Why Truman Dropped the Bomb

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geezerbob said:
**did you have relatives who fought in it and were lucky enough to survive and tell you about it? **
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I would be surprised if anyone’s parents talked about the Pacific War. It was brutal. My da was in it. He never talked about it. He would go on at length about the military campaigns in Europe. But he never talked about the Pacific war.
 
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Pete2:
The dropping of nuclear bombs on cities full of innocent men, women, and children would be called terrorism if it happened today.

Pete
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Was carpet bombing better? I’m sure there were civilian casualties there also. And, I’m sure there were better targets to try and “terrorize” the Japanese population than the cities we hit. Tokyo would have been a more logical target. It would have taken out more of the military leadership along with alot more of the population.

And yes, it probably would be called terrorism today because of the ADVANCES we have in technology that we didn’t have then. Laser guided munitions, smart bombs, etc. Heck, we can tell from a satellite if a person is wearing a uniform or not. You can’t compare today’s standards with the actions of something from years ago.
 
Ani Ibi:
I would be surprised if anyone’s parents talked about the Pacific War. It was brutal. My da was in it. He never talked about it. He would go on at length about the military campaigns in Europe. But he never talked about the Pacific war.
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Veterans of close combat normally only talk among themselves. There really isn’t much to talk about – those who were there know all about it, and as for others, how do you discuss it with someone who can’t really know what it was like?
 
Oh, I thought the reason that Truman dropped the bomb was because he was a Freemason. Deceptive and evil. He created conflict to benefit his self-interests.
 
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mjdonnelly:
Was carpet bombing better? I’m sure there were civilian casualties there also. And, I’m sure there were better targets to try and “terrorize” the Japanese population than the cities we hit.
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Actually, B29 raids on Tokyo and other cities killed more people in a single day than the atomic bombs did.
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mjdonnelly:
Tokyo would have been a more logical target. It would have taken out more of the military leadership along with alot more of the population.

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Tokyo was already burned out. In addition, great care had been taken to avoid killing the Emperor – in the knowledge that the Emperor would be a key decision-maker when it came to surrendering Japan.
 
Exactly my point, the bomb was used as a legetimate weapon against a mostly military target. And at the time, it was appropriate.
 
vern humphrey:
Veterans of close combat normally only talk among themselves. There really isn’t much to talk about – those who were there know all about it, and as for others, how do you discuss it with someone who can’t really know what it was like?
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I understand what you are saying, Vern. I refer to a different thing. I have heard no end of stories about the European front. Perhaps not in the personal detail about which you speak. Just military strategy; who moved what troops where, numbers, weather, that sort of thing.

About the Pacific front: I have never heard anyone speak about it in any capacity. Certainly no one in my family. Once or twice I asked my Dad. He got that vacant look. I guess that must be the thousand yard stare. Then he just flipped his head to indicate that I was crazy to ask. I learned not to ask. I don’t need to know.
 
Ani Ibi:
I understand what you are saying, Vern. I refer to a different thing. I have heard no end of stories about the European front. Perhaps not in the personal detail about which you speak. Just military strategy; who moved what troops where, numbers, weather, that sort of thing.

About the Pacific front: I have never heard anyone speak about it in any capacity. Certainly no one in my family. Once or twice I asked my Dad. He got that vacant look. I guess that must be the thousand yard stare. Then he just flipped his head to indicate that I was crazy to ask. I learned not to ask. I don’t need to know.
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The war he fought was a personal war, not an abstraction.

The psychology of combat has been studied all the way back to the Spartans. They would understand – your father lived, some of his friends died. Survivors often feel guilty and ashamed – it’s not logical, but it’s real. And the harder the combat, the greater the shame.

If he was a leader, he had the added burden of knowing his leadership wasn’t perfect – and that’s a hell of a load to carry.
 
vern humphrey:
The war he fought was a personal war, not an abstraction.

The psychology of combat has been studied all the way back to the Spartans. They would understand – your father lived, some of his friends died. Survivors often feel guilty and ashamed – it’s not logical, but it’s real. And the harder the combat, the greater the shame.

If he was a leader, he had the added burden of knowing his leadership wasn’t perfect – and that’s a hell of a load to carry.
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I understand. That’s why I never asked him again. He was very young when he served. He actually snuck into the navy while still underage. Then he went over to the army.
 
Ani Ibi:
I understand. That’s why I never asked him again. He was very young when he served. He actually snuck into the navy while still underage. Then he went over to the army.
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Often combat veterans write – mostly thinly-disguised fiction. When they share stories, you can read deeply into the soul.
 
I refrained from posting to this thread other than starting it because I find history interesting and this article was news to me.

It is hard to study wars in the past because the men fighting them did it in a number of different ways. WWII used the tactic of bombing civilian centers. I think that was very bad. In past wars entire populations were wiped out and sent into slavery in wars (Mohammad himself wiped out 3 Jewish tribes and sent their women and children into slavery, some of it sexual slavery… Crusaders did the same thing. The good looking girls and boys became sex slaves by Muslems during the Children’s Crusade. War is hell.)

The reason I posted the article was that it gave more information as to why Truman did what he did.
 
It doesn’t matter why Truman dropped the A-Bomb. To intentionally target civilians is a grave sin and the American administration commited a mortal sin by dropping the A-Bomb on Japan.
 
We didn’t intentionally target civilians.

Also, just looked it up, he was a Democrat. Interesting.
 
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Benedictus:
Warfare against civilians is terrorism. It’s really that simple. All serious Catholics must oppose nuclear warfare in the same way we must oppose abortion, euthanasia, etc. Every Pope since Pius XII has opposed the use of nuclear weapons. Pius XII himself urged leniency towards the Japanese in the closing days of the war. The U.S.'s insistence on unconditional surrender prolonged the war.
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Thank God, I was starting to think that all these years I hadn’t been a Catholic at all, but some strange anglicised version of Christianity! 🙂
 
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mjdonnelly:
We didn’t intentionally target civilians.

Also, just looked it up, he was a Democrat. Interesting.
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Yes, he was a Democrat. But we did intentionally target civilians in WWII. So did everyone else invovled in that war. The bombs were dropped on ‘industrial’ cities, but cities none-the-less.
 
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gilliam:
WWII used the tactic of bombing civilian centers. I think that was very bad.
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Thank you Gilliam, I agree with you. I apologize that I used your name directly and associated you with Vern like that. I don’t mean to personally attack, if that’s what it’s called.

Either way, I am deeply offended by people who coldly justify the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. When it comes down to it, we’re all God’s people on this earth, and states and borders aren’t really all that important in the face of needless death. To just coldly brush off the US’s brutal bombing of Japanese cities like it was some brilliant calculated military tactic is sinful.

Pete
 
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Snicker:
It doesn’t matter why Truman dropped the A-Bomb. To intentionally target civilians is a grave sin and the American administration commited a mortal sin by dropping the A-Bomb on Japan.
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Again, do you just fill in for God when He’s on vacation, or have you taken over the job permanently?
 
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