World War II: The U.S. and the Dawn of the Atomic Age

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The second World War (WWII) was the most widespread and lethal war in history. More than 30 countries were involved, resulting in more than 50 million military and civilian deaths (some estimates range in the 85 million range). So severe were the atrocities committed by the Nazis that most other aspects of this war have been nearly forgotten — first and foremost, the actions of the U.S. government and the events that led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Coming of War

By the mid-1930’s it was clear to everyone that war was soon to come. Japan began to invade China, beginning with Manchuria, and in Germany, Adolf Hitler began his campaign to control the entire continent.

 

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U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) became increasingly alarmed as Hitler’s invasions increased and news began to surface of the campaign against Germany’s Jewish population. In a 1937 speech in Chicago, FDR tried to rally the public’s support, but no further steps followed.

To Most Americans, the threat arising from Japanese and German aggression seemed very distant. Moreover, Hitler had more than a few admirers in the Unites States. Obsessed with the threat of communism, some Americans approved his expansion of German power as a counterweight to the Soviet Union.”  (Foner, 2014, p. 855)

Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes bombed the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. It wasn’t until Pearl Harbor that the citizens of the United States agreed to enter the war. They were the first attacks by a foreign power on U.S. soil since the War of 1812.

 

Pearl Harbor

 

While the U.S. government did, in fact, intercept Japanese messages that revealed an attack in the Pacific Ocean was imminent, official reports claim that no one knew when or where the Japanese would strike. Nevertheless, there are many who believe FDR knew of the coming attack on Pearl Harbor beforehand and allowed it to happen so as to bring the United States into the war. It should be noted that official history records claim there is no credible evidence to support this charge.

Japanese-American Internment

Ten weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, FDR was persuaded by the military to issue Executive Order 9066. By this time, California already had a long history of aggression towards the Japanese, and now spurred on by exaggerated fears that the Japanese would invade the West (as well as an incentive to obtain Japanese-American property), those of Japanese descent were ordered to be removed from the West Coast.

 

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Similarly, as Hitler had relocated Germany’s Jewish population to concentration camps, FDR removed more than 110,000 men, women, and children — two thirds of which were American citizens — to militaristic camps, far from their homes.

 

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Life for Japanese-Americans at the internment camps was far better than that of the Jewish population of Germany, even still, they were most often subjected to quasi-military discipline and forced to live in horse stables, makeshift shacks, barracks, or tents behind barbed wire fences. Armed guards patrolled the compounds and searchlights scanned the grounds at all hours of the night. Privacy was scarce and medical facilities were non-existent.

 

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This internment reveals just how easy it can be for war to undermine basic freedoms. “There were no court hearings, no due process, and no writs of habeas corpus,” (Foner, 2014, p. 877)

The press supported the action and the courts refused to intervene. The only political figure who spoke out against the U.S. government’s actions was Senator Robert Taft, of Ohio. It seems even average Americans (many of our grandparents and great-grandparents) were so consumed with their fear of the Japanese, that they too supported the executive order, much like the people of Germany were stirred to support the Nazis.

 

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Something else that should be mentioned is the ‘loyalty oath program’ that the government established, which expected Japanese-Americans to swear allegiance to the U.S. government (the government that took them from their homes and imprisoned them with no charges) and enlist in the army. Those who refused to serve in the army (about 200 total), were sent to prison for resisting the draft. It wasn’t until 1988 that Congress issued an apology for internment and provided $20,000 in compensation to each survivor.

“The Most Terrible Weapon”

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first (and only) president to win four elections; it was after his presidency that a two-term limit was set. Unfortunately, FDR didn’t live long enough to see the U.S. to the end of the war. On April 12th, 1945, he succumbed to a stroke, leaving Harry S. Truman as his successor.

Truman was presented with one of the most consequential decisions confronted by a U.S. president — whether or not to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. Truman was unaware of the bomb until after he became president and the Secretary of War informed him, calling it, “the most terrible weapon ever known in human history.” Truman’s theory: The bomb is a weapon, and weapons should be used.

On August 6th, 1945, an American plane dropped the first ever atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

 

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70,000 innocent civilians were instantly incinerated and another 70,000 perished by the end of the year, due to radiation. It has been reported that thousands more died throughout the next five years. Why was Hiroshima targeted? Because it had not yet suffered any damage from the war.

