was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a war crime?
This can demonstrate how God is in overall control, with His timing, so that evil people can't just keep on doing whatsoever they please . . . like they would.What Truman did not know, and is still little known today, is that the Japanese nuclear program was well advanced and was not years behind but only a few weeks behind.
As a student of military history, I am of two minds about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I am appalled at the terrible loss of life both at the time and since then due to radiation effects. The total I believe may be several hundred thousand.
On the other hand the invasion of the Japanese main islands was scheduled for the spring of 1946. Military planners were already well aware that the Japanese defense would be desperate and deadly. The official Japanese slogan of the day was "90 million die together”. The Allied planners were preparing for 6 million casualties in the invasion. It was estimated that 2 million of those would be deaths.
It must have been a heart wrenching decision for Truman to have to make. Remember that he had available only those two bombs. Another six would be available in 1946. He may very well have made the right decision based on the lesser of two evils proposition.
What Truman did not know, and is still little known today, is that the Japanese nuclear program was well advanced and was not years behind but only a few weeks behind. Their main research and development facility was located in what is now North Korea at Project Z. There is evidence that the Japanese actually conducted a successful nuclear test in the Sea of Japan off the coast of North Korea on the day before the Emperor intervened and forced the Japanese surrender.
Interestingly enough, Project Z fell into the hands of the Russian occupiers of North Korea and Russia was a nuclear power within a few short years.
this HTML class. Value is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Z...sorry,on a tablet.As a student of military history, I am of two minds about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I am appalled at the terrible loss of life both at the time and since then due to radiation effects. The total I believe may be several hundred thousand.
On the other hand the invasion of the Japanese main islands was scheduled for the spring of 1946. Military planners were already well aware that the Japanese defense would be desperate and deadly. The official Japanese slogan of the day was "90 million die together”. The Allied planners were preparing for 6 million casualties in the invasion. It was estimated that 2 million of those would be deaths.
It must have been a heart wrenching decision for Truman to have to make. Remember that he had available only those two bombs. Another six would be available in 1946. He may very well have made the right decision based on the lesser of two evils proposition.
What Truman did not know, and is still little known today, is that the Japanese nuclear program was well advanced and was not years behind but only a few weeks behind. Their main research and development facility was located in what is now North Korea at Project Z. There is evidence that the Japanese actually conducted a successful nuclear test in the Sea of Japan off the coast of North Korea on the day before the Emperor intervened and forced the Japanese surrender.
Interestingly enough, Project Z fell into the hands of the Russian occupiers of North Korea and Russia was a nuclear power within a few short years.
As a history buff, sadly the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unnecessary and I would say, yes, a war crime. By June 1945 Japan was a beaten country. Nearly nothing was left of the Imperial Navy. Japan’s air force had been all but shattered. American planes rained down bombs with only ‘baby’ resistance. Hell, oil hadn’t been available since April. The people of Japan had little to no food and their transportation system was basically done for. We could have sent in the girl scouts in at this point and it would have taken them like 10 days to finish the Japanese off (I kid, I kid). American Generals knew the Japanese were done. Japanese prime minister knew they were done, etc. The Japanese wanted to surrender so badly they even sent PlayStations (I kid, I kid) but, seriously, they wanted too. Of course, instead of picking a military base or military target they picked targets, ‘chosen as targets because of their concentration of activates and population.’ So says the US Strategic Bombing Survey.
I could talk about my theories on why but, I’ll save them for another time.
Why didn't the Japanese surrender, if things were that bad?
Go on............
Ok, April 1945, the US State Department was pretty sure the Japanese were seeking a way to stop the war and I mean vigorously. The US Joint Intelligence Committee reported that the Japanese were looking into surrender terms (Ooo, we already broken Japan’s secret codes so we knew all the details). I forget to mention; the Japanese were talking surrender options with China and the Soviet Union from September 1944 to December 1944.
We can talk about Japan’s surrender terms being censored in January of 1945 (the terms were basically the same we accepted in September except terms about the Emperor).
We can talk about Japan’s efforts to end the war peacefully via Sweden.
I could go on and on. It’s pretty sad.
Anyway, these telegrams between Japan and the Japanese ambassador in the Soviet Union, indicate Japan was unwilling to accept unconditional surrender and would continue the war if they were asked for unconditional surrender.
IMO we should have used all 14.