Sixty years ago today Japan surrendered. This followed the dropping of two atomic bombs. Was this justified? Read the plans for Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan before answering. Keep in mind that the Japanese forces were three times stronger than American intelligence estimated. The Japanese planned to use kamikaze planes to sink up to 400 troop transports. Even schoolgirls were given awls and told to kill at least one American.
The traditional modern arguments against the use of the bomb are that the Japanese would have surrendered anyway (Ha!); we needed to end the war before the Russians could get involved (after giving away major concessions months earlier so that they would get involved); or that we were racists, willing to nuke a different race but not Europeans (who we defeated with much less effort). I'm not buying any of these arguments. The Japanese were prepared to fight for every scrap of ground in the hope of making the victory too costly for us. It might have worked. There is no question that it would work today. Compared to World War II or Viet Nam, we have only had a handful of dead in Iraq but the Left has already declared it a defeat for the US.
We are not the people our parents were.
No comments:
Post a Comment