Three days later, on August 9th, Nagasaki was bombed, killing another 70,000. While all wars inflict suffering on noncombatants, never before had civilians been so ruthlessly targeted.

 

Nagasaki

 

There was considerable evidence to suggest that Japan was ready to surrender before the dropping of the atomic bomb. Many Japanese officials had already communicated a willingness to surrender if Emperor Hirohito could remain on his throne. This fell short of the demands for complete surrender, which was ultimately a justification for dropping the bomb, however interestingly enough, Japan was still allowed to keep their emperor in the end. Why would this be?

Some of the scientists who helped to create the bomb, urged Truman to use it in an effort to, “demonstrate its power to international observers,” (Foner, 2014, p. 888) and Truman did not hesitate. With the rising tensions with the Soviet Union and the coming of the Cold War, Truman wanted to show Joseph Stalin, and the rest of the world, the power of the United States. This is why thousands of innocent men, women, and children were annihilated.

 

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By 1945, there were few Americans who objected to Truman dropping the bomb. This was due to four years of war propaganda that had vilified the Japanese to American eyes. Public doubts soon began to surface, however, especially after John Hersey published Hiroshima (1946), which provided a graphic account of the terrors suffered by civilians.

 

In this picture provided by Japan's Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima, nuclear bomb victims are sheltered at the Hiroshima Second Military Hospital's tent relief center at the banks of the Ota River in Hiroshima, Japan, 1,150-meters (1,258-yards) from the epicenter on Aug. 7, 1945, one day after the world's first nuclear bombing by the United States. (AP Photo/The Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima, Yotsugi Kawahara, HO)
In this picture provided by Japan’s Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima, nuclear bomb victims are sheltered at the Hiroshima Second Military Hospital’s tent relief center at the banks of the Ota River in Hiroshima, Japan, 1,150-meters (1,258-yards) from the epicenter on Aug. 7, 1945, one day after the world’s first nuclear bombing by the United States. (AP Photo/The Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima, Yotsugi Kawahara, HO)

 

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WWII had a massive impact on millions of people around the world, and from a multitude of nations. However, for Americans, one of the largest impacts on society was the treatment of the Japanese on our own soil, and the ultimate destruction of the Earth and its people. And yet, somehow, it’s rarely spoken of — a dark stain that most of our grandparents choose to forget.

Many of the actions taken by the U.S. can be considered similar to those of the Nazis, and to the Americans who take this into consideration, one can’t help but to contemplate the implications. What does this say about our society, and how has it effected the way we view the world today? Could history repeat itself, as it so often does?

Were it not for America’s intervention, it is very possible that Hitler would have won the war. Many of our family members fought and died in WWII, and we should honor their memories, and take pride in their accomplishments. That being said, we also have a responsibility to mankind to ensure each generation remembers our mistakes, and continues to learn from them.

 


SOURCE:

Foner, Eric (2014). Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Qureshi, Bilal. NPR. Aug 9, 2013. (http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/08/09/210138278/japanese-internment-redress)


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62 COMMENTS

  1. This article is speculative and misleading. Japan was not ready to surrender as the article suggests. The militarist wing of the Japanese government was preparing for a coup if the then government decided to surrender. In fact, there was even a plot by the military to “kidnapp” Hirohito in order to get him to give his “blessing” to the miliarist camp in their desire to continue the war. But the proof is in the pudding. Even after August 6th, (Hiroshima), the Japanese government still held out and refused to surrender unconditionally. It took Nagasaki to convince them and Hirohito that continuing the war was a criminal enterprise that served no good.

    • I think it depends on which history book you read because this is what I learned as well, that Japanese officials were ready to surrender. I don’t think EVERYONE in the Japanese government was ready to surrender, but there were definitely some officials who wanted to. They just wanted Hirohito to remain their leader because he was more like a prophet or something that just a political leader, and I guess the U.S. wasn’t down with that at first, which is why they bombed. I’ve never heard anything about a kidnap attempt, not that I’m sayin you’re wrong. I do know that the U.S. never waited for a reply from Japan when they wouldn’t accept the terms that Hirohito remain in power, they just bombed them. And Japan knew they were beatin. Already their allies had fallen, and Manchuria had been taken back by China.

