From: jtem01@gmail.com   
      
   On 1/15/26 7:33 PM, Steven Douglas wrote:   
      
   > Some estimates are that 30 MILLION lives were saved when   
   > the Japanese leaders came to their senses and surrendered.   
   > Not that any of this information will affect your moral   
   > confusion, which I'm sure you will continue to exhibit on   
   > a regular basis.   
      
   I have a very different perspective.   
      
   The Japanese were not signers to the Geneva Convention. They   
   were opposed to the very idea of "Rules of war," and from   
   the beginning SHOCKED the allies with their cruelty. They   
   regularly enslaved, tortured and even murdered prisoners.   
   They conducted rape on an industrial scale, quite literally,   
   forcing women to serve their ranks as "Comfort Girls" i.e.   
   prostitutes. They conducted medical experiments on prisoners,   
   both military and civilian. They laced cigarettes with opium   
   for sale in their conquered territories to make them even   
   more addictive. They even employed chemical and biological   
   weapons on occasion. And, for the defense of their homeland,   
   they were mobilizing, WEAPONIZING the entire population.   
      
   Ending the war meant invading Japan and invading Japan meant   
   a war against the population. Not an army but the population,   
   because the Japanese war machine had mobilized/weaponized the   
   civilians.   
      
   The U.S. military stockpiled chemical weapons -- nerve agents,   
   I believe -- for use in the invasion BECAUSE they would not   
   be fighting an army but literally EVERYBODY. They wanted an   
   area weapon. They also had already slugged it through insane   
   battles with the Japanese held up in any hole the could dig or   
   cave they could find. Gas is a great weapon.   
      
   Oo!  The Japanese view that the lives of their own people were   
   without value also came at a price. Banzai charges, suicide   
   missiles and subs, feigning surrender to attack the soldiers   
   taking them prisoner... the wounded murdering medics trying to   
   help them... KAMIKAZE ATTACKS...   
      
   The problem here is the mentality. After spending every waking   
   moment trying to convince your enemy that your lives are   
   absolutely worthless, your enemy starts to believe you. AND   
   THEN the allies find out that the entire population -- men,   
   women & children -- were being mobilized as suicide fighters!   
      
   Why wouldn't you gas them?   
      
   And once the atomic bombs were ready, why not drop them   
   instead?   
      
   Given what was going on THEN, given what the men fighting that   
   war SAW WITH THEIR OWN EYES, what THEY EXPECTED TO HAPPEN TO   
   THEM, what they were going to have to do... why not just nuke   
   them?   
      
   BUT, there was one more factor:  Stalin!   
      
   Stalin had entered the war. The allies didn't just want Japan   
   to surrender, they wanted Japan to surrender QUICKLY, before   
   Stalin gobbled up too much of Asia for the Soviet Union. Only   
   the "Atom Bomb" offered hope for that.   
      
   I honestly have no doubt that ANYONE, or virtually anyone, who   
   lived at that time, knew what was at stake, knew how Japan had   
   conducted the war and knew what American troops could expect...   
   I don't believe that ANYONE would have said "No" to the bomb.   
      
   Anyone who claims otherwise is either mistaking their hindsight   
   for insight or is sadly misinformed.   
      
      
      
      
      
      
   --   
   https://jtem.tumblr.com/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)