Quote Originally Posted by Kosmo Yagkoto
Honestly, as soon as Pearl Harbor happened, I would have sent the Japs a uranium fruit basket.
We hadn't developed the weapons at that point.

Quote Originally Posted by Ryu
.... They Can't.

I'll finish it off for you
But the way I see it, is that the A-Bomb was made, and they had to test it, is there really anywhere in the world the can test an A-Bomb without it doing harm?
I think not, if they don't test it, how do they know if it will work?

Also if they don't build the damn thing someone else will, and that someone will no doubt not give a fuck where they test the bomb..
The US tested it in New Mexico first, I believe.... those bombs weren't nearly as destructive as you would think. Not that they are trivial by any means, but blasts can be withstood. It was less of a 'testing' as Toto would like to believe, we knew they worked, more of a showcase. Look how afraid everyone is of them... imagine if nobody knew. Russia got them shortly afterwards, and relations with Russia were already deteriorating. The Allies all rushed to capture Berlin... and met there. Democracy vs. Communism would show through in the end, hence the split of Germany into East and West. What if the world wasn't afraid of those weapons? The Cold War may have had a very different outcome.... I'm sure both sides would have kept them secret from the public if the US didn't drop them.

Quote Originally Posted by madcrow
the US was very, very wrong and not just in using the a-bomb. regular bombs and napalm firebombs used during 1944 and 1945 ended up not only leveling major cities like berlin, dresen, tokyo, osaka, etc. but also in killing millions of civilians. if it kills civilians, it's wrong. in fact, even when fighting a battle with soldiers, it's wrong to be deliberately cruel. if there was a way to win a battle and take 100,000 prisoners or kill all 100,000 enemy soldiers, the right thing to do would be take POWs... but i digress.
How do you propose we take these prisoners? These people were told (and did) fight to the death. They hopped in planes loaded with explosives and only enough fuel for a one way trip. Not exactly pacifists.... read the Okinawa thing. 10000 Japanese commited suicide rather than be captured....

Quote Originally Posted by GundamGuy
So by your logic the Lives of a few thousand US Soilders, who are prepared to die honorably, for the US, are of Greater value then those of a Few Hundred thousand Japanese Civilians...

Some how the numbers dont add up... We should not have killed Civilians, Had we bombed a military base, that would be diffrent... but a City... that's just wrong.

I think that one Civilian life is greater then all lives of all the Soilders lives.

I mean we fight the war to protect the civilians from it...
I like how you call it a few thousand soldiers... and how easily discriminate civilian and soldier. All soldiers were civilians at one point. It was at most 200,000 by bombs, you should check out the numbers from Osaka. Also, the misconception that real life is some sort of.... strategy game is entirely flawed. Military bases can be in and around cities, or they can be remote. But more importantly than hitting a few barracks, is hitting the factories where weapons are made. Which are in the city. WWII, no cars... people didn't drive a good distance to work. Taking away the factories, taking away their weaponry, is better than killing people... but people need to know when to get away. We dropped leaflets telling them the bombs were coming.... and anyone who works in a factory has to know at some point, the enemy is coming to shut it down.

"I think that one Civilian life is greater then all lives of all the Soilders lives." That is your opinion, I guess, and I can't fault you for it... but I don't see what logic drives it. What does it matter if someone dies in a uniform or in regular clothes? They were civilians at one point, I doubt they volunteered, especially once the war was more or less lost.

"I mean we fight the war to protect the civilians from it..." That.... is, I don't know. Naive. No war in history has ever gone down with that cause, except maybe the so called "war on terror" (yeah, right). They are all fueled by some political agenda. ALL of them. Don't think the US is innocent at all in WWII.... there was more at work than most will tell you.