I’m not saying anyone deserved anything that happened, but at one point Japanese culture was literally “if I surrender I am worth nothing.”
.
(TITLE FROM REDDIT r/HistoryMemes)
It is true that during the war there was an extreme institutional and even cultural bias towards surrender. More than that, propaganda by the Japanese government told civilians that Americans were essentially monsters that would rape women and children and torture the Japanese civilians etc etc. Mothers committed murder suicide with children and all sorts of horrible things as the American forces occupied the country. As with any occupation, some soldiers did do such horrible things or others, by on the whole the American forces were far from the monsters propaganda had advertised in that sense. There is no bearing around it or excusing that the use of atomic weapons and the collateral damage to civilians was horrific. Period. A world where those things never even need be considered an option or no problems exist where dropping bombs might be a solution is a better world. We don’t live in that world however.
Japanese Forces committed horrific crimes against humanity. They were almost universally barbaric to prisoners and their atrocities in Nanjing go beyond words in their scale, scope, and absolute repugnance. Institutionally it can be argued that to this very day Japan as a whole has not really taken ownership of those deeds and that when it comes to WW2 in general their history to the masses often glosses over or avoids certain unpleasant truths to present a softer narrative.
But what soldiers did and the imperial government did has very little to do with civilians at home. We can’t wash away American responsibilities in our choice to test nuclear weapons on population centers to force surrender because of these facts. The nukes weren’t retribution for the Chinese and others who suffered at the hands of largely completely different Japanese than those we bombed. The nukes weren’t justice- saving innocent civilians from Japanese atrocity’s by…. releasing our own atrocities on Japan…?
But it happened. It ended the war. It did likely save lives. It reshaped the globe. It set the stage for Korean independence from the Japanese who had taken their culture and language and rights and were working to essentially erase the Korean people- who’s women were taken as “comfort women” to advice Japanese soldiers and officials and…. Mots of bad stuff. That’s war. Bad things happen. Hopefully we learn from them. There are rarely heroes in life but especially so in war. Everyone in WW2 was dirty. It was a very dirty war.the stakes were too high to settle for runner up. The bombs were horrible but they shaped the modern world to what it is.
.
(TITLE FROM REDDIT r/HistoryMemes)
But what soldiers did and the imperial government did has very little to do with civilians at home. We can’t wash away American responsibilities in our choice to test nuclear weapons on population centers to force surrender because of these facts. The nukes weren’t retribution for the Chinese and others who suffered at the hands of largely completely different Japanese than those we bombed. The nukes weren’t justice- saving innocent civilians from Japanese atrocity’s by…. releasing our own atrocities on Japan…?