Daily Show calls Truman a war criminal

[VictorCharlie]

I think the island wars showed that the Japanese would fight to the last man for meaningless pieces of volcanic island. To suggest that they were going to agree to an unconditional surrender I think is pretty well answered considering they didn't surrender after 6 months of conventional bombing, the first bomb and that almost every Japanese unit fought to the bitter end. The US was attacked by an imperialistic nation bent on ruling its sphere of the globe. The US lost almost 3000 at Pearl Harbor and 100K give or take in the Pacific theatre. This doesn't even begin to take into account the countless numbers of civilians the Japanese slaughtered during their conquest. The country had just finished winning a war in Europe and was facing a conquest of mainland japan that experts estimate would have killed 1 million Americans and even more Japanese civilians(some think military and civ casualties would reach 25 mill). 250-500K deaths from the bombs is a drop in the bucket compared to these numbers. In absolute war between nations there is no substitute for absolute victory. Ask the descendents of 25+ million people who didn't die b/c of the bombs if they think Truman was a war criminal. Considering the time period, technology available, lack of viable alternatives and number of casualties already dropping the bomb was one of the most courageous and difficult decisions ever made by a US president. Miles, find something better than a geocities web site that also has links slandering FDR, JFK, Clinton, promotes secession, and leaves portions unsourced to support your argument. I noticed you left out what you would have done as well.

[Gandalf]

I don't want to get into this in any deep form as I'm too busy at the moment with new classes and a dissertation to write up.

But to keep it simple, I don't think we can excuse dropping 2 nuclear bombs on two cities of mainly civilian people. Japan was on it's last legs prior to the bomb being dropped with blockades and tremendous shortages. Dropping the second bomb was just downright evil.

What would I have done? Well, I must admit that is not something I have considered too much. But I do know that as a human being I would have grave reservations about ever unleashing a nuclear weapon upon scores of people who are just living their everyday lives. Morally I think it is reprehensible. From my general reading of the subject it would seem that Japan was becoming weak and that blockades were having a serious impact. That might have sufficed along with bombing of military targets. But to kill a quarter of a million people with radioactive weapons just to get a job done more quickly? Takes some kind of person to make those kinds of decisions.