1. Most important rule. Write it down if you might forget. The American motto as written in our founding documents by Thomas Jefferson is: “Fuck around and find out.” If you do not want to find out, do not fuck around with America. Ever. At all. Just don’t.
2. It wasn’t “for Pearl Harbor,” by that point over 300,000 Americans had been killed, MIA, or wounded fighting Japan. Projections of casualties invading the mainland were at over 500,000 Americans and possibly more Japanese. Wether this is realistic or not has been debated endlessly but regardless it was the math of the time.
3. America wasn’t ONLY fighting over Pearl Harbor. Axis powers including Japan had started a.. world spanning war. Hence the name. World War 2. With extreme hostility and brutality they had invaded several countries and showed no signs of stopping, genocide groups populations and cultures.
Read up on Japanese occupation of Korea, comfort women, the rights and names and language and beliefs stripped and forbidden Koreans. The rape and oppression and attempted erasure of their culture and people. Read up on the forced labor and conditions in Japanese labor camps. Read up on how the Japanese treated prisoners of war and those who surrendered or were unable to fight. Read up on The Japanese occupation and invasion of China. Manchukuo, The rape of Nanking, read up on unit 741 and Shiro ishii.
Almost inarguably elements of racism and politics were involved in the decision to nuke Japan, but also almost inarguably they were defeated but just kept killing. Just kept fighting. We COULD have hoped diplomacy or blockades might work in time, while people kept fighting and dying and civilians and prisoners suffered under Japanese brutality. We could have rolled the dice that they wouldn’t just regain their strength and return to the fight then or in a few decades as they were insisting we leave in place the systems and individuals that facilitated and orchestrated their war. Or we could have fought house to house and used conventional fire bombs (which had already killed far more than the atomic bombs did..) and munitions in bloody battles with no certain outcome. Plan C.. shock and awe. Show a force so overwhelming that we break the enemies will to fight. That’s what we did and Japan hasn’t fought a war for 60 odd years. You’re welcome.
They were warned extensively. EXTENSIVELY. They did not listen and did not try to avoid the first bomb. Fair enough they may have thought it was a bluff, but they were beaten already and wouldn’t admit it, so either way even if we didn’t need to bomb them as many claim, they should have surrendered wether it was a bluff or not. They did not. We bombed them and showed them that we weren’t lying. We told them to surrender and they said they didn’t accept our terms. So we renegotiated. The new terms were: all our old terms but we will drop nukes until you take the deal or there isn’t anything left to nuke. Wow. Peace was had. There didn’t need to be a first bomb and there didn’t need to be a second bomb because Japan could have and should have surrendered already.
People criticize that and point to “bully mentality” or “victim blaming,” akin to saying it is a child’s fault their parents beats them because the parent said to be quiet and they didn’t listen so they did it themselves. I see why some might think that, but the logic doesn’t hold up because this wasn’t bullying, it was war. A war Japan was an instigator and aggressor in. More than happy to kill THREE TO TEN MILLION Chinese civilians in COLD BLOOD and kill and destroy and conquer when they had the advantage. Beat back to their island they said they wanted to keep what they had stollen, avoid consequences to their leaders for the tens of millions of deaths relating to their war, and keep the structures of power and leadership that led to all that. America said no. It was war. China didn’t ask for it. Korea didn’t ask for it. The Philippines didn’t ask for it. America didn’t ask for it.
We didn’t need to drop the bombs? They didn’t need to tape their way across Asia and cut the babies out of their mothers wombs and attempt to transplant animal organs into humans or gas and biological warfare countless civilians. They ducked around, they found out. We offered them leave once more and they still wanted to fuck around. So they found out again.
The tragedy is that their government is responsible. Their government started a war, conducted itself as it did, tickled the bears balls while it slept, refused to take responsibility. Refused to accept defeat. Refused to protect its people over pride and self preservation. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens suffered the atomic bombings their government brought to their door, courted, then refused to stop until two cities were almost erased from the earth like a scene from the Old Testament.
The Imperial Japanese government owes a tremendous debt to its people who it lied to and brought such suffering to. America doesn’t owe Japan shit except a solemn acknowledgment that is is tragic such things had to happen, and to meet our commitment to defend Japan as agreed to post war, and to work together in hopes such things never need to happen again.
2. It wasn’t “for Pearl Harbor,” by that point over 300,000 Americans had been killed, MIA, or wounded fighting Japan. Projections of casualties invading the mainland were at over 500,000 Americans and possibly more Japanese. Wether this is realistic or not has been debated endlessly but regardless it was the math of the time.
3. America wasn’t ONLY fighting over Pearl Harbor. Axis powers including Japan had started a.. world spanning war. Hence the name. World War 2. With extreme hostility and brutality they had invaded several countries and showed no signs of stopping, genocide groups populations and cultures.
The Imperial Japanese government owes a tremendous debt to its people who it lied to and brought such suffering to. America doesn’t owe Japan shit except a solemn acknowledgment that is is tragic such things had to happen, and to meet our commitment to defend Japan as agreed to post war, and to work together in hopes such things never need to happen again.