Pacific

[SKJohn]

. . . . Every August here where I live, there are annual protests against the United States, accusing the USA of war crimes in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Every August our local press gives this lots of free publicity, and we get to hear year after year what an evil and vile nation we live in here in the USA.

I've read detailed accounts of these protests, and local essays by the leaders that have been published by our local press.  I've never gone to attend one, though, as I honestly would feel compelled to spit on these folks.   I did by pure chance once drive by one of the protests, though, and saw the crowd assembled together to say "Never Again."

.

Where do you live? 
I lived in Japan for 6+ yrs in the 80's and early 90's, and attended many of these annual August anti-nuclear demonstrations.  They were not "anti-American", but were definitely "anti-nuclear weapons and nuclear war".

[fudgums]

Personally, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved more lives than it took. Just my opinion.

[trax1]

Personally, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved more lives than it took. Just my opinion.

Definitely, you know I was watching something on the Military Channel about the bombs dropped on Japan and they had this Japanese guy on there saying how inhuman the U.S was to drop the bombs, it got me really mad, I mean how can they say that crap about us when they were doing the most evil things to the P.O.W's they had, they were the monsters, look at the way we handled our P.O.W's compared to them.   

[MORAY37]

Definitely, you know I was watching something on the Military Channel about the bombs dropped on Japan and they had this Japanese guy on there saying how inhuman the U.S was to drop the bombs, it got me really mad, I mean how can they say that crap about us when they were doing the most evil things to the P.O.W's they had, they were the monsters, look at the way we handled our P.O.W's compared to them.   

Two wrongs never make a right.

I agree the dropping of the atomic bombs saved uniformed military lives..... but at the cost of 300,000 civilians.

The bombings did allow Hirohito to gain temporary control over the shocked military and end the war, even as armed skirmishes between factions were erupting around his palace, as well.

You can personally judge the positives gained, hopefully without flag draped glasses.  I'd say it put us about even, personally, but I'm more of a realist. 

[rabbidrabbit]

Hey Moray, we are missing your deep insight over at the jet performance graphs thread.

[MORAY37]

Hey Moray, we are missing your deep insight over at the jet performance graphs thread.

Wasn't my personal insight.  But, it was your personal attacks.

Not worth my time.  I simply don't agree that the SU-27s is the same crappy Russian engineering as the Mig-25 and I proved it. 

But, keep bringing your personal vendettas to different threads.

[fudgums]

Two wrongs never make a right.

I agree the dropping of the atomic bombs saved uniformed military lives..... but at the cost of 300,000 civilians.

The bombings did allow Hirohito to gain temporary control over the shocked military and end the war, even as armed skirmishes between factions were erupting around his palace, as well.

You can personally judge the positives gained, hopefully without flag draped glasses.  I'd say it put us about even, personally, but I'm more of a realist. 

How many civilians would've been lost if the war continued and Operation Olympic went on?

[jdbecks]

How does this compare to band of brothers? I really enjoyed that.

[Maverick]

Pacific is starting out a bit faster into the action then B o B, and that is not a criticism of B o B either. A bit less character development but gets gritty none the less. I like the first episode of The Pacific quite a bit. The trailers and teasers seem to make the later episodes at least as good or better.

[MORAY37]

How many civilians would've been lost if the war continued and Operation Olympic went on?

That is a valid question, but the other one still remains.... would those civilians have been targeted or would they have been strictly collateral?

[Angus]

How many civilians would've been lost if the war continued and Operation Olympic went on?

The estimates for military losses were based on events like Palau, Iwo and Okinawa, while civilian estimates were somewhat estimated from the experience of Okinava. All in all, the bulk of the Japanese armed forces would be estimated as casualties, added by some 4-5 million civilians. Allied casualties around 1.5 millions.
These are from the top of my head, but I'd say they were careful.

[sluggish]

Here's the million dollar question:

Would have a demonstration of the A-bomb frightened the Japanese into surrender?

I know that people say that Hiroshima was the the demonstration and Nagasaki was the proof that a demonstration would not have been effective and would have only wasted a very valuable weapon BUT...

What do all of you brainiacs think?

[fudgums]

That is a valid question, but the other one still remains.... would those civilians have been targeted or would they have been strictly collateral?

I'll answer with a question.

Would the civilians of Japan start fighting as well?

[Die Hard]

No good can come of this...

[trax1]

Two wrongs never make a right.

I agree the dropping of the atomic bombs saved uniformed military lives..... but at the cost of 300,000 civilians.

The bombings did allow Hirohito to gain temporary control over the shocked military and end the war, even as armed skirmishes between factions were erupting around his palace, as well.

You can personally judge the positives gained, hopefully without flag draped glasses.  I'd say it put us about even, personally, but I'm more of a realist. 

The thing is what we did by dropping the bombs was to end the war quickly and try and avoid more American soldiers from losing their lives, what the Japanese did to our P.O.W's was just plain evil and sadistic, they forced them to work themselves to death, starved them, and did medical experiments on them, if you ask me that shows who the real inhuman people were, and that was the point I was making about why it made me angry when that guy said that about us.