Have to disagree with you for once, the Japanese Imperial govt. was insane, perverse, and in no way could have been allowed to ‘maintain sovereignty’ (which included the Japanese military being in charge of investigating their own war crimes, which were legion and very nasty). The allies collectively had agreed to demand unconditional surrender, the death cult that was the Japanese militarists was always going to force something bloody and awful to end their rule. For God’s sake, they damn near deposed the emperor to prevent surrender AFTER Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Perhaps blockading Japan and starving a large chunk of the population would have been more humane (and have no doubt the Imperial forces would have been the last to run out of food), or perhaps an incredibly bloody invasion (few know that the Japanese held back a considerable chunk of their forces in the home islands to the very end) would have been better, but the use of the nukes is completely understandable, and I would argue, correct, if you take the time to put yourself in the allies position, having spent several years fighting incredibly bloody battles against tiny little Japanese garrisons that fought dirty and cruel to the last man. Japan would not be what it is today if the allies had been forced to lose hundreds of thousands of men fighting the entire Japanese population in an invasion.

And it is a hard-hearted argument to make, but I would say that the demonstration of how horrific nuclear weapons really were may damn well have saved us from a much larger, possibly planet killing nuclear exchange later. There wasn’t a good understanding of how dangerous these new weapons were, they were seen as just another tool in the arsenal. The horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, specifically the long term effects, showed that nukes were not usable, and worked only as a deterrent from the other guy using them on you.

I am not a fan of militarism- it is a horrible cancer on my country and our times. But the Nazis and the Japanese empire proved themselves to be dangerous to the whole planet, and all-out warfare waged against them was not only justified, but the right thing to do. I just am sickened that the American imperial machine is working its way toward being just as dangerous, despite all the nice window-dressing we put around our habit of telling other countries what they need to do while standing on their lawn (or in some cases, in their living room) and pointing big guns at them.

    Paul Randall @muttmankc

    Written by

    Writer, photographer, rescue dog man. Progressive. Middle class exile, sick of war, pissed at what my country has become. https://twitter.com/Muttmankc