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The_Dunedan · 11-18-2004, 09:23 PM

CT:
OK. I'm now stepping into this discussion in my capacity as a military historian.
During WW2, all sides used what would be considered WMD; most commonly the carpet-bombing of industrialized cities with incindiary bombs. The Germans torched Coventry, and the British got Dresden. The Japanese burned, raped, sacked, and genocided their way across coastal China and Korea; the US used atomic bombs of H. and N. Seeing that neither side posessed precision-guided weapons, this was the best they could do in a Strateigic sense. You destroy the enemy's ability to make war, and you have destroyed the enemy.

However, pre-invasion casualty estimates were:
Allied Military: 1-1.5 Million.
Japanese Military: 2-2.25 Million.
Japanese CIVILLAIN: 5.5-6.5 MILLION.
The thing was, the plan for the invasion of the Home Islands called for a 14-day CHEMICAL attack in order to soften the islands up and prevent the kind of mass-scale irregular resistance that we WOULD HAVE faced from the Japanese civillians. Look up the "Last Ditch" Arisaka rifles sometime; it should give you a good idea of the scale we're talking about here.
Source: "The Bodygaurd of Lies" by B. H. Liddell Hart.
So as you can see; the use of the A-bombs to force Japan's surrender was actually a lifeSAVING measure, for both sides.

Secondly, Japan posessed nuclear materials and the potential to produce "dirty nukes" and even a low-yeild nuclear bomb. There is even some evidence to suggest that such a weapon was tested in the northern Japanese islands only 72 hours before Hiroshima was bombed.
Source: "World War Two Magazein, August 1999"
The "dirty bomb" was actually a plan to use submarine-launched highspeed airplanes to scatter radioactive material over cities on the US west coast. The carrier submarines were 3/4 completed and test flights of the airplanes were being carried out when Japan surrendered.
Source: "Japanese Submarines of WW2" produced by The History Channel.

Sorry if this is a threadjack, but the ill-informed America-bashing which always surrounds the A-bomb discussion always irritates me.

11-18-2004, 09:23 PM	#58 (permalink)
The_Dunedan Junkie	CT: OK. I'm now stepping into this discussion in my capacity as a military historian. During WW2, all sides used what would be considered WMD; most commonly the carpet-bombing of industrialized cities with incindiary bombs. The Germans torched Coventry, and the British got Dresden. The Japanese burned, raped, sacked, and genocided their way across coastal China and Korea; the US used atomic bombs of H. and N. Seeing that neither side posessed precision-guided weapons, this was the best they could do in a Strateigic sense. You destroy the enemy's ability to make war, and you have destroyed the enemy. However, pre-invasion casualty estimates were: Allied Military: 1-1.5 Million. Japanese Military: 2-2.25 Million. Japanese CIVILLAIN: 5.5-6.5 MILLION. The thing was, the plan for the invasion of the Home Islands called for a 14-day CHEMICAL attack in order to soften the islands up and prevent the kind of mass-scale irregular resistance that we WOULD HAVE faced from the Japanese civillians. Look up the "Last Ditch" Arisaka rifles sometime; it should give you a good idea of the scale we're talking about here. Source: "The Bodygaurd of Lies" by B. H. Liddell Hart. So as you can see; the use of the A-bombs to force Japan's surrender was actually a lifeSAVING measure, for both sides. Secondly, Japan posessed nuclear materials and the potential to produce "dirty nukes" and even a low-yeild nuclear bomb. There is even some evidence to suggest that such a weapon was tested in the northern Japanese islands only 72 hours before Hiroshima was bombed. Source: "World War Two Magazein, August 1999" The "dirty bomb" was actually a plan to use submarine-launched highspeed airplanes to scatter radioactive material over cities on the US west coast. The carrier submarines were 3/4 completed and test flights of the airplanes were being carried out when Japan surrendered. Source: "Japanese Submarines of WW2" produced by The History Channel. Sorry if this is a threadjack, but the ill-informed America-bashing which always surrounds the A-bomb discussion always irritates me.