      • Manchuria was taken by the Soviet Union not China, but the rest is right, plus the fall of the Japanese army in Manchuria happened on the same day as the dropping of the second atomic bomb. So it has been said that the destruction of the army station in Manchuria, was straw that broke the camels back for the Japanese. Also it should be remembered the death toll on the – day – of the first a-bomb was lower than some of the fire bombing in other Japanese cities, so to the Japanese it was just another bombing that killed their civilians.

    • I agree totally with RON. There is not one shred of proof to the assertions made here that Japan was actively seeking a path to end the war.
      Japan had no problem eliminating civilian of other countries. Some estimates claim that 14-16 million civilian Chinese were killed. Hundreds of thousand of civilians were killed in China during a six week period during the “rape of Nanking”
      They Japanese culture did not allow for a surrender.It is estimated that millions of Japanese would of died if America was forced to invade Japan.

      • Funny – Japanese culture did not allow for surrender. After CIVILIANS are killed, (most leaders consider civilians to be little better than scum), they surrendered, where is the logic?

        • Kamikaze was built on the foundation of Japanese culture. They’d gladly die in battle, but surrender without Seppuku leaves their souls in limbo…

          It was drop the bomb, or watch the Japanese turn to Cannibalism. There was no planned military campaign to invade Japan because of their insane coastal defenses on the main island. At the end of 1944, the Japanese were so embargoed by the US Navy that their food supply was almost non-existent. It was apparent to our analysts, so the Japanese had to jave done that math as well. And, in the face of knowing that fact and still refusing surrender?

          I’m not defending the decision at all, I’m just presentong facts that weren’t stated in the above article.

          • No – ??? what are you talking about. Learn about their culture before projecting your propaganda out to everyone. The days of the Samurai was over, and VERY FEW of those in the military were of Samurai descent. These were farmers children, whose country indoctrinated them into insanity, and sold their lives cheap. “leaves their soul in limbo…” 🙂 no. The didn’t believe in anything like that. Knowing any cultures people deep down is difficult, and the Japanese culture is perhaps one of the most difficult to grasp – but contrary to the many negative portrayals, they were, and are, an innocent people that were misguided by an ambitious group of war-mongers. …about surrender – think about it – they were done, and 99% of the people knew it, long before the end. Despite the suffering of the people, those in power still controlled the decisions made on behalf of their country. That’s politicians for you… Basically, like everyone else, the Japanese people were victims. Like the American’s that fight today for questionable aims, we’re all victims to a higher agenda. Does warfare bring out the worst in humans…? Yes. But blame those who send children to war – not the children.

          • Bob N, I’d like to address a particular part of your comment and that is: “Does warfare bring out the worst in humans…? Yes. But blame those who send children to war – not the children.” I believe everyone is to blame, if you wish, some more than others, but still, everyone involved. I consider this to be an important note because today, not much has changed. Politicians still make war moves and people still follow orders. People are still manipulated through fear propaganda. The vilification of enemies of the state (or of the politicians) still takes place. Waging war is an activity people have been doing since the dawn of history. In order to stop doing it, people need to change fundamentally. You can not reliably force fundamental change onto other people, you can only (reliably) change yourself, as I can only (reliable) change myself. This is why I consider throwing the blame solely on the politicians (who send people to war) not to be a constructive thing. If I share no responsibility for what’s going on in the world, I have nothing to change and yet I hold some (as little as it may be) power as I can change myself.

      • You talk of a lack of evidence to support the fact of an imminent surrender by the Japanese, and then, you proceed to add your tuppence worth based on estimates. Bravo

      • Japanese emperor was going to surrender. Japan offered US a peace negotiations under the condition to keep Emperor system, and with Russia as a middleman.

        But US declined it, so they could do go ahead with a NUCLEAR bomb test with real people involved. that is why a group from US was there in Hiroshima and Nagasaki just after the nuke, to check the actual damage on people.

        US seems not changed their tactict since then…

    • that being said, Dose not mean that U.S used “the atomic” for no reason but the madness of mans power. and nothing justifys that fact.

