(cave fish) wrote:
Dave Smith wrote
in message ...
RogerM wrote:


First off, **** Japan, they started it,
we finished it.

First off, **** you asshole. The women and
children who were murdered
didn't have **** to with Pearl Harbor.

Sure they did. They were part of an imperialist
society that had been
expanding in the Pacific. They were the people
who were providing the men to
serve in the Japanese armed forces which had
invaded China and other Asian
countries where they were set loose to terrorize
the populace with
unimaginable atrocities. The people in those
cities were busy manufacturing
war materials and providing other services
that helped the war effort.

You are partly right. No one is completely innocent,
which is how
Palestinians justify their bombing of Jewish
civilians and how Al
Qaeda defends its attack on NY. Since all of
us pay taxes that support
US foreign policy, yes we are all guilty.
However, in a case of open war between nations,
while it may be
justified to bomb key industrial areas supplying
the war effort, do
tell me how a newborn baby in a Hiroshima is
guilty of anything? Or,
kindergarten students? Or, members of the opposition?
Or, those in
jail for standing up to Japanese militarism?
Or, old folks living out
their last days?
The horror of Hiroshima is the sheer indiscrimate
nature of the
destruction. If atom bomb had been dropped on
a Japanese military
target it might have been justified. But, to
kill like that in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki was blind and savage
overkill.
Both target cities had military targets.
Hiroshima: 2nd General Army HQ, HQ of 39th Infantry Division, Army port facility,
airfield, major railroad depot, numerous factories and cottage industry.

Nagasaki: Port facility, airfield, HQ 122 Infantry Brigade, Mitusbishi aircraft
plant, torpedo plant (producing Long Lance torpedoes and Kaiten Suicide Torpedoes),
other war-related industries.
By the standards of WW II and today, both cities were legitimate military
targets. Only target areas in Japan off limits were Kyoto and the Imperial
Palace. Every other urban military/industrial area was on the list. Use of
the bombs to support the invasion was under consideration by Marshall at
war's end.

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