Looking for opinions. Everyone knows the arguments for the dropping of the Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th and 9th of August 1944 concerning the lives on both sides that may have been lost should an invasion have been necessary. My question for you is aside from these concerns, should Japan have been punished through the use of the bombs for previous crimes committed. I will use some examples of what I mean:

1. The rape of Nanking (civilians).
2. The attack on Pearl Harbor, and not just military targets but incendiary bombing and strafing of residential areas (civilians).
3. The Bataan Death March and subsequent atrocities in the Phillippines (civilians).
4. The subjugation of Korea (if you don't know about this I can expand).

Granted that civilians were attacked in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but do the crimes of a nation go unpunished insofar as their support of that government and the actions of her people? (yes I am playing devil's advocate here).

Glad you're back, Kwll!

I have to say, though, that this reasoningis the same reasoning that terrorists follow, at least in Palestine.

The terrorists in Palestine reason that that the Israeli people support their government, and their government has stolen the land from the Palestinians, in addition to commiting a multitude of human rights violations against Palestinians. Therefore, they believe that the people shouldn't go unpunished. So they target civilians to punish them for their support of their government.

I hate to bring up a dead subject, but I still see a clear correlation between the use of the atomic bomb and terrorism.

[This message was edited by Sarai on 07-26-02 at 11:11 AM.]

Sorry I could not get to it earlier.

My opinion is I think all of the things you mentioned had a hand in the decision to use atomic weapons on Japanese civilians.

The Military knew of these and many more atrocities caused by Japan.

1932 China’s boycott of Japanese goods causes Japanese retaliation on January 29. Japanese troops land and attach the Chinese district of Shanghai and terror bomb the civilians.

1937 Japanese forces invade China on July 7. Beijing falls July 28. Tientsin falls July 29, Shanghai falls November 8. Nanjing falls December 13. Some 200,000 civilians are massacred in Nanjing which, along with merciless bombing of Chinese cities.

In my opinion I strongly believe the first atomic weapons were originally intended to be used against Germany. The concentration camps would have been the atrocities sited if The United States dropped the first bombs on them.

The Germans did not just slaughter Jewish people. I have heard very little mention about the five million non-Jewish victims.

I do not wish to diminish the Jewish people’s pain and suffering for being singled out due to religious beliefs. I am just saying there is much more to the history of the Holocaust that people are unaware of.

Eleven million precious lives were lost during the Holocaust of World War II. Six million of these were Polish citizens. Half of these Polish citizens were non-Jews. On August 22, 1939, a few days before the official start of World War II, Hitler authorized his commanders, with these infamous words, to kill "without pity or mercy, all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language. Only in this way can we obtain the living space we need".

Heinrich Himmler echoed Hitler's decree:

"All Poles will disappear from the world.... It is essential that the great German people should consider it as its major task to destroy all Poles."

The people of Germany and Japan knew what their government and military were up to.

In either case I feel using atomic weapons would have been justified.