    • So, you are basically saying that “serves them right” using the atomic was justified and killing more than 200,000 japanese was just for the great cause ehhh, Dude, i know that this forgodsaken world isn’t that great, but “Using the Atomic then” was nothing more than show-off of mans madness for power, nothing more, nothing less,

    • Actually Ron is right. The Japanese had no intentions of surrendering. This was seen with each battle in the Pacific theater. It was also estimated that an invasion of mainland Japan would cost the lives of another 500,000 to million U.S. soldiers and over a million Japanese. This is the reason we dropped the bomb on them. After Nagasaki, Truman only had to threaten the use of an atomic bomb to Stalin. We actually did not have another one to use after Nagasaki. Truman made the hardest decision any president of our nation has had to make. It ultimately led to the end of the war and saved lives. It wasn’t to show our might.

    • They would’ve surrendered! This is because Japan was struggling in the war against the US, and now the USSR joined the war with 1,000,000 battle hardened veterans marching their way through the lightly defended Manchuria, China and Japanese isles. The USSR was totally capable of taking the casualties which the US couldn’t (which is why the US couldn’t invade mainland Japan) so the USSR (in the end) posed a bigger threat than the US.
      Do you think that a militaristic dictator would surrender after 2 huge massacres? No, I don’t. They would’ve surrendered if the USSR or the US landed on the beaches of Japan.

    • Though the article doesn’t link to any ‘proof’ I’ve read a few history books that claim Japan’s intent was to surrender before the bombs were dropped. They did approach Russia (who at the time wasn’t at war with Japan) asking the Russians to help them open lines of communication with America to start peace negotiations. The American response was that nothing less than an unconditional surrender would be accepted (essentially the same terms Germany had surrendered under), the Japanese wanted a single condition – the continuation of the Emperor, negotiations fell through when Russia declared war on Japan.

      As such the Japanese intent to surrender was known, certainly by the president and his advisors, unfortunately by this point both Truman and Churchill were worried by the power of Stalins Russia, Japan provided a convenient target for a display of power.

      The U.S. Had been targeting Japanese civilians centres for some time before the bomb was dropped, the firebombings killed more civilians then both a-bomb drops combined, it’s not a stretch to recognise that they would be quite willing to kill a few more if it meant keeping the soviets at bay.

      • All speculation and Hear say. There is literally no proof Japan had any intentions of surrender before the bombs were dropped. All you have is essentially a theory. Let me use your logic to make an argument “Japanese surrender was known”? Known by who? Nostradamus? … If the Japs didn’t give an immediate surrender after the first nuke was dropped what in the hell makes you think they wouldv’e surrendered from an invasion from either the US or Russia… (Just like your argument open ended logic that can be argued at any point) ..The point is no one knew forsure thus the bomb HAD to be dropped. Power shown and enemy eliminated. 2 birds stoned at once.

        • Here ya go: http://tamilnation.co/humanrights/hiroshima.htm#Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki:_Worst_terror_attacks_in_history_

          “The 60th anniversaries will inevitably be marked by countless mass media commentaries and speeches repeating the 60-year-old mantra that there was no other choice but to use A-bombs in order to avoid a bitter, prolonged invasion of Japan.

          On July 21, the British New Scientist magazine undermined this chorus when it reported that two historians had uncovered evidence revealing that “the US decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki … was meant to kick-start the Cold War [against the Soviet Union, Washington’s war-time ally] rather than end the Second World War”. Peter Kuznick, director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at the American University in Washington stated that US President Harry Truman’s decision to blast the cities “was not just a war crime, it was a crime against humanity”.

          With Mark Selden, a historian from Cornell University in New York, Kuznick studied the diplomatic archives of the US, Japan and the USSR. They found that three days before Hiroshima, Truman agreed at a meeting that Japan was “looking for peace”. His senior generals and political advisers told him there was no need to use the A-bomb. But the bombs were dropped anyway. “Impressing Russia was more important than ending the war”, Selden told the New Scientist.

          While the …media immediately dubbed the historians’ “theory” “controversial”, it accords with the testimony of many central US political and military players at the time, including General Dwight Eisenhower, who stated bluntly in a 1963 Newsweek interview that “the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing”.

          Truman’s chief of staff, Admiral William Leahy, stated in his memoirs that “the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.”

          At the time though, Washington cold-bloodedly decided to obliterate the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children to show off the terrible power of its new super weapon and underline the US rulers’ ruthless preparedness to use it.”

