What's your opinion of the August 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American forces? Was it a justified coup de grâce to the fanatical army of fascist Japan or a genocidal war crime destined to show off nuclear might through the mass murder of innocent civilians?
Hiroshima and Nagaski Bombings
Tyler Garcia
Other urls found in this thread:
Luke Miller
Weren't these civilians working for the Japanese Empire? It's their fault for not trying a coup to overthrow their maniac government.
Leo Butler
I'm fairly sure there was a large element of showing the soviet union who's boss even at the expense of civilians, but I've also heard it claimed that it shortened the war enough to actually spare lives and I have no tools to evaluate that claim.
Christian Martin
It was genocide an a crime against humanity for which usa still has to pay dearly in blood of the burger scum.
Jonathan Miller
It was an act to stop Soviets form graping more land form manchuria and Korea and form intervening in Chinese front.
Carson Green
Yeah, they were working for the government they were subjects of and not for the Shah of Iran or the Holy See — huge surprise.
Assuming that the targeting civilians is okay because they (are forced to) contribute to the war effort effectively abolishes the distinction between combatants and civilians.
Yeah, it was definitely the fault of propaganda-bombarded proles for not engaging in open military rebellion against their quasi-totalitarian militaristic government.
Grayson Lewis
youtube.com
Why do revisionists downplay how hardass the nips were all the time? They seriously rigged up suicide banzai planes and charged our machine gun nests with bamboo sticks. Their POWs would steal the scalpels from our medics treating them and unzip US arteries on the operating table. They told us they'd fight to the last man and until they ate rocks. Why the fuck wouldn't you believe them?
that's also why they have my eternal respect ;_;7 what a people
Isaiah Watson
Holy shit dude, look at the flag he is using next time before replying.
Colton Kelly
Because this happened.
Over 500,000 POW`s in just 11 days. 8 times higher casualty rate than soviets had.
Xavier Ramirez
...
Ayden Carter
It's war. Anything is allowed.
Jack Fisher
...
Ryder Russell
Don't some historians think that the government would have kept fighting and downplayed the casualties if northern Japan wasn't already invaded by the Soviets during the bombings?
Colton Powell
t. Nazi soldier who just shot random Frenchmen in retaliation for Résistance activity
Juan Thomas
You're right, we should have done a ground invasion with every draft dodging lefty. Just put you all on a boat and let you take Honshu, acre by acre, on foot. Would have been much more humane.
Ethan Carter
Tankie here.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were an inherently political act which fulfilled the United States' goal of intimidating the Empire of Japan and the Soviet Union alike. From that perspective alone, it was justified.
Now, if you attempt to force bourgeoise democratic morality into the equation - or any kind of demsoc/socdemism, of course it's going to be unethical and immoral because of the civilian casualties.
But from this tankie's persepctive, it certainly fulfilled the US foreign departments goal. Morality, in this context, is irrelevant. War is but the continuation of politics and savage politics begets a savage war.
James Hill
No it would not. In a total war there are no civilians only forces of production and potential recruits for enemy army.
Noah Watson
Says you. As far as I am concerned, soc-dem does not address this moral problem in any meaningful way that it is a majority view. There are plenty of soc-dems out there who would run contrary to your position.
Jacob Roberts
So not being okay with civilians being massacred by the truckload is "bourgeois democratic morality" now…?
You're a tankie alright.
Cooper Miller
So why didnt they drop the bomb on some military installation to show off instead of going straight for civilians?
Austin Wood
Because American propaganda had dehumanized the Japanese so much, they didn't care about civilian casualties and Japs were all the same to them.
More than one in ten Amerilards back then was okay with the wholesale genocide of millions.
Joseph Kelly
It wasn't even the first American attack on Japanese civilians, the May 1945 firebombing of Tokyo resulted in mass casualties almost as high as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Believe it or not, they actually planned more atomic bombings in case the Japanese didn't surrender. Up to 12, apparently.
Lucas Jenkins
If I remember correctly, the Japanese government kept fighting because unconditional surrender was too harsh a price for them. They treated the atomic bombings like regular firebombings and didn't entirely believe reports that atomic weapons existed or were a significant new threat. It was only the attack by the Soviets and the rapid losses in Manchuria that finally got them to surrender.