Saturday, August 06, 2011

Quote of the Day

Via Ace of Spades blog, some badly-needed perspective on America's decision to drop the bomb on Japan, and evidence of a more general problem:
Arthur T. Hadley said recently that those for whom the use of the A-bomb was "wrong" seem to be implying "that it would have been better to allow thousands on thousands of American and Japanese infantrymen to die in honest hand-to-hand combat on the beaches than to drop those two bombs." People holding such views, he notes, "do not come from the ranks of society that produce infantrymen or pilots." ... That is, few of those destined to be blown to pieces if the main Japanese islands had been invaded went on to become our most effective men of letters or impressive ethical theorists or professors of contemporary history or of international law.

3 comments:

Blognor Regis said...

It's so obvious that it's surprising it needs repeating.

(Preaching to the choir here)

At the time people knew full well the cost of invasion. They knew what had occurred in the Philippines and Iwo Jima and Okinawa fully could fully expect an invasion of the Japanese home islands to be bloodier still. "Ah but the Soviets steaming through Manchuria..." So? Who wouldn't want to bring the war to a speedy end? Certainly the allied servicemen in Europe expecting to be sent to the Far East did.

British observer of the Nagasaki raid, Leonard Cheshire VC, suggested a drop of a bomb in a sparsely populated area to demonstrate to the Japanese the power of the A-bomb is a reasonable one, and you would expect nothing less from such a humane and compassionate man. Anyway, given that the Hiroshima bomb was only the second ever man made nuclear reaction, it's possible that there wasn't enough material available to drop them willy nilly.

But of course the Japanese high command were already sending out peace feelers, etc..... [sarc]

Anonymous said...

Indeed, I think, without looking it up, that there were no more completed bombs available after the three used. (One test, and two on Japan).

Anonymous said...

The nukes were unnecessary;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Starvation