    • What is speculative and misleading is to ignore the major war crimes committed by the USA who intentionally targeted and bombed civilians. One thing is clear the attack on Pearl Harbor was a military target…fir bombing both Germany and Japan cities were and are War Crimes of historic proportions and should have been at least stopped and or prosecuted.

      The Japanese did there own war crimes to POW’s but pretending that dropping the bombs was NOT a clear cut message to the Russians whom our Captialist Owners/Puppeteers – feared is aughable and just plane stupid.

      The nukes had everything to do with maintaining the owner/slave economic relationship in the West and the threat our owners really feared was not “sending waves of our boys’ into the meat grinder nor was it the fear the japanese would suffer from sttarvation.”

      Only a fool who wants/needs to stay intentionaly blind to our current situation will maintain such a postiion, Ron.

      • Wrong. London was NOT anything other than a civilian target. Neither was Lenningrad nor Amsterdam. The Chinese that were killed by the Japanese were civilian. Both allied and axis campaigns were against industrial and civilian targets. It was the nature of the war. No one spared. That’s the tragedy of it. That is the tragedy of all war. It spares no one. But the big difference is: America tried to avoid war for as long as possible. Once it was clear that Japan and Nazi Germany was hell bent on uncompromising war America responded in a manner that was clear and uncomprimomising. You are very selective in your attribution of blame during this war. Keep in mind: at this specific time It was the Axis group who was annexing and concouring terortories. Not the so called imperialist powers you always want to use use as the big bad “bogey man” that you always want blame for everything

    • I agree their culture was all about honor they never would have surrendered. They find Japanese army in the phillipines “fighting the war” 10, 15, 20 years later

    • Ron… I agree. This article is revisionist baloney.
      A friend of my parents, now deceased was a young girl in Japan during the war. (She herself was Japanese, and went on to marry an American and came to the US.) She worked in a munitions factory during the war. After the first bomb, their hours were increased to an ungodly amount to prepare for the invasion. One of the reasons they put the Emperor on the radio was to convince the people that, yes, they were now to surrender.

    • Why doesn’t anybody mention that Russia was about to invade Japan, and was a significant reason why the U.S. Sacrificed a unforgivable amount of innocent civilians?

    • It is not speculative and misleading. If the Germans were your biggest enemies, why not drop the bomb on them? I’ll tell you why. It was because they were white protestants like you. You had to find a completely different ethnicity that you felt nothing about.

  2. While the author makes some valid points, I don’t understand people who draw the line at the atomic bombs. A single fire raid on Tokyo killed more people than either atomic bomb did (initially, at least) and burned down hundreds of thousands of homes. Despite this loss of life and the inability of the Japanese to defend themselves from air attacks, the Japanese government did not surrender. The U.S. went on to fire bomb many other cities, and in my opinion the author makes it sound like a bad thing that cities that hadn’t been bombed were targeted, while it was quite intentional that U.S. bombs hadn’t fallen on either city prior to the atomic bombs. How can you gauge the awful power of a new weapon in a real situation if you drop it on an already half burned out city?

    • How can you gauge the awful power of a new weapon in a real situation if you drop it on an already half burned out city?
      Good job, you just proved how evil human beings can be 😛

  3. japan was planning to send 5 submarine full of plague infected flee before U.S. bomb on them.and if U.S. didn’t throw bomb at that time then their people had been dying from plague.

    source-top10fact world war 2(top10meme)

    • bullshit! This is the most appalling made-up lie to justify a carnage of civilians with consequences to this day. You’re a real pervert!

  4. Japan was going to surrender, those bombs were a show of force for Stalin. The japanese were deathly afraid as the russians were about to invade the mainland. Truman was a murdering war criminal.

  5. Americas contribution to the defeat of Hitler pales in comparison to that which Russia had already done. Maybe if Grandaddy Bush wasn’t supplying the Luftwaffe with diesel then the war might’ve ended sooner.

