your boys into that situation? In your last post you state that they were ready to give up. They were not ready to give up just beaten back into a corner and that corner was the Japanese mainland. I don't think there should have been a conditional surrender for a country that attacked us, showed zero mercy, and committed mass attrocities against humanity. Do you think it would've been okay if Germany surrendered and Hitler stayed in power? The bomb is always a tough topic, but I believe it's use was justified. Loss of life is always terrible, but this was a terrible war and we had to end it. It is a tough call to decide to end thousands of lives, but in a war our side comes first, and that's what we did, we looked out for our boys by not sending them into a meat grinder. We had been bombing Japan non-stop, but it was a costly mission for our pilots. I will agree with you on these posts though:

A demonstration explosion over Tokyo harbor would have convinced Japan's leaders to quit without killing many people.

Even if Hiroshima was necessary, the U.S. did not give enough time for word to filter out of its devastation before bombing Nagasaki.

The bomb was used partly to justify the $2 billion spent on its development.

The two cities were of limited military value. Civilians outnumbered troops in Hiroshima five or six to one.

Japanese lives were sacrificed simply for power politics between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

What set me off about your other post is that you seem to justify that more American lives should have been sacrificed. War isn't about weighing the casualties on both sides and trying to balance them out. It's about winning and lessening the loss on your side. If that means killing thousands, that is what is going to happen. Is war terrible? Of course it is. Did the bomb save American lives by ending the war? Most definately.