Reply #20: Hiroshima

[rolltideroll]

It is horrible that we had to use nuclear weapons. However, with respect to your opinion,in the balance, lives were saved. The Japanese were preparing to resist landings with women and children armed with spears. I know that sounds a little unbelievable, but when you look at the mass suicides of Iwo Jima, combined with the fact that they would have been defending their home, causalities on both sides would have dwarfed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The estimate I kept running across was 1 million dead on our side, The Japanese still had an army present in China that would have been used to resist us after we broke the beachhead. Truman made one of the toughest decisions in human history, but it was the only realistic decision. We were tired of war, exhausted at seeing caskets, and just wanted to end the war. Everyone seems to forget the mass murders committed by the Japanese in china and the Indonesia, we did end that.
Side note, I hate that my first post at DU was to disagree with someone, I used to lurk over at Free republic for a laugh, I spent about 45 min last night crawling through you guys archives rolling at some of the freeper insanity. Good to be here.