  6. man and his conquests are the issue. doesn’t matter what war. what actions. through history it is man that commits these actions that have plagued this earth. we are parasites

  7. Say what you want about the nukes, U.S. fire bombings of Tokyo and other populated areas killed and injured more people than the nukes.
    I pulled this from Wikipedia;

    Allied forces conducted many air raids on Japan during World War II, causing extensive destruction to the country’s cities and killing anywhere from 241,000 to 900,000 people. During the first years of the Pacific War, these attacks were limited to the Doolittle Raid in April 1942 and small-scale raids on military positions in the Kuril Islands from mid-1943. Strategic bombing raids began in June 1944 and continued until the end of the war in August 1945. Allied naval and land-based tactical air units also attacked Japan during 1945.

    The nukes were a terrible weapon, fire bombings killed more people.

  8. J Robert oppenheimer one of the men who built the very first atomic bomb I am fairly certain would have much preferred to destroy any evidence of its existence im basing this off of his famous quote “Now i am become death the destroyer of world’s”

  9. Firs of all, I appreciate very much the fact that the USA is clearly pointed for that genocide. USA is NOT America, it’s just one of many countries on the American continent (or Americans continents, depending how many continents you consider).

    But we have to notice that history repeats itself, as the US Drones killed about 5,000 people, without any trial, without any justice, just following the order of a bureaucrat in the Pentagon.
    The USA are still murdering innocent people every day, and the world stays silent !

    When will that end ? When will the USA be prosecuted for crime against humanity ?

  10. We all know how many innocent lives were lost in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but do you know how many innocent civilians were lost by the Allies’ carpet bombing in Europe?

  11. When I read the ending, I got the impression that role of both British Empire and Soviet Union are occulted in their effort (and huge losses) to defeat na-zi Germany.

    (Stalin wanted to be sure there would be enough forces engaged in western front to engage massively Russian on eastern front to split German forces)

  12. Killing innocent people can never be considered as a Proof of power. Those american idiots who think that by bombing japan they represented their power or greatness are fools. If u have power than u have responsiblity as well.

  13. “Were it not for America’s intervention, it is very possible that Hitler would have won the war.”

    Good article, but I’m afraid that you’re believing your own propaganda here.

    Hard though it may be to stomach for Americans, what broke Hitler (like Napoleon before him) was Russia. The Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point in the war. Germany had overstretched itself, was badly defeated, and it was downhill all the way for them after that. That’s not to say there wasn’t still hard fighting, but the majority of historians agree that Stalingrad marked the beginning of the end for the Axis.

  14. This is just another attempt from Anonymous to discredit the US.

    It is all bullshit.

    I have studied Japanese war history for many years, and I know there was no other way to enforce a surrender.

    Thanks to the US, the world is a more free and safer place than before 1945.

    I will stop following Anonymous if this ridiculous propaganda continues.

    Johan/Sweden

  15. The U.S.A. wanted everyone to know what would happen if they were pulled into a prolonged war or any wars there after. It was mostly a move to flex muscles and show off. Before another emerging superpower did ie: Russia. Japan’s surrender was ignored for this simple fact. All other implied reasons did not matter or factor into the decision.

  16. He said, this he said that, history is so subjectable, one can bend it any way they choose to make their point of view seem more credible.
    The truth of life is, if you kill another creature, yes not just another human being, its will be marked on your consciousness, for the rest of your time here on this planet, no one will judge you, except yourself, if you can live with the deaths you cause, and not feel remorse, then you have no say in the future of the planet and its creatures. Time to grow up consciously, and except responsibility, killing is not a right or a privilege, Live and let live. Don’t be a pawn of the military complex, which considers, the death of beings, as a right to promote their agenda. Just my 2 cents

    • Join the military first and say those things in front of your enemy who grew up with means to erradicate you and your family. If you can invent something that can subdue your opponents without killing them, then by all means use it. Until then, lets stick to practicality.

  17. You just needed to drop such a powerful bomb ANYWYERE else even on an not-populated area (or near one) as a show-off of power, no need to drop it on people.

  18. Get your facts straight anonymous. Im beginning to sense something weird about your group. Broadcasting to the world false infos about the US. you’re implying the US is as worse as japanese and germany. In philippines, the japs throw babies in the air and stick them with swords! Does that include strategy to you? one of the reasons that the US dropped nuke on civilians was a hard decision without a choice to reduce american casualties in invading japan due to their beliefs and crazy defenses with guerilla tactics. The US move was a strategy to turn jap civilians against their own govt to help end the war.

