was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a war crime?

With the benefit of hindsight, yes, probably. Giving the benefit of the doubt, I am prepared to accept leaders at the time felt it was necessary.

We did what we had to do. I can understand if you think it was horrible--we certainly shouldn't have had to do it, but honestly, it's ok now. Japan is doing great, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki have normal radiation levels.

War, death, bombs of all nature... A horrible reality... But they started it and we did what we had to do.

If we cannot learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it and most likely repeat it on a more horrific scale.
If only we could learn from this but, sadly most Americans will not.
High ranking political and military personnel thought/knew the use of the atomic bomb was unnecessary at the time.
A lot of scientists involved in the Manhattan project wrote the Secretary of Defense to try and persuade him not to drop the bomb. The American people were duped then and we are continued to be duped today about this.

rockytopva said:

War, death, bombs of all nature... A horrible reality... But they started it and we did what we had to do.

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Minor point, it's a historical fact that the first contact between America and Japan in the Second World War was actually initiated by Americans. Sure, they were inbound to Pearl Harbour for the raid at the time, but technically...

I think if it happened today we would go about it very differently indeed. I feel the amount of people that died is a little higher then it should be. That's just me though.

rockytopva said:

War, death, bombs of all nature... A horrible reality... But they started it and we did what we had to do.

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A man learns that violence is not the answer only when a mosquito lands on his testicles.

peepnklown said:

If we cannot learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it and most likely repeat it on a more horrific scale.
If only we could learn from this but, sadly most Americans will not.
High ranking political and military personnel thought/knew the use of the atomic bomb was unnecessary at the time.
A lot of scientists involved in the Manhattan project wrote the Secretary of Defense to try and persuade him not to drop the bomb. The American people were duped then and we are continued to be duped today about this.

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Truman was like a kid with a new toy, only this new toy caused untold devastation and a cold war to boot.

aieyiamfu said:

Truman was like a kid with a new toy, only this new toy caused untold devastation and a cold war to boot.

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I suspect that the cold war would have taken place even in the absence of nuclear weapons. In fact without nuclear weapons I think that by 1950 all of Europe would be under Russian domination.

If you guys would have been a POW in a Japanese prison camp or a citizen of an occupied country you would have been glad that the United States did what it had to do to bring that war to a close. But since you have lived your lives in yer Laodicean age comfort zone in yer warm little beddies you think like you do.

When the United States Navy went to pick up the US POW's I have read that they would not even salute the captain of the deck when boarding the ships. Most of them would loose what little cloths they had on their bodies running towards the ships. I have also read that even the most hardened of sailors had tears streaming down there cheeks watching that sight.

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. - Ecclesiastes 3



In the time of the disaster area are normally the places war breaks out.

"I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here.Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all Hell." - William Tecumseh Sherman

I must say that the time is right for the war drums to begin to beat once again. I would think with the threat of nuclear weapons it makes people sit down and think twice before unleashing the misery of the gods of war.

The Rape or Nanking of Manchuria by Japanese soldiers... What makes this a better crime than nuclear weapons? What do we have but 300,000 citizens brutally murdered? Filmed footage and still photographs taken by the Japanese themselves document the brutality. Smiling soldiers can be seen conducting bayonet practice on live prisoners, decapitating them and displaying severed heads as souvenirs, and proudly standing among mutilated corpses. Some of the Chinese POWs were simply mowed down by machine-gun fire while others were tied-up, soaked with gasoline and burned alive.

Ah! An innocent and a meek man! What to do with him? Since he surrendered he has no honor! Lets play with him before we shoot him!


Citizen heads for the fireplace mantel at home! But since we did not nuke them it will be alright and history will forget!



What to do with Chinese children... Who cares?

The treatment of US POW's by Japenese soldiers... I would have rather have been nuked!

aieyiamfu said:

Truman was like a kid with a new toy, only this new toy caused untold devastation and a cold war to boot.

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If only this was the case but, I will reference Admiral William F. Halsey who agrees with you. I tend to lean toward it being dropped to demonstrate our superior power to the Soviets and to start the Cold War.

Yes it was a war crime, but even worse is the war crimes they committed against Germany. This you will not find in any regular textbook, for the Allied Forces wished to cover it up. Around 15-50Million German's were kill due to the Allied Force's, "Carpet Bombing" of German City's, and their treatment of war prisoners that violated the Geneva Convention. You should be worried about what they have done to Germany, instead of Japan. Just one carpet bombing, of one city killed double the amount than both nuclear bombs dropped on Japan killed.

War is not pretty... There is no way of glamorizing killing people. As far as Germany and Japan... The Americans did not want to go to war and did all they could do to avoid it. It was the Japanese and the Germans that declared war on us. After that we did what we had to do.

Rockshe said:

Around 15-50Million German's were kill due to the Allied Force's, "Carpet Bombing" of German City's

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Your numbers are highly inflated.

I personally feel like it was not a war crime and was justified.

When I first heard about the bombings I was disgusted, I saw the images of what happened to the Japanese Civilians, the havoc and destruction the bombings caused, and I thought Americans were monsters for what they did and that they could have found a better method to end the most brutal war in history.

I felt that Americans lied about not knowing just how powerful the atomic bombs that they created were. Which, they did. They knew how powerful they were or they wouldn't have decided to use them to potentially end a war. It would take a super weapon to cause the war hungry, proud Japanese Army to surrender. After all, they wanted to fight to the last man standing. So, they KNEW they had a super weapon that would cause tons and tons of casualties.

However, I see now that I'm older and wiser that, had it not been done the Japanese never would have surrendered and the war would have continued on, potentially causing more casualties than were taken due to the bombings.

It had nothing to do with winning the war to me personally, it had to do with ending the war as quickly as possible. I always feel like war should never happen in the first place.

Even if what Hitler was doing was appalling to me. I just... feel and felt that all of those people shouldn't have died.

The war had already decked in more casualties than any other war in history. The bombings killed hundreds of thousands, but saved potentially millions of lives. I feel it was a massive gamble on America's part, but I do not feel like the Americans were unjustified.

I am more put off by the way we have handled Iraq after 9/11 than anything else. We left Germany and Japan with a government that would flourish as democracies. George Patton and Douglas MacArthur made great leaders the brief time they had leadership positions in those countries. We left Iraq in total shambles in which the ISIS would arise from.

rockytopva said:

I am more put off by the way we have handled Iraq after 9/11 than anything else. We left Germany and Japan with a government that would flourish as democracies. George Patton and Douglas MacArthur made great leaders the brief time they had leadership positions in those countries. We left Iraq in total shambles in which the ISIS would arise from.

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Actually Germany was doing just fine without a democracy, they actually quickly had their economy, ruined, and many other things. On the other hand Japan needed a Democracy, they were nothing but monsters, or at least their leader was. Italy I have not done too much research into yet so I can't really tell anything about them.