    • You also have to consider another point. What is it that keeps a military moving, fully prepared, supplied and staffed? It is the non- military portion of the population (civilians) through money, industry, support and other ways.

  19. The Emperor is basically the god of Japan. Demanding to depose the emperor, forgive my English, is a clear indication of ill-will and a willingness to use the bomb. As for the bomb, if they needed a demonstration of power they could have dropped it in the ocean, that would have done the job. They didn’t drop it in the ocean nor a military base but on a fcking city full of civilians for fcks sake. That is a crime against humanity, plain and simple. US administration of the time should officially be labelled the most notorious war criminals in history.

  20. how can you post about cannibalism you seem to have left that out or disease by the first successful blood transfusions or a thousand things many decades before my time you have made like a school report a thousand word book report but why was so much left out

  21. it speaks good indeed. its bit wrong vision to dozens of us who thinks planet is safe. we under our powers fight nd forget to know the sufferings of intermediate ones , the innocent ones. why should innocent japanese be the victim of atom bomb. they had never committed crime. friends,we consider one faulty but we r yet forgetting that win win can never be our motto. we rather of joining hands nd moving together instead are hurting nd killing each other. nd we term it great victory. what a mess we r going through? this defines our intelligence? the major problem is ourselves for we r following the fools. we should not have. remember any war, two leaders fight but never do leaders actually appear in war.all that suffers is civillians who come to words or are made to come to their words. america can never win if all of us dont support. whats lacking among us is to identofy whats right nd whats wrong. if we r courageous enough to find good path nd follow it then who fears of america..america is not a one man army..it certainly has resources, investigators, nd probably somewhere we ourselves r supporting americas this dream. its clear america never does good. its indeed clever nd silently puts world down.sympathy r upon those japanese who recovered from those fearful attacks nd live independent hardworking. the article is really good. full support upon yr idea.

  22. I’m sick of the germans being made out to be so horrible. the jews tried to control and strangle the german economy. Hitler offered the jews to the english and any european country that wanted them, no one wanted them because that is why the jews were homeless ‘wandering jews’ because they try to take control of a countries economy and choke the host country. no one wanted them for that reason. Don’t blame Hitler or germans for not sparing them, europe was quite happy to get rid of them. Also, they had the holocaust planned for world war 1, but it didn’t come off, all this bullshit about how many jews died, there weren’t even that many alive at the time, this is all propaganda so the jews could take control of the world economy, which they have done. they own the media, hollywood and no one can say anything about jews, no one can question the war, you are just automatically a halocaust denier…the jews have it all sewn up….they control the world and the economy and the germans get the blame. all the so called human experiments that went on there, all the doctors from around the world were there taking notes, the jews being burnt alive 24 hours a day, it was war, where do you think they got the poison or fuel from, everything was scarce. and the most insulting thing, making out the war was all about the jews, like no one other than a jew died, war is horrible, for everyone involved, everyone…yet the zionist jews sacrificed the jews so they could control the world economy…not the germans or Hitler…the zionists sacrificed the jews for eventual economic control…

  23. Don’t agree tha US saved the world from Hitler. This is pure joke amd BS. It’s the RUSSIANS that saved the workd from Hitler and all Nazis

  24. The treatment of the Japanese in America following Pearl Harbor is spoken of whenever WW2 or the atomic bombings are mentioned. No one is trying to bury it or deny it happened.

    “and the ultimate destruction of the Earth and its people. ” huh? what?

  25. It was an age of warmongers, unfortunately some nations still haven’t learned from it and like any war it’s the innocent who always suffer.
    Trueman was a gun-ho warmonger, Stalin was too. Churchill was bundled off at the end of the war because he was a eugenecist, believing just like the nazis that the sick and disabled should make way for the able (go die in a corner) and ensure a stronger people for the future.

    We still repeat this even now in recent history with the acts of Bush and Blair and even right now with atrocious acts in Syria, Lybia etc by both the US and UK governments, all supported by media propaganda.
    It never changes and only ever hits the innocent hard, never the intended target and never those calling the shots.

    I think if they want wars we should strap a flack jacket and rifle on them and send them out to fight them themselves. Guarantee their tunes would change fast

  26. The size of the conversation demonstrate how weapons and war fill in the mind of the Americans. A fantasy of wins and glories. The world it’s not a place made just for US delightful.

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